A first-person YouTube vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting the Home of New Beginnings, a Thailand-based shelter started by Bonita (with partner Ann) to rescue and train girls vulnerable to human trafficking. The video explains how poverty and family expectations drive girls into the sex trade, shows the Home’s activities (education, life skills, stipends), previews a planned Pattaya facility (restaurant, vocational floors, dormitories), and contrasts scenes of local food and nightlife with the region’s sex-tourism history.
Questions this video answers
2004
Approximately 6,000 Baht while prostituted; ~3,000 Baht while in school; ~12,000 Baht after graduating and obtaining employment.
A five-story building; top two floors as dormitories with capacity to house 24 girls.
Over 1,800 bars in Pattaya; during high season there may be as many as 50,000 girls.
March 26, 2016
Chapters
Today's vlog is going to be totally dedicated to telling the story of the Home of New Beginnings and what they're planning to do in the future in Pattaya. There will probably be quite a bit more talking than you're used to, because we think that it's really important that you understand what's going on here in Bangkok with the human trafficking and the impact that the Home of New Beginnings is having here in Thailand.
Bonita and her husband moved here in 2004, and that's when Bonita learned about the huge human trafficking industry here in Bangkok. So that's when she started the Home of New Beginnings. She started going to bars and just in these areas of Bangkok that have lots of trafficking and make relationships with girls. Eventually they come live in this Home of New Beginnings where Bonita and her partner Ann, give them education and encourage them to go to school. They learn to cook and they do crafts, and they learn to sew and learn all of these life skills that help the girls realize that there's other ways to make money besides selling themselves.
We learned that the main reason for human trafficking and for these girls coming to Bangkok and getting into the sex trade industry is because of poverty. A lot of the people in eastern Thailand are extremely poor. And for some reason, it's totally different than Western cultures. The young girls in the family are expected to provide for their entire family. So they'll come down here to Bangkok to get a job in a factory, which a lot of them start there. But they have to work terribly long hours. The pay is really bad. Then they realize they can make more money working in a restaurant. After that, they realize they can make more money dancing in the restaurant. And then the cycle just goes further and further until ultimately it ends up in prostitution. So one of the things that surprised me yesterday was that money is a huge factor in these girls decisions to ultimately become prostitutes.
At the Home of New Beginnings, they give them a stipend every Monday where they get to keep some of the money, and then they send the rest of it home and to their parents, because their parents have learned to depend on their daughters for money to survive. So a lot of the times, Bonita and Ann will call the parents and tell them that they might not be getting as much money for a few years while the girls are in school, but eventually, once they get an education, they start sending home more money than they ever did in prostitution.
Yeah, like one of the coolest stories from yesterday. I think maybe when one of the girls was a prostitute, she was sending home like 6000 Baht per month to her family back home to support them. Then while she was in school, it dropped down to like half that. Like sending 3000 Baht home back to her family. And now that she's graduated and gotten a job, she's sending 12,000 Baht back home.
So everyone knows Bangkok is a huge hub for human trafficking. But what people don't know is that a town called Pattaya, two hours south, is even worse. So the home of New Beginnings wants to start a new home in Pattaya. So today we're gonna go check it out.
Let's go.
These are my kind of people. We're stopping at Starbucks.
We just got to the apartment that they purchased in Pattaya and it's so nice. It's not quite finished yet. Right now they're just using it to come down to Pattaya about twice a month because they're just starting by building relationships with some of the girls here. But they have a much bigger vision for this place in the next year.
They are in the process of purchasing the building right across from us. It's a five story building and they have really big plans for this building. So the bottom two floors are going to be the restaurant where they're going to be able to employ the girls. This third floor is going to be life skills training and vocational training. And then the top two floors will be dormitories and they'll be able to house 24 girls.
So the two biggest roadblocks right now keeping this project from being completed is finding staff for the restaurant, which is really difficult, and money to finish buying this building.
We feel super honored that we've been able to come and see the vision that the home of New Beginnings has for their location here at Pasco. And now we clean.
Time for lunch. Kara, what are you getting?
This squiggly lime looks yummy.
Did you get tongue? You have to eat it? Yep. You're eating it.
I'm about to eat oxtang in my noodles.
Wow, that's a big tongue.
It doesn't taste that different. I don't think I'll eat anymore. But I.
