50 feet from the Thai border and minutes away from being trafficked.
Sexual abuse of children is one of the most important and horrifying issues facing Cambodia today. Responding to it requires action on the part of all segments of society - police, judiciary, community leaders and organizations, and the general public. Cambodia serves as an origin, transit and destination country for the trafficking of people.
Victims are sent to Malaysia or Thailand for labour or the sex trade. Children are sent to Bangkok or Vietnam to beg in the streets. All this in addition to an already devastating domestic trade in women and children for sex and other forms of exploitation.
At Ratanak International we have always believed that we need to be balanced in our approach to child sex slavery. We need to work to rescue those helpless children sold in to this dark underworld, but we also need to be very active working to prevent kids being trafficked in the first place. To that end Ratanak International has funded a wonderful Child trafficking prevention program at the community level in many rural villages from where the kids are sold.
This very successful ongoing program run at the community and village level now operates in most border provinces. This program works to educate, enable, and strengthen children and their families regarding the perils of trafficking. It serves to educate communities regarding the methods used by human traffickers, and there are intervention and follow up strategies for those who have already been abused or trafficked. Advocacy, speaking up for and with these children, is essential - to plant the seed of change within this country and beyond. Exponential growth in the impact of this program has been noted as a result of the dedication and good work of the trained volunteers.
This is a low-key indigenous program where westerners are not directly involved. The sense of pride and ownership expressed by the Cambodian program staff is clear in their actions and enthusiasm.
Post revolutionary Cambodia has no clue about the concept of basic human rights. There is no understanding of the value of a child or any other human being for that mater. The rules of survival are all that matter. There is no understanding of what "child trafficking" actually is. In this context traffickers can move into villages and buy kids from desperately poor parents with ease. We were astonished to find the practice of selling kids even within the church. Pastors hearing about the problem of "trafficking" would stare in disbelief and comment how they also had delivered children to the "nice white men" who seemed so friendly and who gave money to the kids! We realized that many Cambodian Church pastors were particularly vulnerable since their only exposure to white males had been missionaries who served and loved the people. It was hard for them to come to terms with the fact that there were seriously evil Caucasians in Cambodia also.
So a teaching program was developed to educate first the church and then the wider community regarding these issues. The training consists of a four day course. Covering topics such as: What is trafficking? Who are the victims? Is trafficking illegal? Why are children trafficked? Traffickers Strategy, Law and human rights, The biblical view of the law, Child protection strategies, and Understanding God's heart for Children.
The response has been overwhelming. Thousands of people have now been trained in the churches and have a whole new understanding of the problems and the solutions. Parents and pastors alike have stood up at the end of the course and acknowledged there have been children sold in their own communities and have committed to working with others to prevent such sales. Groups of women who previously sold their children, and even encouraged others to do so, now have committed to defend kids. Even one previous trafficker has renounced such activity. These are no idle words. 
When program teachers have returned to villages months later, they are told about course participants going from house to house teaching, and groups of women talking to women about not selling children.
Although intended as a training and awareness program to prevent the future sale and trafficking of children it has, on occasion, become very active. There are times when pastors, church workers and villagers leave the class and go directly to intervene and rescue children who are in the process of being sold. 25 children have been saved as a direct result of the instructors and students intervening in child sales during the course. It is hard to get more concrete results than that!
The child trafficking prevention program is currently active in 13 of the 23 Cambodian provinces. To date 683 volunteer trainers are active. They have trained 21,140 community members.
Such activity by local pastors has become noticed by village chiefs and government social workers. They are now asking for this training. They are encouraged to join the courses, provided they take the whole course - including the portions on the Biblical value of a child! This course is having an incredible impact empowering villagers to protect their kids and developing community pride in the value they themselves have.
There is, however, opposition and persecution by some in power who obviously view this as a threat. Bravery and wisdom is therefore required by those who run and teach the program. Those who attend the courses require strength. On occasion they are subjected to intimidation. But even with such stresses there is encouragement. In one location those who came to intimidate ended up staying for the course and seemed quite interested!
This program teaches dignity, self worth and community protection skills. It has been very well received throughout Cambodia and continues to expand. While never forcing any spiritual agenda, this program's desire is to see a holistic transformation of lives and to bring healing, freedom and hope through faith in Jesus Christ.
