Baan Yuu Suk shelter for sexually exploited, abused and at-risk girls is COSA’s newest and most rewarding project. Although initially designed to be an emergency shelter to help the girls from COSA’s previous project, Harbor House, Baan Yuu Suk has long term plans to provide an optimistic future for hundreds of girls who have not been given the opportunities and choices in life that most people tend to take for granted. Establishing a new shelter will allow COSA to fulfill our objectives on the most direct, local level, to actually protect sexually exploited, abused and at-risk girls, without the bureaucratic and political difficulties inherent in supporting a previously established shelter.
Baan Yuu Suk will officially open its doors in mid-October at a beautiful property north of Chiang Mai—the second largest city in Thailand. Though our primary motivation for establishing the shelter was to provide the 6 Harbor House girls with the secure present and future that they have depended on through the past 3 years of COSA support, we are already in the process of assessing the needs of other young girls in the area. By the beginning of November we plan to have our first group of 8-10 girls and aim to have approximately 20 girls in the house at all times in the coming years. The Baan Yuu Suk girls will be provided with a safe home, a solid local education, vocational skills for the future, encouragement to follow their dreams and hope for a better future.
