Daughter of Cambodia project becomes moving CD

Sun., 12.11.11
By Terry Perkins, special to the Beacon
St Louis Beacon (Missouri,USA)

At the beginning of 2011, the Beacon asked me to take a look at three musicians to watch in 2011. Here's a look at what one of them, singer/songwriter Leslie Sanazaro - with the invaluable contributions of another, guitarist Teddy Presberg - accomplished this past year with the "Daughters of Cambodia" project.

According to Sanazaro, the project came into being after she read "Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," a book by New York Times writers Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Sanazaro was deeply affected by the book, which exposed the pervasiveness and brutality of human trafficking and forced prostitution - especially in Southeast Asia.

As she told me during our interview for the earlier article, "I started to think about what I could do as an individual to at least raise awareness about human trafficking of young girls. I hadn't really written songs for about a year, and was actually thinking of taking a break from music. But suddenly song ideas began pouring out, and I decided I had to record a CD, get a tour going, raise awareness for this issue -- and also raise funds to help a school for girls in Cambodia."

“In Cambodia there is so much corruption”: Aussie Actor Tom Oliver

Neighbours actor Tom Oliver is the ambassador for Connecting Hands, a charity that helps Cambodian survivors of the child sex trade. CARMELO BAZZANO N31WH203

Neighbour's actor Tom Oliver's army to rescue

26 Jan 11
By Bridie Byrne
WhiteHorseLeader (Australia)

A CAMBODIAN girl is sold into sexual slavery at the hands of those she trusts.

A man who poses as her grandfather sells her into a life of torture and daily rape.

She is 12 and years later she is brave enough to escape her life after witnessing the murder of her best friend.

She vows to never forget those she left behind.

Somaly Mam is no longer a voiceless victim and has since dedicated her life to saving victims of the sex trade and empowering survivors.

Hillary Clinton pledges support for Cambodian rights victims

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks to a group of girls during a tour of the Siem Reap Center, a shelter run by AFSEIP that provides rehabilitation,vocational training, and social reintegration for sex trafficking victims, on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

October 31, 2010
Radio Australia News

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has visited a rehabilitation centre for victims of people trafficking during her first official visit to Cambodia.

The Secretary of State told the women at the US funded centre, her government would support victims of human rights abuses in Cambodia.

"I am helping you through our government and our ambassador and our government in Washington to help you learn English, to help you learn all kinds of things so that when you leave here you will be able to have your own life," she said.

In Cambodia, Clinton shuns congressional midterm madness, pledges to help end sexual slavery

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) greets children during a visit to the AFESIP rehabilitation and vocational training center in Siam Reap October 31, 2010. Clinton's visit to Cambodia is the first by a U.S. Secretary of State since 2003. AFESIP stands for Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Precaire, which means Acting for Women in Distressing Situations. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea 

October 31, 2010
By Matthew Lee (CP)

SIEM REAP, Cambodia - Sitting out the intense political battle back home, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton toured Cambodia's famed 12th-century Angkor Wat temple complex on Sunday and pledged to do more to help end the scourge of sexual slavery on a visit to a rehabilitation centre for child prostitutes.

While her husband and fellow Democrats campaigned frantically ahead of Tuesday's midterm congressional elections, the former first lady and New York senator stayed well above the domestic fray, visiting the northern Cambodian city of Siem Reap while in the midst of a two-week, seven-nation trip to the Asia-Pacific.

The self-proclaimed ex-politician is barred from partisan political activity while serving as America's top diplomat. She made no mention of the fierce fight for control of Congress even as American tourists who supported her 2008 presidential bid shouted "California loves you, Hillary" as she strolled through Angkor Wat.

Clinton, the first secretary of state to visit Angkor Wat, was surrounded by snapshot-taking tourists while making her way around the massive site, admiring bas-relief wall sculpture and the sheer size of the temples. A bevy of security agents and photographers accompanied her.

Earlier Sunday, she met about 50 victims of human trafficking at the U.S.-funded Siem Reap Center where they receive education and vocational training that includes weaving and sewing lessons and, for some, English-language lessons in Colorado.

"I am so proud of you," Clinton told the girls and young women, most of whom were between 17 and 23.

"You motivate me," she said, promising them continued American support to improve their lives.

Clinton listened as one young woman, 25-year old Vann Sina, recounted being abducted at 13 and forced to have sex with 20 to 30 men a day for more than two years before being rescued from a brothel.

