New Partner: ZOE, Restoring At-Risk Children in Thailand

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with ZOE, a Christian organization that strives to reach every person with the love of God and rescue every child from human trafficking. Through their comprehensive prevention, intervention, and restoration programs, they’re able to transform each child from her past and give her an opportunity for a better future.

Program InformationWith generous support, ZOE began construction on three multipurpose buildings, which were completed in 2010. These buildings have dormitories for every age, vocational training centers, staff offices, and a kitchen with a dining room. ZOE continues to make improvements to the lives of the children they rescue from human trafficking and will build additional safe houses and housing as God provides. ​ Since 2010, ZOE has provided comprehensive aftercare for more than 115 rescued children in Thailand.

Background InformationZOE International Foundation, Thailand became official in 2007. This status enables the anti-human trafficking organization to purchase land and build facilities as a protected foundation and safeguard for its partners. Through the years, ZOE has made solid relationships with government leaders who have endorsed the ZOE leadership and the work they are accomplishing in the nation of Thailand.
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​ZOE Children's Homes in Thailand currently cares for 75 children on a long-term basis. These are children who are orphans or have been rescued from human trafficking and have no other place to go. ZOE's primary goal is to unite children with loving family who are wiling and able to care for them. However, in some cases, the children simply cannot return to family members. This may be because the family is complicit in the trafficking of the child or that there are no family members. ​

Donation ImpactZOE provides shelter, clothing, education, food, medical care, and limited dental care to these children. The ZOE Health Plus program focuses on provided preventative care in the areas of nutrition, dental care, and medical care to include vaccinations and annual deworming treatment. 

We are partnering with ZOE to provide preventative healthcare for the children in these ways:

$1200 - A year's supply of daily multivitamins for 75 children
$400 - Flu vaccines and deworming medicine for 75 children and 35 adults
$1100 - X-ray exams for 75 children
$1700 - Dental cleaning for 75 children
$3000 - Cavity repair for 75 children
$760 - Extractions for 75 children

​Nutrition Plus
The ZOE kitchen prepares over 450 meals per day for their children, staff, and volunteers. Over the years they have made great strides in improving the nutritional level for our children. Improvements include having fresh fruit at every dinner meal and a box of milk for each child with the morning meal. Although the amount of food is plentiful, they believe that there are certain minerals and vitamins missing from the children’s diet. For example, vitamin C and iron are lacking due to lower citrus and protein consumption. Having a full complement of necessary vitamins and minerals is essential during the critical developmental years of children and teens. This program would provide one complete multi-vitamin per child per day for one year.
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Dental Plus
ZOE provides limited dental care to their children. At present, they rely either on dental exams given in the public schools or a child having a toothache to alert us to problems. We do take the children to the dentist but usually only when a problem is evident. Unfortunately, the school dental exams only reveal problems that are well-developed. Many cavities cannot be seen early unless the child has an x-ray exam.

ZOE believes that good dental care is one of the most important things in a child's life. Good teeth promote good health. Bad dental health significantly impacts all kinds of health issues. For example, people who have diabetes can experience significantly higher blood sugar levels just because their teeth are not cleaned. Plaque is filled with bacteria that can significantly impact one's health.

This program would provide each child with one basic teeth-cleaning procedure per year. It would also provide an initial x-ray for each child to establish the child's baseline dental health and reveal existing cavities. It would also cover cavity repair or extraction needed after the initial x-ray survey.

Medical Plus
ZOE children who are Thai citizens are covered by national medical insurance. The children at ZOE who are not Thai have no medical coverage and ZOE pays cash for their care. However, even the Thai national medical insurance is bare-bones coverage and does not include preventative medical care such as vaccinations, tetanus shots, flu shots, or deworming medicine.

Living in a group setting (there are over 150 persons living on the ZOE campus) makes it imperative that children are protected from communicable diseases, especially highly contagious and recurring illnesses such as the flu.

This program would provide each child and childcare provider at ZOE an annual flue shot. Finally, intestinal parasites are very common in this part of Thailand and all American workers are encouraged to take a deworming medicine annually. This program would allow us to give each child and their caregivers an annual deworming treatment as well.