Who we are
HUG is a Northern Thai word. It means love.
The organisation was founded in Chiang Mai by Boom Mosby and grew from direct work with children in crisis into something larger: changing how Thailand’s institutions respond when a child is harmed. The HUG Project is a project of the Family Connection Foundation.
- Our vision
- A world in which children live free from sexual harm.
- Our mission
- Prevent, protect, and restore child victims of sexual abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking.
Our values
- A victim-centric approach
- We place the well-being of the victim as first priority.
- Trust
- We value and honour our relational commitments to our partners and clients.
- Harmony
- We pursue consistency between laws designed to protect children, and the manner in which those laws are enforced.
Long-term strategy
- Effective child protection protocols
- Developing child protection models in Thailand that are efficient, sustainable, and reproducible throughout Southeast Asia.
- Transnational collaboration
- Building partnerships around the world, confronting a global crisis of child exploitation with global cooperation.
- Applied technology
- Providing law enforcement with the technology, tools, and training needed to fight sexual crime against children that is increasingly committed online.
From casework to the system
In 2016, HUG became a founding partner of TICAC, the Royal Thai Police task force on Internet Crimes Against Children, bringing victim-centred practice into live investigations. That partnership produced Thailand’s first Children’s Advocacy Center: one place where police, medical staff, prosecutors, social workers, and counsellors come to the child, so the child tells their account once.
Five advocacy centers now operate across Thailand. HUG also works through TATIP (Thailand Anti-Trafficking in Persons) and CACT (Child Advocacy Centers of Thailand) to strengthen child protection nationally and across the region.
An internet safety assembly at a partner school.