"I am overwhelmed by the daily hell (a term I do not use lightly) experienced by these children and have no idea how they survive as long as they do. Yet, I am stubborn in my belief that here, there can be hope. I remain convinced that the penetrating light of Christ can punch holes even in this darkness. This is not a time to be passive -- it is a time to roll up our sleeves and climb down into the muck at the bottom of the barrel -- just as Christ would do."
Brian McConaghy, 2005.
NewSong is a rehabilitation centre for approximately 60 little girls who have been rescued from various brothels throughout Cambodia. The compound is a 'safe house' in a secluded and undisclosed location with great attention being paid to the security of the kids.
The kids undergo an intensive trauma-counseling program with physical and psychological rehabilitation. This is followed by reintegration with their family (if they have a family and the security of the child can be assured), or placement within a carefully chosen foster home or transitional program.
As well as part of the rehabilitation process, NewSong teaches the girls to be children again. They have toys, games and school. For many of them it will be the first time experiencing these things. While at NewSong they are taught to trust their adult caregivers who are ethnic Khmer or Vietnamese, like them. Trust is no small thing, as they have absolutely no concept of trusting any adults. These children have experienced the very worst the world's adults have to offer. Our hope is that through the long process of rehabilitation, love, acceptance, nurture, tenderness and compassion they will also encounter a Carpenter of years ago who would never abuse them but would (and did) sacrifice his life to protect them.
The Kids
The children of the Cambodian brothels have no concept of the security or self worth that we, in the West, take to be normal. They are traumatized, physically injured, disoriented and sadly, many feel totally dependant on and have become 'bonded' with the pimps that so abuse them. Some have been sold across the border from Vietnam and so are considered stateless. Such children have no concept of compassion, trust, belonging or identity.
Girls sold as slaves into the brothels are expected to service 8-10 adult males per night and 50 - 60 over a weekend. Failure to meet such quotas can result in beating or electrocution. To enhance performance many girls are drugged on methamphetamines - leading to their addiction. Girls, old enough to get pregnant, are subjected to frequent 'back alley' abortions. The number of assaults endured by these girls frequently is counted in the thousands!
The psychological issues for all these girls are massive. The staff must cope with all the issues the girls bring - and they are many. The road to anything resembling a normal life for these kids is a long and torturous one. The staff need wisdom, patience, compassion, calmness and hope as they help the girls process all the depravity and hurt that has been inflicted upon them.
Ongoing health assessments paint a picture of the physical condition of the girls. One sampling of 14 girls indicated that nine had severe dental problems, and three were in need of glasses just to see, let alone read - this is the result of malnutrition. HIV and Syphilis were, of course, issues. One of the girls had even been shot in the right side of the head, with the bullet having been previously retrieved from her skull. There are no medical records, so her treatment was a frightening mystery. When interviewed she was assessed as slightly mentally challenged with a speech impediment. She was described by the interviewer as "a beautiful girl and very tender".
It is for such as these that we work, and for whom Christ died.
Getting Started
A year of planning was needed before any concrete action could be taken regarding NewSong. This area of ministry is not something you get involved in lightly. In July 2005, the team that would set up the rehabilitation centre arrived in Cambodia. The office was set up; all agreements with the Cambodian Government were put in place and a location chosen. A staff selection process was undertaken and team building and training started. (The staff, counselors and social workers are all ethnic Khmer or Vietnamese. The primary care givers and the physicians, loaned to us by other NGOs, are all female.)
In late August NewSong opened it's doors. Given that these children are considered stolen "product" the security issues are very significant. On opening day, the staff of the centre were informed that they would receive twelve girls, several of whom were particularly valuable to the brothel owners, thus representing a higher security risk. The security of the centre was ramped up several days before their arrival, and all waited with anticipation, hoping the planned procedures would deliver the kids in secret. There was no room for error and no chance for practice runs. Everything would have to work perfectly first time around.
