In Thailand, Creative Life foundation is empowering girls and women to break cycles of poverty and exploitation by teaching basic Thai literacy.
In the remote villages of northern Thailand, geographic isolation and limited economic opportunities are compounded by statelessness, poverty, and the pressure of child marriage. Many girls are encouraged to abandon their education, marry, and become mothers while still children themselves.
Creative Life Foundation (CLF) is creating a path to freedom and preventing human trafficking by connecting people to critical resources. Among those resources are scholarships to help families cover the costs of uniforms, meals, extracurricular activities, and transportation to CLF’s free educational programs.
These scholarships are life-changing for the students who are able to attend school. But in 2016, after half of the children enrolled dropped out within the first year of joining CLF’s program in the north, they knew that expanding access to education would take more than providing scholarships.
Each student faces unique challenges and obstacles; CLF realized that a one-size education could not truly fit all. Since implementing a holistic and individualized approach in 2016, CLF’s graduation rates have increased to over 85%.
CLF continues to find other ways to reinforce the importance of education throughout the villages of northern Thailand. In 2022, they launched a pilot program to teach women and girls basic Thai literacy.
Among their students are grandmothers, mothers, and youth who have all had to abandon their education to help at home or get married. They are learning to read and write, and many of them have written their names for the very first time. Standing tall with smiles on their faces, CLF watched as 24 women proudly received their Level-1 certificate of completion.
Congratulations, graduates!
Learn more about Creative Life Foundation’s mission to connect vulnerable children and parents to critical resources—education, citizenship, and holistic care—to create a path to freedom and prevent human trafficking.
