Freedom Restoration Project was founded by Sia Kukaewkasem, a Thai national. She began volunteer work in the tsunami relief camp in south Thailand, but then moved to the border town of Mae Sot to work with women and children who had been abused, trafficked, or lived in at-risk situation. After earning her Masters in Clinical Social Work from Azusa Pacific University, she returned to Mae Sot.

Sia is motivated in her work because she is a survivor of domestic violence. She grew up in a culture where men have ultimate authority in the home. Over and over, she saw men in the community, and even her own father, abuse their wives and children. No one would intervene.

No one should live like this, but it is the reality that many women, children and even men suffer from domestic violence every day. The trauma leaves scars on people for years.

Sia’s heart is to prevent this story, even for just one child. She wants women, like her mother, to have somewhere to turn and find an ally.

Freedom Restoration Project exists to interrupt the narrative of abuse and domestic violence for people in the migrant communities on the border of Thailand and Burma.

Through education and empowerment, it aims to break the destructive chain of domestic violence.

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