As it happened, everything went flawlessly, and all the girls arrived in the centre safe and undetected by their pimps. The only real surprise of the day was the fact that fourteen girls rather than twelve arrived. Stations were set up in the centre for the girls to visit. In each one, several staff members would introduce themselves and carefully talk to them, reassure them, and record different information. Photos were taken and a file opened on each child. These files would later contain information regarding their medical treatment, counseling, family background (if known) etc. The age range that first day turned out to be larger than anticipated, which brought with it some unanticipated challenges. They ranged from eight years old all the way up to aged seventeen. Some had been sold locally, some were Vietnamese sold across the border. All had experienced trauma beyond anything we can really comprehend. The staff took them around the building carefully introducing them to their new home. There was much excitement among the girls and staff alike. It was blissful chaos! Yet there were no illusions that the real work was about to begin. There would be huge challenges associated with rebuilding such shattered young lives, lives that have never known trust, never experienced kindness, never been treated with respect, never spoken to in tenderness, never hugged for the right reason, with no families, no papers, no hope. This will not be an easy project!
How does one teach such children that they are valuable?
The staff wasted no time. That first evening a tradition was started for new arrivals. A dinner was held in the girl's honour by all the staff. They were served with good nutritious food. One by one each child was brought up to the front, formally welcomed and presented with a poster of herself. (These had been hurriedly created by the staff using the intake photos earlier in the day.) Each poster stated they were a blessing and precious to God. There was much applause for each child. It must have warmed Gods heart to see such kids being honoured and loved.
The intention was to shut the centre down for several months, after this first intake, so all the administrative bugs could be worked out. But this was not to be. Other organizations were desperate to place girls that they had under surveillance, or had recovered but had nowhere to keep them. So when they heard NewSong was open the requests for placements came flying in. Very quickly the overwhelmed staff of NewSong Center had 30 girls. The intake speed was reduced and as the weeks progressed small groups of additional kids, three or four at a time, were welcomed into the center to be loved and cared for.
The Spiritual Component!
The NewSong centre was started as a secular project. After all, we were to be taking over legal custody of Cambodian minors from the Cambodian Government so it was appropriate that we honour the Cambodian officials, build relationships with them in a professional work context and above all else be honourable and act with honesty and integrity.
Obviously we are not interested in manipulating any of these vulnerable kids into the Christian faith. We want to love them whatever their context. We did however want to be purposeful in our love and tenderness towards them and have been diligent in prayer for them. To this end all our carefully chosen staff are Christian and we hoped that, in time, the kids would be interested in asking why we wanted to help them.
The government officials recognized the legitimacy of the work of the NewSong staff. They, after being originally suspicious, are now totally at ease with the integrity of our work and the care of the kids. They have given permission to NewSong staff to fully and freely address all the girls' questions and minister to those who want to hear the gospel. Thus, with openness and honesty, the staff has been able to share with the girls why they are valuable and why we love them. This ultimately is a spiritual issue.
Encountering the Carpenter King
Rehabilitation, physically, psychologically and spiritually is no easy thing when it comes to such kids. They had been "destroyed" in so many ways. The work of medicine and psychology can certainly assist and go a long way to recover a life. But real rehabilitation is, we believe, a deeper thing.
Our desire is that these girls could encounter a man who is strong, self assured and confident - the kind of man who initially would be quite frightening to them. But, on getting to know him, they would find that he, rather than assaulting them as so many other men have, he would protect them, and he would even be willing to be assaulted instead of them. This is true because we know he went farther - he died for them.
How do you relate to Christ?
He was born into poverty. He was a refugee child fleeing his country with his family on threat of death. He returned to his country to a life of hard labour (carpentry 2000 years ago was hard labour). He tells us he had no home to lay his head. He was hunted and harassed by officials. They eventually caught him, beat him, tortured him, mocked him, shamed him and killed him.
Can you relate to this life?
Do you think the girls at NewSong can relate to his life? I suspect the kids we serve understand Christ's life at a far deeper level than Western Christians do!
So how does Christ assist in rehabilitation? He understands beatings, shame, abandonment and persecution. He represents the father figure these girls could only dream of. He offers the stateless, trafficked child citizenship in his kingdom - He offers belonging. He tells us he has gone to prepare them a home perfect for them. Most importantly he offers them the title of child of the King. A daughter of the King is, you guessed it, a princess! So children who are worthless to the world, sold and abused; a product, can know they are priceless, beautiful, loved and honoured.
Armed with these amazing truths rehabilitation is very possible. In fact, after much work and the struggle of in-depth counseling the Carpenter King can, and does, offer new and restored life, not otherwise possible.
Does the NewSong Rehabilitation Work?
