Domestic Abuse Survivors need your help in rural Thailand during Covid 19

My name is Becky O’Brien. I am a member of Bangkok Rising. Bangkok Rising is a volunteer-based community organisation of activists for gender issues, especially the elimination of gender based violence. Bangkok Rising, in collaboration with the Freedom Restoration Project (FRP) want to raise funds and distribute essential goods to women and children in domestic abusive homes in Mae Sot, Thailand.

What is Freedom Restoration Project (FRP)?

Freedom Restoration Project (FRP), founded by Sia Kukaewkasem, a Thai national, focuses on empowering women and children who experience domestic violence through services and programs designed to promote safety and a network of support. FRP has encountered countless women who have shared their sense of despair and hopelessness. They express how they feel stuck in their own homes, living with a partner who does not give them respite. Yet, in spite of the frequent and various forms of abuse the women suffer, most of them are not ready or financially able to leave their abusive relationships.

Freedom Restoration Project exists to interrupt the narrative of abuse and domestic violence for people in the migrant communities on the border of Thailand and Burma.

Through education and empowerment, the FRP aims to break the destructive chain of domestic violence. FRP works with approximately 60-70 families. They offer peer support groups and parenting classes. They also help find alternative housing for women and their children after they escape a domestic violence relationship.

What is the issue?

During this Covid 19 pandemic, women that have escaped an abusive relationship cannot find work and therefor cannot support their families. Freedom Restoration Project has witnessed the pressure this has put on mothers as their children are no longer at school and there is a lack of work opportunities available. They are low income families and they are struggling to provide for their families. This has increased the pressure inside the homes and put the women at increased risk of domestic violence. If they don’t get support during this time they may be forced to look for work and consequently be at increased risk of contracting Covid 19.

How does the project address the issue?

FRP is working to distribute masks, soaps, hand sanitisers, water and basic foodstuffs to vulnerable women. During this time some families will need money for rent so that they are not evicted and forced into homelessness.

How will your donation make an impact?

Donations will help provide the funds needed to buy essential recourses, food and water as well as hand sanitisers, masks and other essential cleaning supplies. The funds will also be used to help pay for rent of the women that have left abusive relationships during the pandemic.