When our founder, Kristi Hambrice, moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand back in 2010, she realized the difficult obstacles that Thai women faced in getting a job, but even more than that – the challenges that resulted from not having access to a good job.
Before getting trained with Bliss, these women typically work 12-15 hour a day shifts and get paid very little. Many women, have had little to no education but long for their children to go to school so they can have a better future. These women often must then face expenses from sending their children to school, gas for their motor bike, groceries, rent and also have the responsibility to send money to care for their families in rural Thai villages. Not only does having a low paying job make their life difficult for paying expenses, but also in their ability to be mothers and spend time caring for their children.
Moved by her desire to create change, Kristi started our organization, Bliss Mae Baan Network with the motivation to create stories of JOY in each life, one woman at a time by providing job training, and creating a community of unified women at Bliss.
On Monday’s, our process begins when women from all over the city show up on their motorbikes at our main office in Chiang Mai. Once they are signed up, they go to our training center and start the learning process! The women are usually very excited but also nervous, so we try to make the classes and training a fun and bonding experience! Training classes are taught by our Bliss Trainers: Nid, Pawn and Rii. They are Thai women who have gone through our training course before, and we loved them so much we hired them! They often are an encouragement to the new women in the training program and are wonderful mentors to the women even outside of the training program.
Once the women go through a week of learning how to clean a home, we host a graduation for them! It is a fun and exciting celebration they can experience with their new friends from the program and invokes a sense of accomplishment (which is what we want them to have)! From there, the women leave with skills they need to find good paying, safe and sustainable jobs for families in Chiang Mai looking for housekeepers.
At Bliss, we focus on creating holistic change in each woman’s life.
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