When we first conceived of a safe and secret rehabilitation centre, where girls rescued from sex slavery in the brothels of Cambodia, could go we had high hopes. The risks were huge, the burden heavy and the stakes for the lives involved didn't get any higher. There was absolutely no guarantee that we would see any substantial change in the well being of the kids we wanted to help. Yet we were driven by the dream of rebuilding lives that had been consigned to a life of almost unimaginable torture.
We have seen our hopes and dreams blessed with success. Many examples of new life come from NewSong. Older girls have reintegrated back into society starting small businesses and being involved in their local churches. Younger girls, with great bravery, have travelled overseas to face their torturers in foreign courts resulting in profound testimony and leading to conviction. Many of the girls at NewSong, at their own request, are part of ministry teams that go back to the brothels where they were victimized to assist and teach younger children who live in the shadow of being sold.
Few specific stories have come out of the NewSong Centre. This is not because there have not been many wonderful stories, but rather because we are limited to general comments by very strict and appropriate security protocols, by which the girls are kept safe. The circumstances of one of the girls allows for her story to be shared here.
Sannaya she is one of the older ones and, like the others, is a precious example of our hopes, dreams and answered prayers. Here is her story from the NewSong staff:
Sannaya is one of the quietest, sweetest girls that live at the NewSong Centre. She came to live here in August of 2006. She came to us from another centre, timid, scared and so sad because her best friend, whom she had known for years, was not transferred with her. She came filled with overwhelming (and unwarranted) shame for what had happened to her. But as the days and weeks went by we saw a lovely transformation, the true Sannaya blossomed and grew in the unconditional love of Jesus, as it was lived out for her by the staff.
She never knew her mom. Her dad had many wives who had many children. She was raised in many households in Cambodia and Thailand. When she was 14 her grandmother in Thailand allowed her to travel to Cambodia with a "guide". Once over the border they stopped at a "hotel" in Poipet (a town known for being wild and dangerous) that was crowded with "drunk, and messy people" that scared her. The guide told her he would take her to a safe place, but instead took her to a guesthouse and raped her over and over again. He then would take her back and forth over the Thai/Cambodian border and sell her to other men who savagely raped her. During one trip she saw her grandmother and asked her for help, but was refused. When an opportunity for escape presented itself she ran to the Thai police and told them what was happening to her. The police gathered her and a group of girls caught in the same situation and brought them to Cambodia and Sannaya was taken to NewSong.
She had never heard about Jesus before coming to NewSong. But here she learned she wasn't a "Dirty Girl" and what happened to her was not her fault. She learned that God values children, and He wants them protected and cared for. She learned she could have hope, a future and a good life. She learned she was smart, teachable and more than anything else God himself thought she was "to die for".
This past October, she was interviewed for a position with World Relief to work in their Anti-Trafficking Program. It's hard to imagine such a large organization would even consider one of the traumatized NewSong girls as possible future staff. And not just an ordinary staff member, rather to actually be an educator to her society about the very trafficking that had so victimized her. It was a long process consisting of tests and an interview. The Director of the program said she was very quiet offering only one word answers. This would be expected from a girl that had been through what Sannaya had survived. He thought, "Aw, nope. She's not going to make the cut." Then he asked her two last questions. "We're a Christian organization. What do you think about Jesus?" The silent Sannaya evaporated! "Oh I know very much about Jesus and His love for me. Before I came to NewSong, I never hear anything about Him. But I learned He loves me and died for me. He has a plan for my life, He loves me and He is in my heart!" [Yes....that's our girl!!] Then he asked her a very sensitive question. "If you do this work, would you be able to tell people your story, all that happened to you?" "Oh yes, I can. I want to tell everyone what happened to me, so no little girl will ever have to have the pain and hurt I had." Bingo...hired!
It's a brave courageous campaign she is on. In Cambodian culture there is a huge stigma against her because of what happened to her. To many people in Cambodia she is nothing but garbage, a dirty girl, good for nothing. But she is going forth in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to educate parents, grandparents and children about the "trickery" that Satan uses to steal the innocence and health of young children.
Sannaya has been on staff 3 months now and the Director is very happy with her progress. However, this is a difficult transition back out into the world. Please pray for her young faith and for her protection as she takes on battles that would scare many of the more mature among us.
