The Trip to Fiji
Last June a team of builders from the Olympia area went to Fiji to build a shelter for women who want to get out of a life of prostitution. They laid the groundwork, set up basic structure, improved the water systems, and much more. This last September, a team from the Tronie Foundation, including founders Trong and Rani Hong, went back to Fiji for the dedication ceremony of this new shelter. It is a community of homes and classrooms for these women, many of whom were forced into prostitution. Fiji is one country among many where an alarming number of women are bound to prostitution because they have nowhere else to go and no way to support themselves. Many have children they love with no one to help raise them. The mission of Tronie Foundation is to build places all over the world that provide safety, love, and the tools these women need to face the world as fellow human beings, not commodities.
The team from Tronie Foundation was not only able to attend the ceremony, but also experience life at the shelter firsthand. One team member, Dave Ochsner, who led the team of builders in June, said it was a uniquely moving experience for the whole team. He said, “It was amazing to put this team in the sandals of these women. Not only were we living amongst them, on their campus, but we were a part of their day to day life as well.” Day to day life for the women includes rising early to bake bread; spending the day in classes that teach reading, writing, and even parenting and healthy relationship skills; and going out in the evenings to sell the bread they made, learning how to support themselves, and steadily becoming more independent.
'Nee-mee' was the first young woman to find a home in this shelter. Today she is turning her life around and now helps lead the facility, teaching the other young women who come to live there how to heal from their horrific pasts. It is the hope of Tronie Foundation and all the individuals involved in the process of building the shelter, both Fijian and American, that the future of this place will only hold more stories like that of ‘Nee-mee’, and more women will have the courage to walk away from the life they never chose for themselves or their children and into a life of strength and love, where they can be safe.
The team from Tronie Foundation was not only able to attend the ceremony, but also experience life at the shelter firsthand. One team member, Dave Ochsner, who led the team of builders in June, said it was a uniquely moving experience for the whole team. He said, “It was amazing to put this team in the sandals of these women. Not only were we living amongst them, on their campus, but we were a part of their day to day life as well.” Day to day life for the women includes rising early to bake bread; spending the day in classes that teach reading, writing, and even parenting and healthy relationship skills; and going out in the evenings to sell the bread they made, learning how to support themselves, and steadily becoming more independent.
'Nee-mee' was the first young woman to find a home in this shelter. Today she is turning her life around and now helps lead the facility, teaching the other young women who come to live there how to heal from their horrific pasts. It is the hope of Tronie Foundation and all the individuals involved in the process of building the shelter, both Fijian and American, that the future of this place will only hold more stories like that of ‘Nee-mee’, and more women will have the courage to walk away from the life they never chose for themselves or their children and into a life of strength and love, where they can be safe.
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