“I was born in a small village near Myanmar and knew as a little girl that I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up, but my family was too poor to send me to school after Grade 9. That’s when I met FTD. They invited me to join their family, go to high school and then my dream of going to nursing school came true! I’m an OB-GYN RN, and every day I get to say “Happy Birthday” to a new baby! I am so grateful for my life.”  — FTD daughter, A

Two decades ago when Jane McBride and Patty Zinkowski founded Friends of Thai Daughters, they vowed to never stop educating and supporting young girls, mostly from the northern mountain region of Thailand bordering Burma and Laos. They also vowed to expand educational outreach to villages and teach adults and children about the dangers of child trafficking.

2025 marks the 20th anniversary of FTD’s founding. This June’s annualSunflower Celebration fundraiser is Thursday, June 26 from 5 to 7 p.m. in East Boothbay. It will include 10 Daughters who recently took their first plane ride and visit to Maine, where FTD began on a farm in Trevett. The girls plan to make Thai appetizers for the occasion and demonstrate traditional Thai dancing.

Auction items include a round of golf with with 13-time Club Champion Abigail Vernon in Brookline, Massachusetts; one week in Costa del Sol, Nerja, Spain; one week in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; six nights in London at the five-star Old Aldwych Hotel, in the heart of Covent Garden; nine nights in Thailand at White Lotus-featured hotels and private villas in Koh Samui and Bangkok, followed by five nights in Chiang Rai visiting FTD’s Jasmine and Sunflower Farms including  stays at five-star Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Resort and FTD’s private luxury tented camp.; artwork by East Boothbay-based artist Andrea Peters, and more. There will also be a silent auction. View the full list, and learn much more about FTD, at www.friendsofthaidaughters.org

McBride and Zinkowski recently reflected on the positive impact they said FTD has had on the young girls, their families, the area, the myriad of ways fundraising is conducted and the number of people it takes to support the mission.

“In the very, very beginning back in 2002, we were just tourists,” McBride said. “We had heard about this organization that was ostensibly protecting kids from trafficking, and that's when we encountered that first group of girls in the abandoned school. And we went back to make the short film (“Daughters and Sons: Preventing Child Trafficking in the Golden Triangle”). They're telling us, obviously, all in time, crying. And then it was only after a couple hours out in translation, we realized what so many of them have been through that we had to put right.”

Ten new girls have become part of the FTD family this month, ages 8, 10 and 12. And like the girls before them, each story, McBride said, is “a little bit sadder ...” Death, suicide, lack of money, food, clothing; abuse and neglect, the women said, are among the reasons some families sell their children to traffickers.

Said McBride, “They’re certainly homesick when they first start, or some of them are, but within a month or even less, they jump right in. One of the messages, from staff and our volunteers, is they are not victims. As soon as they join us they’re empowered. We go back several times a year to the villages to give out blankets, oil, or rice. These little ones are the ones that give their granny or someone else's a blanket, rice or oil and they are just beaming. Learning how to give, and teaching them to be givers and not takers, is just truly transformative.”

“Faii” - age 24, “Being in FTD family changed my life. My family didn’t believe in education for girls and was too poor so I joined FTD when I was 16. I learned English, traveled to the USA and went to university to become a dentist. After graduation, I immediately got a job at the hospital, allowing me to support my family and receive praise from my village, becoming a good role model for the people in the village. Now I have my own dental clinic with my fiance and my future is very bright. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity FTD gave me. It inspired me not only to work harder in my pursuit of knowledge but also to give back to society. I hope that one day I will be able to help other children achieve their goals, just as FTD helped me. Thank you for believing in me.”

Fundraising highlights over the two decades include:

In 2022, The Jasmine Farm was dug and planted on the grounds of the first Sunflower House, providing a hands-on way for the girls to learn how to plant and care for a garden. Some of the produce is used for cooking student and staff meals for all three houses. There’s also a coffee cafe there.

In 2023, with partners, FTD built a luxury tenting camp across the road from Sunflower Farm "to generate revenue ... provide some jobs and job training for our graduates (and) create more awareness about our work and the issues of trafficking and exploitation among us," McBride explained. "We're excited about the potential. We're getting great reviews on it."

In 2024, FTD’s organic farm, the Jasmine Farm Campus, opened in Chiang Khong; and the Sunflower House in Mae Chan has a pickleball court.

“Pickleball is taking off in Thailand, not unlike it is in the U.S., because it's a great sport,” McBride said. “We have support now from pickleball clubs around Thailand, as well as in London and Canterbury; Naples, Florida, and other places. We promote the sport with Stay and Play trips. Meet the kids, have a cooking class, play pickleball, do some nature and adventure at a beautiful retreat – and feel good about your holiday.”

This year, in March, FTD’s three-day summer camp Rainbow Road at Sunflower Farm had kids from hill tribe villages, local villages and schools, and the children’s centers in Chiang Rai. Education and training topics included human trafficking, online safety, women’s empowerment, and sex equality; there were group games, painting, jewelry making and sports. And in January came the first week-long “Pickle and Pedal," which was a successful fundraising event. Another is planned for January 2026. 

And thanks to the Boothbay-based Otto and Fran Walter Foundation,  FTD moved into a permanent safe house in Chiang Rai, to reach up to 15 young girls annually.

"Continual funding is a must to provide each daughter with financial and emotional support until they graduate from a trade school or university. Fundraising and grants are probably our biggest pool of donors, family foundations – very generous,” said Zinkowski. “The message we are trying to share to our donors is they're making an investment with impact; they’re sharing some of their resources with very deserving, and appreciative children, whose lives in some cases, they are really saving.”

“Pin," agę 17: “FTD didn’t give me just a place to stay but it gave me a new life. I have been living at FTD house for 2 years now. Getting a chance to be at FTD house is the greatest opportunity to study and to explore the world. Living in FTD house with other girls taught me how to be a good leader or a good sister for younger girls. We are living together like a big family. Because of FTD I have more confidence and a clear goal about my future because now I can expand my knowledge and my mindset."

Friends of Thai Daughters will hold a special event Saturday, June 14 at Harbor Theater, 185 Townsend Ave., Boothbay Harbor from 5 to 6 p.m. with homemade Thai-inspired snacks provided. The film, made by McBride and Zinkowski in 2003, is an introduction to the nonprofit’s history of combating the human trafficking of young hill tribe girls. The Daughters, here for the big fundraiser on June 26, attend to share some of their stories. Everyone is welcome.