Going farther - Return to Svay Pak
Evidence of the success of the NewSong Centre continues to grow in the individual lives of the girls that live there, but there are other powerful indications of the impact of this program. The project has branched out and gone back to Svay Pak the brothel district where many of the NewSong girls were enslaved in the brothels. One notorious brothel that was the subject of rescue raids and that became one of Brian McConaghy's crime scenes has been transformed into a centre of ministry and blessing right in the middle of the brothels. This has been done with the full participation of some of the NewSong girls that were previously rescued from this location. For more on this powerful story read our newsletter from the Fall of 2008.
For years, Brian McConaghy, the founder of Ratanak International, was aware of the sexual exploitation of children by both Westerners and Asians in Cambodia. It was an issue that appalled him, but one with which he had no direct contact. That all changed in 2004 when he, then still a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was asked to participate in a criminal investigation involving children of the brothels in S.E. Asia. This was his first "face to face" encounter with the dark world of child sex trafficking in Cambodia.
For the first time, Brian was confronted by the faces of little girls, as young as 6, being assaulted on videotaped evidence. These children were no longer statistics. They were no longer abstract. They were very very real and their images changed Brian's life. Despite feeling totally overwhelmed by the circumstances of these children, the scale of the child sex slavery problem and the dangers of this criminal trafficking world, Brian was determined to respond.
NewSong is the response. This project enables us to confront a world where the oppression is tangible, the darkness overwhelming and where even hope is beyond the grasp of the little ones who exist in its terrifying grip.
The Context
The Khmer Rouge revolution, subsequent Vietnamese invasion, international isolation and civil war left Cambodian society in tatters. Few social, family and moral structures survived. Into this societal vacuum came profound poverty. Under these circumstances, desperate parents, would sell children or perhaps unwittingly send them off with traffickers who promised employment and an income. In a culture already numbed by violence and only an embryonic legal system in place, such children are unprotected and subject to terrible abuse and over time, this sad situation has become commonplace in this broken society. An environment where children are bought and sold, where no limits are placed on the degree of abuse and where few legal restraints exist will attract and encourage the very worst forms of human behavior. The AIDS epidemic accelerated the disaster. Children, left orphaned, could be sold by neighbours, friends, police officers and extended family members. Those seeking "safe sex" pursue younger and younger girls who are felt to be less diseased. (Cambodian folklore teaches that an AIDS infected man can be cured by having sex with a young, "clean" virgin. The implications of such thinking are absolutely devastating.)
The Cambodian situation is now well known internationally and attracts scores of depraved predators in the form of wealthy sex tourists and pedophiles, who fly into Cambodia to take full advantage of the poverty and wreak their havoc, adding immeasurably to the suffering. Brothels are now commonplace, young women and girls as young as five years of age are held captive to be abused daily. Many corrupt police and officials turn a blind eye - or worse.
The NewSong Name
The "NewSong" project is named after two little girls, Nhu and Sung. Sung turned up in the first sex assault videos Brian viewed in that first investigation. She subsequently appeared in an undercover surveillance tape recorded by a Christian organization involved in the rescue of such children. She is a lovely looking child with the largest eyes but what really caught Brian's attention was that she wore a cross around her neck. This is not typical in Cambodia. She was never rescued.
Nhu is a little girl who appeared on a DVD produced by missionaries in Cambodia. She was being interviewed outside a school that had been set up in the Vietnamese slums of Phnom Penh. The interview was short but very engaging. She looked at the camera on several occasions with a penetrating stare. She spoke of her poverty, thanked those watching for supporting her school, asked for prayer that she would continue to be strong and follow Jesus. It was wonderful to find that she was a Christian. It was also encouraging that; unlike Sung she was safe and had a future. However, after the interview her family sold her too. After two years of searching she was found and now works with another Christian NGO seeking to assist such kids.
The above image shows a poem found on a wall of a 'rape cubicle', below, is the poem in english.
"There is a happy time, and then it ends
There is love, but for a short time and only in front of my face
Men boast we are pretty, but they are not honest with us
We boast we are pretty while we wear make up
No one knows it, but we are like petals falling from a flower
The only beauty we have is spiritual
Life is just life, it has no meaning"
In 2002, Brian McConaghy was asked to assist in the investigation of a Canadian pedophile who was charged with sex crimes against seven young Asian girls. This investigation turned out to be Canada's first ever conviction under Canada's sex tourism act. It was these first seven children that forever changed Brian's life and ignited Ratanak International's long struggle against sex slavery in Cambodia.
