Catalog

NGO Gives New Lives to Victims of Trafficking
ADB Review [ January - February 2004 ]

By David Kruger (dkruger@adb.org)
External Relations Specialist

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

The group has helped over 3,000 women make a new start

About a year ago, Ms. Kimsa left her village to join her sister in Phnom Penh. But after making it to the city, she could not locate her sister and ended up lost and alone at Wat Phnom, a local landmark. There, she met a woman who changed her life forever.

After living at the woman’s house for a month, Ms. Kimsa took a walk one day with the woman’s “niece.” They met a European man.

The next thing Ms. Kimsa remembers clearly, was a meeting 4 months later with representatives of Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances, a nongovernment organization that helps young sex workers in Cambodia, Thailand, and Viet Nam break free from the industry and reintegrate into society.

Ms. Kimsa now lives at the group’s home in Phnom Penh with about 70 other young women rescued from local brothels. At the home, they get counseling and, when ready, training in tailoring, hairdressing, cooking, or agriculture.

Since it was founded in 1997, the group has helped over 3,000 women make a new start, says founder Somaly Mam. In the past 6 years, however, she has seen the rise of two disturbing trends—the use of drugs to keep women, like Ms. Kimsa, subservient, and the falling age of girls sold into prostitution.

“The rich people are afraid of HIV/AIDS so they want virgin girls and to ensure this, the girls have to be very young,” says Ms. Mam. Increasingly, girls under 10 years old are in demand.

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