The SOLD Project

The SOLD Project is a grassroots organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering individuals to stop child prostitution before it begins.

The SOLD Project is a film and an organization. The purpose of the film is to tell the stories of children whose lives have been affected by prostitution, and allow those stories to inspire you to Re:Act. The purpose of the organization is to prevent the buying and selling of children through The SOLD Project Prevention Program.

The Prevention Program is made up of 1) Scholarships 2) Mentorship for every child that is sponsored 3) After School Programs including sports, art, English, and tutoring 4) Human Trafficking Awareness Programs at the school starting in every 6-grade classroom to teach the children about the realities of human trafficking and prostitution.

The SOLD Project also seeks to support our partner organizations in Thailand that work in the areas of rescue and rehabilitation for children at-risk.

The SOLD Project is targeting the 20 and 30-something generation. We believe we are a generation hungry for social justice and full of the passion and resources to create change. We are confident that the power this generation possesses will make a lasting impact on this issue worldwide. Although this age group is our target, we hope to reach people of all ages. We see no limit to what can be achieved when we all stand together to confront child prostitution.

-from The SOLD Project website

This is their new merchandise for sale to raise money for the project. The jewelry is really cool and made by street children in Northern Thailand. It should be up for sale on the website soon... I highly recommend it! I will even give you styling tips of you buy one!

I want to go back.

The Thailand Adventure

I went to Thailand with some friends from my church for about 3 weeks.

We were sort of all over the country working with Karen refugees from Burma. The Karen (pronounced Ka-Rin) people make up about 7% of the population of Burma (officially called Myanmar) but they're persecuted by the corrupt and cruel military government there. Most of them have fled to the jungle on the eastern side of the country and many have immigrated (illegally) to Thailand. They are very much a people without a country. They are constantly in danger of being found and tortured and killed. It's pretty horrible.

These people, however, are wonderful and charming and not at all the tragic cases their situations make them out to be. When we were there we hiked into a tiny jungle village a couple miles from the border of Myanmar to celebrate Christmas and New Years with the people living there and many families who hiked hours or days from their hiding places inside of Myanmar to celebrate the holidays. It was amazing. The group of us went to these people hoping to serve them and bless them but ended up being soooo blessed by these wonderful people, their kind hospitality and their strong spirit.

We spent a lot of time having celebration church services- singing together and sharing our stories of how God has touched or lives and encouraging and praying for one another. It was so amazing to be so so different from these people who live in bamboo huts and eat monkey (yeah. it was so gross.) but to be so similar and drawn together by a love for the same God. I can not begin to explain the deep connection that provided and how amazing and, honestly, how very... I guess... odd it felt at the same time. It is such a big and diverse world we live in, but the God that we serve is so much bigger and is so unifying.

I'm sure much of this is sounding very, like, church-ey, but I don't know how else to put it, so just bear with me :)

After the jungle we spent some time in another village (it felt practically urban after the jungle! They had a paved road! haha) in an orphanage/elderly home/ safe house. This was my favorite part.

I don't even have the words to describe this leg of the trip. I love orpahans. I always have. I have every intention of adopting as many orphan babies from developing countries as I can... so being in this place was so intense for me. It was amazing because it's this wonderful, loving environment and the kids are so happy... and so sad because they all have the most tragic stories of how they came to be there. I could have stayed there so much longer... like months. I fell in LOVE with those kids.

And again it was a situation where we went to serve them and ended up being so so so blessed by them all. We taught English and spoke in church. We all sang together and were encouraged by shared testimonies of God's greatness...

The thing about this trip to Thailand is this: we went to share and love and serve... to give. What happened was we did just that, but we were loved and served so much more.... and our eyes were opened to the plight of the Karen people. The world needs to know about these people. The government of Myanmar needs to be stopped. And I and my friends that had these experiences with me need to do everything in our power, put our spheres of influence to maximum use, to make this happen- to get the ball rolling.

More to come

Well, I'm finally home from my latest adventure... and I've got so much to say that I haven't got any idea where to begin.

I'm going to sort through my 1300+ photos then go from there.

xo