As part of our response, Ratanak International funds several Foster Care homes through our partner agency, Hagar. The Foster Care program provides a safe, stable, long term, Christian family environment for ethnic Vietnamese kids rescued from the brothels. Our desire is that such victims will not only recover but will know a well-adjusted and balanced family environment. Our goal is that their lives would be whole, and even joyful, as they move toward life as independent adults.
We are absolutely thrilled that five of the original seven victims of the Canadian pedophile that first came to Brian's attention are receiving care through this Foster Care program along with other children. It is with a wonderful sense of having come full circle, that we participate in the healing of the girls that first broke our hearts. We never thought we would even find them, yet now we are privileged to care for them. God is good!
Project Summary
To provide high quality, long term specialized care for girls aged 4-14 years who have been rescued from sexual abuse and exploitative situations, in a strong, family style, community based, secure home environment where the girls can be nurtured through the adjustments associated with community integration and where they can receive educational assistance and guidance regarding their goals.
The girls are provided legal representation and supported through the court process related to their files and protected from as much of the associated trauma as possible.
The program is subject to independent third party evaluations and the results are used to fine tune and improve the program.
Physical health
Given some of the implications of their previous abuse, the girls are carefully assessed medically, and their weight and growth charted monthly. On occasion the medical assessments are delayed because the trauma associated with medical examination is too great. Under such circumstances, the staff tenderly allay the girls' fears of the doctor, to allow this assessment to take place. The girls who were originally trafficked from rural areas have not had any immunizations. The Foster Home project includes an ongoing immunization program. Initial dental assessments are followed up by either the required treatment or a subsequent annual examination.
Education
Children progress in their education as exhibited by exam pass rates. 95% of children who study at school passed to the next grade. This is an improvement from last year. The girls are very committed to their study.
Emotional Psychological Health
Some of the children struggle with their behaviour. This relates directly to the amount of traumatic experiences in the past. Such trauma affects both their behaviour and their social interaction. The counsllors do extra therapy sessions with these girls regularly.
Trust is developed between counseling staff and the girls, facilitating fruitful counseling sessions as indicated by case files. Individual care plans are set and reviewed every 3 months. The children are all involved in this plan along with their counselor, social worker, teacher and house mother. We achieved 60% of the goals set in these plans. Individual case files show that children in counseling improve on relevant tests (ie. Anxiety Tests, Impact of Events Scale, Trauma Assessment, etc.) The majority of the girls show positive behaviour change in the first year as they grow both physical and mentally. The older girls demonstrate the ability to help the little ones who feel upset by encouraging and comforting them. They learn to share with each other and to help solve problems.
Spiritual
The girls are encouraged to become involved in both sport activities and the local community church where they learn to integrate in a safe and structured environment which acts as a bridge to full integration in the greater community.
All children have the opportunity to participate in regular bible study in the home if they wish.
Highlights
- 14 girls were admitted to the program during this period.
- Two girls (along with five girls from NewSong Centre) had the courage to finish their court case in the US. It was extremely hard for them as they had to recount in detail the abuse they had suffered, in the presence of the abuser. They were very scared; however, they did very well. Largely because of their testimony this pedophile was sentenced 210 years in imprisonment.
- 13 older girls are showing signs of successfully integrating within the local community. They regularly attend local church and have joined in the church picnic in Kampot province and are integrating within the broader community.
- Media: Four girls chose to be involved in a Dateline Documentary which told the story of their healing and growth since their rescue in 2003.
- The Lotus Dance is a performance written and performed by some of the girls. The dance represents their experience of being abused and exploited, to now experiencing healing and wholeness and being able to dream of a future once again.
- Several girls aged 7-12 years old attended a 4 day children's camp at the beach town of Kampong Som. That was a time for them to relax and participate with other children.
- All of the children had a great time celebrating at the Christmas party and each of them received a personal gift.
Case Study
Srey* is 17 years old and is now studying in grade 8 at a private Cambodian school. She has great potential for her future. She comes from a family of 4 children and has an older sister, and a younger brother and sister. Her younger sister now lives in the foster home after Srey requested that she come to live with her as she was worried for her safety. Her parents are divorced because of domestic violence and alcohol problems.
