Our intent is to allow children to live, train, and eventually be schooled year-round without being under contract to fight or having to carry the burden of financially supporting their families; provide women equal opportunities as men do in the sport and all other aspects of their lives; give the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community a safe haven; thereby, setting a new standard for the way in which such camps are currently being run in Thailand.
Programs We Intend to Implement (Our
full Business Plan to be posted shortly):
Allow children to live, train and go to school without being under contract to
fight or having to carry the burden of financially supporting their families.
In Thailand, children as young as 5-years fight in the ring to help support their
family. Even if they don't win, their base fee for fighting is enough money to
feed their family for a week. At most Muay Thai camps the children who live and
train there are under contract and must fight. If they don't prove to be champions
they must leave. We will establish an agreement with parents of those young fighters,
that their children can live and train at the camp but do not have to fight.
A stipend will be given to those families and we will contribute to the child's
education, thereby giving them a better chance of success.
Provide women with equal opportunities as men have in the sport of Muay Thai
and all other aspects of their lives.
In Thailand, women are not allowed to train at most Muay Thai
camps. If they are, they are not allowed to train in the boxing
ring. Thai women want to train and fight for the same reasons
men do, to contribute to their families, for self-defense and
the sheer sport of it. Also, it is a known fact that domestic
abuse is a pandemic in the Thai culture. As far as the local
authorities are concerned, any physical abuse a husband inflicts
upon his wife is considered a
"domestic" problem and they don't get involved. At our camp ALL
women will be able to train and be promoted to fight if they
so choose.
Provide a community center and safe haven for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender) adults and youth.
In Thailand, because of Buddhist beliefs, the Thai people are
fairly open-minded and acceptant to the LGBT community. However,
in certain hyper-masculine environments such as Muay Thai camps,
being "out" as a homosexual is less than encouraged.
Also, throughout the country many of the Thai LGBT youth are prostitutes in order
to survive or to save money for their sex changes. Our camp's outreach program
will allow these LGBT youth to live and train in a safe and "open" environment.
There they will learn self- defense, sex education and will be
aided in finding alternatives to prostitution.
PLEASE NOTE: We will operate as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with our headquarters
in New York, NY. However, our current non-profit status is PENDING.
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