A few words
About Us
Mission & Vision
Our purpose and the world we aim to create
Our mission
Freedom Restoration Project’s mission is to eliminate gender-based violence and empower women through sustainable, survivor-centered programs.
We are a survivor- and women-led non-profit organization with deep cultural understandings of Thailand’s border communities and provide services as the only counseling service and residential shelter for gender-based violence survivors in Mae Sot.
Our Vision
Our vision is to build a more equitable world through systemic change—transforming beliefs, behaviors, and policy that can break the cycles of patriarchy.
Freedom Restoration Project’s vision is to build a world without violence. Our vision centers around identifying the needs of marginalized women in Thailand, developing gender-based violence (GBV) support programming and resources, and building a survivor-led team of social workers and local collaborators that empower women to have a voice.
Our mission
Eliminate gender-based violence & empower women through sustainable, survivor-centered programs
Involvements
- UN Women Standing Up: Stories of Courage and Resilience
- Vital Voices Fellow 2022
- UN Women Hand Over The Mic Talk
- Equality Talk
- Dragonfly Bangkok Women Summit 2019
- Thailand’s Silent Pandemic: Domestic Violence during COVID-19
- From where I stand: “Stay home and stay safe—but what if home is where she feels unsafe?”
- Una historia de violencia en la frontera entre Tailandia y Myanmar
- Speaker at ASEAN Women Leaders Summit, 2024 (Vientiane, Loas)
- Fortify Rights Report 2025- Lack of Access to Effective Remedies for Women Survivors of Domestic violence in Thailand
History
Our story starts way back, during Sia’s childhood in her own home
- 2016 - FRP started working with migrant women & Children
- 2018 - Started support groups & parenting classes
- 2020 - Opened non-traditional shelter for survivors
- 2021 - Started providing food kits & essential items
- 2022 - Expanded residential shelter to 8 small houses
- 2023 - Grew advocacy and engagement via hospital, school & village leader trainings
- 2024 - officially registered as a Thai foundation
- 2024 - LAUNCHED economic Empowerment program
- 2025 - Started migrant women soccer league
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2025 - piloted family STRENGTHENING program with male
mentorship
Freedom Restoration Project (FRP) was founded by Sia Kukaewkasem, a Thai national. She began volunteer work in 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. She 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 and 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.
FRP has encountered countless women who share their sense of hopelessness. They express how they feel stuck in their own homes, living with a partner who does not give them respite. In spite of the frequent and various forms of abuse the women and children suffered, most of them are not ready or able to leave their abusive relationships. For women migrant workers and their children, it is even more challenging for them to escape violence and seek help due to their intersectionality. First, gender as being a woman. Second, nationality as being an undocumented migrant worker.
FRP runs peer support groups and individualized counseling for migrant women who are still in abusive relationships or who have already left the abusive relationship. FRP provides shelter and holistic services for survivors of domestic violence. FRP also teaches parenting classes, child safety workshops on safe and unsafe touch and GBV/domestic violence classes that provide families with healthy, non-violent tools to build safer homes. The clients of FRP are primarily women and children in the migrant community, with services and programs designed to empower women and promote safety and a network of support.
Local Partners
FRP works closely with trusted local partners in Mae Sot—including medical, legal, child protection, and education organizations—who refer women and children to FRP and create pathways to healing, safety, and opportunities.
Who we are
Meet Our Team
Hser Htee Paw
Selah Center Manager
Eh Wah
Junior social worker
Anna
Volunteer grant proposal manager
Bird
On-site Staff Assistant & Driver
Mita
Social Worker & Case Manager
Andrew
Strengthening Families Lead
Anna
Junior Social Worker
Ma Ei
Child & Youth Care Worker
Thae Thae
Peer Support Group Facilitator