Srey came to live in Foster care in 2005. She was raped by her father and he had plans in place to sell her to work in a Phnom Penh karaoke bar. When her older sister knew of this, she took Srey to a human rights organisation who, in turn, asked that Srey be placed in the foster care program.
In the beginning, it was hard for Srey living in the Foster home. She felt no one loved her or cared about her. Even her father, whom she loved, did "the worst things" to her. She had no trust in people around her.
However, now Srey has a house mother who cares for her and she enjoys the regular therapy sessions with her counselor. She feels loved now, and she is able to value herself and others. She is growing into a beautiful, vibrant, intelligent, young lady who will one day be a responsible adult. She wants to study at university after finishing high school. She would like to be a translator in a company.
*Not her real name, name has been changed for confidentiality.
Demonstrating Care and Practical Help to Trafficking Victims
General Information
This project seeks to bring healing, holistic restoration, and hope to lives of sexually exploited girls who are currently sex-workers by providing a platform for transition out of the brothels into normal community life.
We offer them opportunities for life-style changes, through a range of activities, and services designed to empower the girls with the courage to step out of the abusive circumstances and people they have, tragically, become bonded and enslaved to. Then we provide the resources to assist them in making sustained healthy choices for their lives. Our desire is that we would assist in building self-worth and dignity into their lives, by showing respect and care for them and through meeting their needs in practical, medical, emotional/psychological and spiritual ways. In so doing we seek to demonstrate the freedom available in Christian love. In all aspects of this program we seek to introduce components of beauty, dignity and self worth to girls who have never confronted any of these.
Historical/Economic Information
The commercial sexual exploitation of children and young women in Cambodia has escalated over the last decade, into what is now an 'industry' utilized by foreign visitors (9% Caucasian, 42% Asian) and by a large domestic market (49%, IOM, 2007), involving both male and female victims, spanning the age range. A combination of factors are involved in a girl being trafficked (Cambodian Government statistics indicate 90% of girls are knowingly sold by families) and some of these factors also serve to maintain enslavement in the sex industry, once there. In particular, maintaining factors include; cultural expectation of the child as wage earner; debts, materialism or gambling habits on the part of the parents; loss of marriage prospects; lack of alternative wage-earning prospects; shame and stigma from community if the girl returned home.
The Transition Life Skills program reaches victims of trafficking, who are still in the sex-industry, and is aimed at providing help and opportunity to leave the brothels. A drop-in day centre opened its doors January 1st 2007 in Stung Mean Chey, close to where many sex workers live and work. It is a safe-haven for the girls to receive medical treatment, therapeutic help and other services to meet various needs, to build self-esteem through loving nurture, to provide choices for alternative lifestyles, and to have the love of God ministered into their lives. Several innovative small business schemes have been started, providing employment with on-the-job training, since the chief maintaining factor disabling girls from leaving the sex-industry is the need to earn a wage to support family. Since starting these businesses in mid-2007, and the addition of the program's own retail store in Phnom Penh, girls have been leaving the brothels to join us full-time in steady numbers. Since January 2008, around 3 girls a week were joining and currently in 2010 there are around 70 clients at the day centre on any given work day. The businesses are in the early stages of training and marketing, but are planned to be self-sustaining in the future. Around 80% of the clients are employed in the sewing room, creating fashion accessories, home furnishings, and clothing. Girls are provided with a salary from the time they first join the scheme, to enable them to stop sex work. Residential accommodation is also provided for girls who leave the brothel; most sex workers are reluctant to live in a shelter due to loss of freedom. We have established community-based accommodation for them.
Description Of Beneficiaries
This project focuses on girls who are current sex workers. Age range is 12 up to 30. Typically they are uneducated and come from poor and dysfunctional families who live off their earnings, and who have usually been instrumental in selling the girls in the first place. Sex workers are the most outcast sector of society in Cambodia, and have huge stigma in the local community; they have little chance of getting married or finding another job and changing their lives. They are generally despised.
All of these girls come after having heard from their peers about what we can offer. At first, girls come to the drop in centre where they are exposed to a normalized social environment, where they are shown respect and encouragement. 
Initially, drop in workshops focus on hairdressing and makeup application. It is in this fun environment, while getting their nails or hair done, that they start to build trust that will eventually give them the courage to leave the life of oppression and abuse that they have grown accustomed to. The drop-in centre also provides a program for very young children who live in the brothels, usually children of the sex workers or other children who are being raised by brothel owners. The children are aged between 18 months and 12 years and do not attend school. The program is aimed at intervening in the futures of these children by enabling them to achieve a different outcome for their lives through educational opportunities and psychological empowerment.
