Five years ago I met Pen while playing pool in a bar in my adopted town of Hua Hin Thailand. She didn't seem to fit into the bar scene looking naive, shy and self-possessed. As my pool (billiards) team rotated between the bars in town, I saw Pen every couple of weeks and she came to trust me sharing her life story. She is from a small village close to the Cambodia border where her family grows rice to make a living.

She told me she hated working in the bars but needed to support her family and son. She originally moved to Hua Hin for a job in the pineapple canning factory because work in the villages was scarce and paid very low wages. She lived in one room with a shower and toilet which cost her 3,000baht a month ($100USD) with her son, Gasso. Gasso has a rare blood condition that puts him in the hospital regularly and while healthcare is free for Thais, diagnostics are not so it regularly costs Pen an additional 3,000 to 4,000 baht a month to keep him alive. When COVID hit here the factory closed leaving Pen desperate. Her only way to survive was borrowing money from a bar owner to pay bills and paying him back by serving drinks in his bar. The owner soon pushed her into going with customers because she could not pay him back quick enough as customer traffic plummeted due to COVID restrictions. Pen told me she had worked in the bar for six months and was not a favorite of the men because she could not go with customers overnight and leave her son alone.

I thought about trying to help her but was cautious because all the bar girls have a similar sob story they use just to extract money from the ex-pats. So I hired a British Private investigator (PI) in Bangkok known for doing background checks on bar girls. Everything Pen told me checked out.

Lost her father at age 5, attended school until the age of 12, son with C6PD rare blood disorder, never married, worked at the pineapple canning factory for two years until it closed during the COVID crisis.

Once I found out Pen was telling me the truth, it changed everything. I knew she hated what she was doing but had no alternatives. In order to leave the bar she would need to pay her debt which was 8,000baht ($250) and enough money to live on and during COVID there were no jobs anywhere.

I told her that I would pay off her bar debt, pay her monthly rent, cell phone, Gasso's medical bills and a stipend each day of 300baht for living expenses until she got back on her feet but only under the conditions she never go back to work in the bar, ever.

She agreed and left the bar. Pen kept her promise but decided to return to her village in Issan (NE Thailand bordering Cambodia) because there Gasso had family to watch him, food everyday and the daily money I sent her would go a lot further. Her family had a couple of acres for growing rice and Pen enjoyed the peace of working in the rice paddies compared to the chaos of Hua Hin's red lights district.

Pen has been out of the bar for 5 years working diligently to make sure Gasso has a life and future. I am a big part of that but being so far away, 8 hour drive, money and understanding is the most I can give her.

And now comes the war. As of today, Pen and Gasso have been relocated to Burinam Soccer Stadium for protection. She has no one to tend to the rice and is not sure if her village and house are still intact.

My GoFundMe goal is $10,000 because it will change Pen and Gasso’s life. It translates into about 300,000 Thai baht which is more than a Thai can ever hope to make in a lifetime. It will give her a savings account, medical cushion for Gasso and enough to restart her rice farming.

I am calling on all those who I’ve been generous to in my life. To those I’ve shared my house, my dinner table, my children and my family. Show me you are grateful by being generous with Pen. And if you dismiss my request because you already donate to good causes, I am asking for a little more. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.