Grand Palace, Bangkok
Team Relentless makes regular trips to Bangkok for our work. During these trips we work with a number of different organizations in a variety of different roles. All our partner organizations are working at some intersection of abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. Some are doing outreach to homeless kids. One group works with transgender women. Another organization is reaching out to internationally trafficked women. Others are working in slum areas where 24-hour sex work is just part of the routine.
Usually Team Relentless spends about four days in Bangkok trying to fit in as much as possible without totally wearing ourselves out, but by the time we get back to Chiang Mai, we are still pretty exhausted.
I (Katherine) recently returned from a week in Bangkok and thought it would be helpful if I share with you what a typical week might look like.
Day one land in Bangkok mid-day and then drop off belongings. Even with a relatively efficient mass transport system, it takes longer to get to where I’m staying than to fly from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. We re-organize for the day then head to the first workshop training or clinic.
The next morning we’re usually presenting a workshop on topics such as deliberate self-harm, HIV/AIDS, eating disorders, therapies for sex reassignment, or drug withdrawal syndromes. I usually leave it up to the host organizations to decide what is most needed at the time. Recently, I did a two-hour workshop on self-care with the staff of an organization that works with at-risk transgender youth.
The afternoon of the second day may be a clinic or another workshop. Sometimes, we need to spend a few hours with a social worker to review complicated medical cases they are dealing with and help them with management, recommendations, and patient advocacy.
At other times we spend an afternoon doing clinical consultations and patient education with women who have suffered a lot of exploitation and abuse (physical/sexual/emotional) and exploitation. Many of them are receiving treatment for a psychological disorder. I am not their main doctor, but it helps so much to have a clinician spend time listening to them and educating them about their health problems.
At least one of the nights is usually an evening/late night clinic at a center in the middle of a big red-light district. I may also go on late-night outreach (until 2am or so) to meet people who may have a health problem to discuss with a doctor.
It is often helpful, sometimes necessary, for me to go and meet them on the street before they feel comfortable coming to see me in one of my red-light clinics. They often wait until a problem is unbearable before going to a doctor in a local hospital or clinic. I seek them out first – I don’t wait for them to come to me.
Various toys and aphrodisiacs for sale in the red-light district.
In Bangkok I meet women from South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and other global regions who are trafficked for sex work. They work in a variety of venues. Although I’ve been involved in this work for some time, I still see things I’ve never seen before such as women in burqas selling sex on the street.
In past posts have written about barriers to health care (and here) experienced by the abused and exploited. The situation is not getting better. But organizations are starting to realize that just because they can make an appointment to see a doctor, that doesn’t mean that the care they receive is up to basic standards. I continue to be appalled at the treatment some of these people receive just because they are a “dirty prostitute” – and it’s even worse if you are a foreigner. More about that in a future post.
These partner organizations are small and although they often (but not always) have a budget for workshops and trainings, the combined amount of “revenue” barely covers the travel expenses within Bangkok, let alone the airfare and hotel costs. Your support helps keep this important work going!
THANK YOU!
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