The Spiritual Component
The Transition Life Skills program has flourished into the creation of a church which has functioned at the drop in centre since August 2007. This is a way of taking care of more than just physical needs but rather extending the work of the Gospel. Attendance is voluntary, not compulsory, but at present the majority of girls attend by choice and most girls have become Christians. The church teaches worship, Bible foundations and discipleship life-style, and also provides prayer ministry opportunities. At present, around 35 girls attend.
In addition to centre-based services, a mobile outreach service is provided, offering medical treatment, and various creative activities within the brothels in order to make contact with new clients, and to invite the brothel owners to Daughters Church. This is a sector of society that does not hear the Gospel ordinarily, and this is in fulfillment of the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Matthew 28:19).
Current Activities
We reach out to girls trapped and working as sex workers, in order to show them the love of Jesus, meet their needs on a range of levels and in practical ways, and offer them opportunities of leaving the sex industry.
Offered is a multi-level range of programs, to help girls at differing stages:
- Outreach Services in the brothels to build relationships with new girls, offering medical treatment, and various activities designed to give them respite from their traumatic situations and generate hope.
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Centre activities include an in-house medical treatment clinic, showers, HIV testing, therapy and trauma treatment/counseling, literacy classes, and a range of First-Step programs for providing fun, respite, and building relationships, including: jewelry-making, card-making, games, hair and beauty class, hip hop dance, Khmer dance, drama, group-therapy, and other creative/fun outlets according to trainer availability.
- Weekly 'Caring for Myself' workshops are offered to all girls, including education in relationship/conflict resolution, domestic violence, drug treatment, health/hygiene, parenting skills and other life skills.
- Vocational /small businesses providing salaried skilled jobs. Girls
wishing to leave the sex industry may join a small business, receive training and are given a salary from the day they join. These small businesses currently include hand-sewn products and hand-crafted jewelry which are exported internationally as fair trade items. Silk screen printed products are also being created and marketed. The girls are learning baking/cooking skills and spa skills. Both the products created and cooking/spa skills are being utilized in the new shop which opened in 2010. The shop provides job opportunities for clients as well as a place to showcase their products which were previously only exported for sale. The shop also houses an exhibition center that is the first of its kind, sharing with tourists and locals about the realities of sex trafficking in Cambodia.
The clients will run a women's spa located on the retail level and a cafe on the top floor. Ratanak UK has been involved in the start up of the shop, spa, and exhibition centre with hopes that it will provide a means for sustainable income for this project and the girls being employed.
- Girls who leave the sex industry are offered housing options within a reintegration situation. We are able to provide safe, free housing in individual flats in the local community, or in their own homes; the choice is the girl's. We have a team of social workers who do follow-up in the girls' domestic situations and families, and the girls live a normal life in the community but with support. The centre does not provide meals, instead the girls receive salaries so that girls learn responsibility for their own lives and finances rather than NGO dependence. We do, however, provide fruit every day as a way of boosting nutritional input.
- Counseling and therapeutic services are provided to all girls upon request. A medical clinic is also provided to meet medical needs.
- Church services are held every week. The girls can attend if they wish, and brothel owners are also invited. Worship, bible teaching and ministry take place each week, and the majority of girls attend and have become Christians. 14 girls were recently baptized.
- A kids' program is also provided for young children who live in the brothels, including literacy and life-skills education in order to intervene in their lives and change the future likelihood that they will also become sex-workers or pimps.
In 2007, Ratanak International funded the establishment of a job skills training centre for those wanting to get into the hotel, restaurant business. It was set up by a well known and established business academy run by Christians. In our efforts to attack all aspects of sexual exploitation, it was clear that we needed to assist in the provision of job skills that would lead to employment, community integration and financial independence.
While operating under a business license, this training centre is designed to be of assistance to those leaving a life of exploitation and abuse, as well as those who fall into the category of "youth at risk". The tuition from the regular paying students is designed to supplement or even cover the costs of those students discretely placed in the program by the NewSong and other rehabilation and after care centres.
This is a very successful program - the graduates are being snapped up by NGOs, hotels and businesses.
Above: First Grads from the Training Academy.