Project to help Cambodian sex-ploitated children

Project to help Cambodian sex-ploitated children

By ANNIE AUKEMAN

My friend, Antonia Marison, and I are organizing a project to help child victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia. We are currently working with a group of roughly 24 children (mostly girls) in a shelter in Phnom Phen, Cambodia, organizing English classes, art therapy classes, and raising money for schooling.

The problem of trafficking in Cambodia is endemic as a result of severe poverty after decades of bloody civil war. Poor children and young women living in the rural provinces are sold by their families and trafficked to brothels in Phnom Penh where they will work as sex slaves for most of their young lives. There are approximately 10, 000 to 15,000 commercial sex workers in Phnom Penh, of which around 39% are HIV positive. The average age of a trafficked victim is between 12 and 16 years. Prostitution is embedded in Cambodia society, where the old tradition of polygamy is kept alive by men frequenting brothels.

Also, Cambodia has recently acquired a reputation as one of the world’s most popular destinations for sex tourists and, most worryingly, pedophile sex tourism. As AIDS prevention increases, the number of sex workers with HIV is decreasing, however, the tragic irony is that as people become more aware, the demand for younger and younger girls has ballooned. Young girls are deemed clean and disease free irrespective of whether they are virgins or not. However the fact that their bodies are not ready for sex with full-grown men makes them even more susceptible to contracting fatal diseases.

The problems associated with child prostitution are endless, however many local and international NGOs are working hard in stemming these violations. The Cambodian Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights (CCPCR; http://www.humantrafficking.org/organizations/48) is dedicated the prevention and protection of children from trafficking and the rescue and rehabilitation of victims. They conduct many activities and are doing amazing work, yet the future of the children rescued and taken into care still looks bleak.

CCPCR has 4 shelters in Cambodia one of which is in Phnom Penh. There are around 24 children and young women living in the Phnom Penh shelter at any time, all victims of trafficking, sexual abuse or severe domestic violence. They receive life skills training and counseling, however, there is no program of formal education which would help provide future opportunities for them due to fund limitations.

We are proposing to implement a varied education program that will include courses in arts and English within the shelter and help fund public school education for long-term residents and the scholarship of one resident for university. We want to start the English teaching program immediately as the demand for knowledge of English in Cambodia is absolutely essential in almost all employment fields. We would like to hold a month-long jewelry making skills workshop, focused on traditional Khmer culture to help preserve Cambodian cultural heritage that was almost completely lost during the civil war. The jewelry making will provide a therapeutic and creative activity for the residents as they rehabilitate themselves and get over their trauma, and also provide the possibility of generating some income.

We drastically need help with funding for all these activities. Your support we can really make an impact on a few lives and give them some hope for the future. These children had no choice over the poverty and lasting conflict they were born into and subsequently the sale of their bodies, but through our help, perhaps they can have more choice in their futures. Cambodia is still absolutely crippled after years of gruesome civil war which resulted in the loss of around a quarter of the population. To this day, you will not meet a single person who was not directly impacted by the war. With 50 percent of the current population aged 15 and under, the young generation is the hope for this nation that lost everything. If they can learn today, they can change their world tomorrow.

Please consider donating a small sum of money (even $5!) to help us fund this project, and help these children. Some of your donations will go to setting up a website (already in progress) so you can follow and read more about our work. If you donate, please send us an email so we can keep a record of donations and can update you about our activities.

ACTION: to securely donate visit the author’s blog at http://www.annieaukeman.blogspot.com. For more information, email annieaukeman [at] yahoo.com If you'd like to read more about Cambodia and the project, check out Antonia's blog at http://www.antoniamarison.blogspot.com/

Note: The author is the daughter of Modestan, Calvin Aukeman

This article was posted by James Costello (jcostello [at] igc.org) editor of Stanislaus Connections, and is reprinted with permission. See http://stanislausconnections.org.