Free Bird Cafe is a charity cafe in Chiang Mai, Thailand serving delicious, healthy, vegan and vegetarian food. We specialize in Western breakfasts and local Thai, Shan and Burmese lunch items complimented with raw, vegan desserts and a whole array of smoothies, fresh juices and coffees. We have an on site donation center where we collect and distribute clothing and household items where they are needed most. Our little cafe is the main and only constant support of our community learning center upstairs, www.ThaiFreedomHouse.org (open since 2005) where we educate and nurture refugees from Burma and minority groups in Thailand. We welcome 50 students per term, 7 days a week and teach 5 languages and the arts with vocation and health trainings every term. We also have weekly computer skills, geography and traditional dance classes. We host volunteers from all over the world in our volunteer program that offer support in a variety of ways including IT, social media or graphic design support, curriculum development, fundraising, PR, events organization and donation distribution and also teaching in our classes, vocational trainings or workshops. We do a lot with a little, keeping our overhead down with only 2 full time staff to manage all of our on-site and off-site programs and volunteers. We rely on the kindness and generosity of the public to support our projects so we can keep spreading the Happiness and encouragement to people who have suffered so much and bringing them into a brighter, lighter, more fulfilling future. Please support our cause by attending our 5th Birthday party of Free Bird Cafe if you are in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Sat, June 17 or DONATE to our cause online here, you can consider it a birthday gift :) http://thaifreedomhouse.org/become-a-member/ We appreciate all shares and likes of this video as we would LOVE to see it go all around the world and inspire others! Thank you, Thai Freedom House family. x LEARN MORE ABOUT US HERE: https://www.facebook.com/ThaiFreedomHouseCM https://www.facebook.com/FreeBirdCafe https://twitter.com/FreeBirdCafe http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293917-d1821390-Reviews-Free_Bird_Cafe-Chiang_Mai.html http://www.thaifreedomhouse.org Please read this comment from our Director Lisa Nesser about the making of the video: If you knew the individual stories of each person in this video; the Burmese refugees, the Thai minority people, the volunteers from around the world, the interns from our community, the staff, the customers in our charity cafe Free Bird Cafe, you would be moved to tears. Each and every one of us has personal struggles, hardships and challenges whether it be competing for a scholarship to go to University when you have no other option, losing a loved one, escaping from an impoverished, dangerous war zone, dealing with a loved one in substance abuse, leaving behind everything that you know to go and live in another place, getting out of bed with a broken heart, facing racism and discrimination, fighting in the struggle to love ourselves, to raise funds for a cause that we are passionate about, sometimes it can all seem so overwhelming. Each of us struggles everyday, in our own way, not one less or more worthy than the other. What is most important for our survival is how we overcome those struggles, being there for each other to witness and share and help to come through on the other side. Sometimes you just need to dance like no one is looking, you need to shout at the top of your lungs and cheer each other on, even in a crowded, sweltering room in the middle of a political crisis, sometimes you just need to let it all out. If you had felt the heat in that room, been close enough to sweat on each other and heard the celebratory shouts of our students and volunteers, you would know what LIFE and SURVIVAL sounds like. Every time that I see the breakdown part of this video and I see how hard and with how much LOVE and LIFE that we all danced, I have renewed hope for our future. This video isn't just about celebrating the 5th Birthday of Free Bird Cafe or garnering support for Thai Freedom House, it is about inspiring people to live to the fullest, no matter what is bringing you down. It has become bigger than all of us and I hope that you take a moment to watch it, be inspired, share it with those that you love and SPREAD THE LOVE. Thank you, now.... DANCE! ... eternally grateful to Pharrell Williams for the inspiration of this video and our volunteer Ellie Greenwood from New Zealand for editing the crazy footage that Lisa shot :)

• published: 10 Jun 2014
• views: 32