"To be a victim is very hard," she said, recalling how she didn't understand what she was meant to do when she was first told to "sleep" with a customer. "I cannot forget. Sometimes I dream and I get very scared."

The Siem Reap Center received a $336,000 grant from the State Department last year to fund its operating costs, and Clinton said she would make sure money continued to flow.

Combatting human trafficking is a pet issue for Clinton and one she will raise with Cambodian officials when she stops in the capital of Phnom Penh on Monday. After leaving Cambodia, Clinton will visit Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia. She won't be back at work in Washington until a week after Election Day.

"I wanted to come here today to see you for myself": Hillary Clinton in Cambodia

 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is greeted by human trafficking victims Van Sina (2nd L) and Somana (3rd R) at the Siem Reap AFESIP rehabilitation and vocational training center October 31, 2010. Clinton's visit to Cambodia is the first by a U.S. Secretary of State since 2003. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Clinton: US will help end sexual slavery

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, October 31, 2010 (AP) - Pledging to do more to help end the scourge of sexual slavery, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited a rescue and rehabilitation center for child prostitutes in northern Cambodia on Sunday.

Before touring the famed 12th century Angkor Wat temple complex, Clinton met with a group of about 50 victims of human trafficking at the U.S.-funded facility in Siem Reap and promised them continued American support.

"I am so proud of you," she told the girls and young women, most of whom are between 17 and 23. They receive an education and vocational training that includes weaving and sewing lessons.

"You motivate me," she said.

Clinton listened as one young woman, Vann Sina, recounted her story of being abducted at 13 and forced to have sex with 20 to 30 men a day for more than two years before being rescued from a brothel.

"To be a victim is very hard," she said, recalling how she did not understand what she was meant to do when she was told to "sleep" with a customer. "I cannot forget. Sometimes I dream and I get very scared."

The Siem Reap center received a $336,0000 grant from the State Department last year to fund its operating costs and Clinton said she would make sure money continued to flow.

"I wanted to come here today to see you for myself," Clinton said.

Clinton, on a tour of northern Cambodia, is about as far away as one can get from the intense political battle going on back home. Her husband and fellow Democrats are campaigning frantically ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections.

A self-proclaimed ex-politician, Clinton is barred from partisan political activity while serving as America's top diplomat.

The former first lady, New York senator and presidential hopeful is in the midst of a two-week, seven-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific. She won't be back at work in Washington until a week after Election Day.

Myrna Raffkind: Cambodian tells gripping story

Sunday, May 9, 2010
Myrna Raffkind
Amarillo.com (Texas, USA)

Once in a while we read a book that jolts us out of our comfort zone and literally opens our eyes to the many benefits, rights, and privileges we have as a result of living in the United States of America. Such was the experience I encountered when reading Somali Mam's book, "The Road of Lost Innocence."

Somali Mam grew up in Cambodia and her book chronicles her life from early childhood until adulthood. She was abandoned by her parents, grew up as a child of the forest, and sold into sexual slavery at age 12. She lived in brothels until she was in her early 20s, and at this time married a diplomat who took her to France.

Somali Mam was not able to acclimate herself to life in Europe and returned to her native Cambodia to do whatever she could to eliminate the business of brothels and trafficking of sex slaves. She started a foundation dedicated to protesting and has since devoted her time to making the world aware of the horrors the young Cambodian women experience when they are sold as sex slaves.

Undoubtedly all of us in this country can recall incidents where people are treated unfairly and/or even tortured. And yes, most of us know or have heard about incidents where parents have even gained monetarily by forcing their children to engage in illegal or immoral acts. Yet, what's different in America as contrasted to a country such as Cambodia is the institutionalization of sex trafficking and the sanctioning of this practice by government. Fortunately in America, we not only have laws that protect against inhumane practices such as selling children into slavery but we also have a system for enforcing these laws and punishing their offenders.

And yet, what many have forgotten or fail to realize is that in our blessed country rights for women and minority groups have not always been such a vital part of our government. They came only after years of struggle and overcoming resistance and lives were lost in the process.

For example, even though America was founded on the principle of equal rights for all, it was not until 1865 and the passage of the 14th Amendment that blacks were freed from slavery. Fifty-five years passed before the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote was signed into law in 1920. The Civil Rights Act that barred discrimination in employment on the basis of race and sex was not passed until 1964 and in some states the use of contraceptives by married couples was prohibited until 1965.