Honest. The tongue. You did pretty good.
I guess the tongue didn't bother me too much.
We just stopped at this orphanage here in Pattaya and it really helps explain the history of this city.
Back when the Vietnam War was occurring, the soldiers would come here to Pattaya, which used to be a small fishing village, for rest and relaxation. And the soldiers coming attracted women to come down. And that was when Prostit first started in Pattaya.
So the soldiers would go back to war, and then the women would have babies and either leave them at the hospital or something would happen. And so that's when this orphanage got started, and it's still here today.
So that was the beginning of the prostitution and the sex tourism that started here in Pattaya. And now it's become one of the biggest hotspots in the world for sex slavery, sex tourism, prostitution, all of that, those terrible things.
Now we're gonna go see some cute kids.
You needed your kid fixed. I did.
They were precious.
So basically, all the kids that we just saw in the orphanage are product of the prostitution here. If a prostitute gets pregnant, she can just leave her kid at the hospital. And this orphanage takes in as many of the kids as they can. Anne's friend owns the hotel. So we're gonna go up top and watch the sunset.
It changes colors.
This place is f. It's.
We're leaving Ann in charge of ordering for us again. Hopefully no tons this time.
So there's crab, squid, and squid. More squid. More squid.
So frog and is this mince pork?
All right. Nate is going for the frog.
I'm actually looking forward to this after our frog experience in Cambodia.
That's good. The deep fried frog is way better than the roasted frog. Nice. I love that we're getting to have dinner with locals because I'm learning new things. You put your meat and toppings on top of your boiled rice. It's kind of like eating minced pork and oatmeal. Mmm. I think this is my favorite thing that I've had since we've been in Thailand. I don't even need the pork. I'll just eat the leaves. They taste just like pork.
I'm gonna have to say that's the best meal I've had in Thailand yet. The food just kept coming, and it just kept getting yummier. Look at it.
It was a feast we definitely made.
Is that what we ate in our food?
That is the pork that made the veggies taste so good. Dan was just telling us that we're here too early. But later at night, the girls that work in the factory that don't make enough money come and walk this street to pick up customers. We are currently driving down one of the side streets that's just filled with bars. There's over 1800 bars here in Pattaya, and during the high season, there be as many as 50,000 girls.
This is walking street. There's lots of bars inside. Like a.
The one that you saw before is like.
Right.
But this one is more like a. Here we go.
That was very overwhelming for sure.
Just to put that in perspective, we were here early on a weeknight. I can't imagine how crazy it would be late on a weekend. Now for my favorite part of the day.
Yum.
I've never seen anything like this. Shaved frozen milk with lots of chocolate on top.
We need this in America.
That is mine.
That is my hand. Oh, my goodness.
How is it it?
Nate, I am impressed.
Damn it.
A whole half a watermelon all by yourself.
I'm going to be sick.
It's past midnight. We just got back to the hotel. Today has been like a roller coaster of emotions. One second we were like having fun, hanging out, eating great food with Ann and the girls, and then the next minute we're being exposed to the darkness that is the sex tourism here in Bangkok.
I'm really glad we got to experience Pattaya. It was so much fun to just getting to hang out with some of the girls in the home. And one of the craziest things to me was just walking down the street and seeing the life that they used to have and probably would still have if it wasn't for the home of new beginnings. And just seeing how happy they are now in the community that they have now. They're like sisters, and Ann and Bonita are like their mom. And it's just so cool to see that they have this family that they didn't have before and they have like a future now. And it's just mind blowing how much of a better life that they have now.
So we showed you in the video earlier today the new home and restaurant that they're planning to build in Patio so they can have an impact in even more girls lives. And if that touched you and that's something that you would like to support, we're going to put some type of donation link down below in the description. I'm not exactly sure what that'll be yet, but if you want to give the link will be down below.
All right. Awaits.
Gara. Did you just wait till random guy to vans? I did. Let's go find her. Hmm.
I wonder who made these little marks.
Guilty. These were clean.
We banned Nate to the outside. He was making too much of a mess. He still gets a donut, though.
The world's coolest fish tank.
Do you think it was really a tv?
What is that? What is this?
No, I think they just put it on the table. Just like you can it.
That they just put it on the table.
Thought it was sugar.
Mayday.
The table decoration.
Seems like something on the table. It looks like it should be.
