Christine Overeem, the founder of Baan Phak Phing, came to the Netherlands in August on furlough. She left Harderwijk, the Netherlands 30 years ago to move to Thailand but the connection to Harderwijk has always remained. A few days after her arrival she had an appointment with someone in Harderwijk. Before she could get to the agreed location the other person called and asked her to meet at the city hall. A group of about 50 of her friends, family, and people connected with Baan Phak Phing were there to surprise her. The Mayor was there to receive her after which he proceeded to give her a Royal Award in the King’s name for the work that she started in Thailand and the 30 years of service to help the vulnerable girls who live at Baan Phak Phing. When Christine was asked about how she felt, she said, “I am happy to have received the award but that is not what this is and has been about. It has always been about the work that we get to do in Thailand.”

Victory
Early April seven of our girls traveled to Bangkok to compete in a very important self-defense contest, Jiu-Jitsu. Each of them had been training hard to get to this point and now the time was finally there. The journey itself was great fun, because from the gym several young people came along as well as