There are times when I question the misuse and even abuse of some of the rights we enjoy as citizens. I become angry when I read about members of the Westboro Baptist church disrupting funerals with their protests of gays and lesbians. I experience fear when I hear about the stockpiling of weapons by militia groups and I am dismayed when I hear hecklers at political rallies denounce politicians whose views I favor and support. Yet, at the same time, I realize that these signs of protest are but a small price to pay for freedom of speech, assembly or the right to bear arms.

Those who have grown up and live in Cambodia or other countries ruled by tyranny have no safeguards for human rights.

They must fear for their lives when they speak out or protest against inhumane and immoral practices such as selling children to brothels. In order to institute change they must rely on the support of others who live in free countries and who are willing to advocate for their causes.
---------------
Somali Mam will be speaking later this year on the WTAMU campus at Freshman Convocation. She is coming to WTAMU as part of the Readership WT Program, the same program that brought to campus Elie Weisel (Holocaust survivor and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize) in 2007; Valentino Deng (one of the lost boys of Sudan), in 2008, and Khaled Husseini (author of "The Kite Runner") in 2009.

In speaking to the students and youth, these authors have told of genocide, cruelty, and torture imposed in their native countries by corrupt regimes and despotic leaders.

Hearing their stories, the young people of today and the leaders of tomorrow cannot help but have a greater understanding and appreciation of the value and meaning of freedom.

Myrna Raffkind is a retired West Texas A&M University faculty member. She lives in Amarillo.

Activist runs organization to free Cambodian sex slaves

(Photo: Anthony Syros)

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
By Virginia Kiddy
Central Florida Future

Former slave Somaly Mam has made it her life’s work to end sex trafficking.

Opponents to her cause have burned her house, threatened her, kidnapped her children and raped her daughter.

“When I started this, I know I made my life dangerous. It’s not easy for me. A lot of people, they tell me that I’m crazy,” Mam said. “Well, I am crazy.”

About 200 people squeezed into the Cape Florida Ballroom Monday night to hear Mam speak about her experiences and her foundation’s efforts to end sex slavery. When seats filled up, students sat on the floor, stood along the back wall, and perched in from the hallway, watching through the doorways.

Mam is one of TIME magazine’s “World’s Most Influential People” for 2009 and a “CNN Hero.”

She became a slave as a child when a man who called himself her grandfather sold her into prostitution. She lived in a brothel with other Cambodian children and was raped and tortured daily, but after watching the murder of her best friend, she eventually escaped.
Since the opening of her shelter in Cambodia, 6,000 girls have been helped out of brothels. The girls call her mother.

“They are lovely,” Mam said.

Mam said it’s difficult to get girls out of the brothel because they are familiar with the routine of their life and don’t know who will love, help or give them a new life. Sometimes families don’t want their children back because of the shame, and they place blame on the children themselves for what happened. The government in Cambodia does nothing to help, Mam said.

In 2008, there was a global focus on establishing anti-trafficking laws in Cambodia, which had none, said Bill Livermore, executive director for the Somaly Mam Foundation.

“There was a major push on, ‘Well, you need to change your laws. That’ll solve everything,’” Livermore said. “Now we’ve come to realize that isn’t true until you can change society.”

Human trafficking is the second-largest organized crime, becoming a bigger business than drug trafficking, according to the Somaly Mam Foundation’s Web site.

Specific and consistent statistics about human trafficking are hard to calculate because of the nature of this worldwide crime. Of the 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, an estimated 1.39 million people are victims of sexual servitude, according to the U.N.’s International Labor Organization.

As many as two million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade, according to the U.S. State Department.

This modern-day enslavement is not limited to foreign lands. It’s in the U.S., too.

“What is happening in our country is happening in your country,” Mam said.

Between 18,000 and 20,000 victims are trafficked into the U.S., according to U.S.

Department of Justice estimates listed on the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking Web site. A large percentage is trafficked into Florida because of seasonal agricultural immigrants.

Junior interdisciplinary women’s studies major Dominique Aulisio, who works with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, is starting a student organization called Student Labor Action Project.

“I think that people distance themselves from the problem,” said Aulisio. “I think we all do because a lot of times on the news it’s characterized as being a faraway country. But in reality, the traffickers are very organized, and they’re all over the world.”

Mam encouraged students to raise awareness and become active to end sex trafficking.

She thinks it’s possible within 10 years if everyone “activates” and fights.

“Fighting is not just sitting and talking, but you have to stand up and fight,” Mam said.

She said it is out of her capacity to accomplish the task alone.

“We need all of you,” Mam said.

She encouraged students to go on the foundation’s Web site and read about how to volunteer and learn more about what they do.

Senior Sally Griffin already had Mam’s book, The Road of Lost Innocence, and was excited to hear her speak. She wants to work and advocate against human trafficking. Her major is social work and minor is international studies for that reason, she said.

Griffin just got back from a trip to India with the organization International Justice Mission where she helped with a shelter, met girls who had been rescued from sex trafficking and saw the red-light district firsthand. She was first made aware of sex trafficking when someone from her church spoke about the issue.

“I didn’t know. Once I heard about it, it just kind of lit a fire in me,” Griffin said. “I don’t feel like I can just stand by knowing what I know.”

Sex slavery victim visits Central New York, speaks out against child sex trafficking

Somaly Mam, an advocate against sex trafficking and slavery, talks with supporters at a recent gathering. She was at Carousel Center Thursday at The Body Shop. That company The Body Shop has launched a fund-raiser for Somaly Mam and ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes). Somaly was a victim of child sex trafficking. (Submitted photograph)

Friday August 07, 2009
By Nina Wegner
The Post-Standard (New York, USA)

Somaly Mam, an international spokeswoman for ending child sex trafficking, paid a visit to the Carousel Center on this week to help promote an anti-trafficking campaign launched by The Body Shop.

More than 1.8 million children and young people are trafficked in the global sex trade each year, even within the United States, according to a 2002 report by the International Labor Organization.

Human trafficking is the globe's second largest organized crime, generating $9.5 billion a year, according to the U.S. State Department. However, sex trafficking remains an underexposed issue in America.

With the sale of several $10 body care products, The Body Shop will donate $6 to the organization End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes and the Somaly Mam Foundation.

"The Body Shop (campaign) has given us hope, because so many people (who are sold into sexual slavery) are so isolated, and alone, they feel nobody understands," said Mam. "It means a lot for us, it means a lot for the lives you save."

Mam, who was sold into sexual slavery as a child in Cambodia, was able to escape captivity and in 1996 started an advocacy group, AFESIP (an acronym in French for "Acting for Women in Distressing Situations").

Mam traveled from Cambodia to support the campaign's launch. In Syracuse, Mam greeted and thanked the staff of The Body Shop.

"Our late founder, Dame Anita Roddick, was dedicated to the issue of human trafficking. When she passed away in September 2007, we felt it was a fitting tribute to Anita to launch something as powerful as this," said Shelley Simmons, director of communications and values for The Body Shop.

An unlikely hero: Interview with Somaly Mam

An unlikely hero

June 5, 2009
INSEAD

Somaly Mam is a driven, dynamic, inspiring and indefatigable leader. Those are some of the qualities that make her one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and a CNN Hero.

Somaly Mam is also an unlikely hero. She is a victim of human trafficking and was sold into a brothel in Cambodia at the age of 12.

Nearly a decade later, she escaped with the help of a French aid worker and in 1993 went to Paris. She returned to Cambodia two years later and founded “Agir Pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire” (AFESIP) or “Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances.”

Now at 39, she and her organisation have freed thousands of children and women, educated them and provided vocational training in Cambodia and other countries in Asia. Her foundation campaigns around the world against human trafficking. She spoke recently to INSEAD Knowledge, shortly before giving a talk at INSEAD’s Asia campus in Singapore.

“We explain (to the victims of human trafficking) how to stand up and fight. Stand up and show (them) that we have hope around the world,” says Mam.

Despite all she has been through, Mam radiates hope. Her biggest frustration is dealing with corruption. Human traffickers and organised crime groups have influence over the courts and the police, setting her work back. “They have money, so they can buy anything,” she says.

Mam’s own organisation works at the grass-roots level, helping the women and children who are the victims of human trafficking.

She believes global problems require the involvement of both local non-governmental and major international organisations, but often, she says, when they try to coordinate there seems to be more talk than action. Also, Mam’s timetable is different to that of many big NGOs. For her, each day is precious, but for large organisations a day or a year isn’t a very long time. “When you are in the brothel, one day is (too) long,” she says.

AFESIP needs money, but also volunteers and help in educating the rest of the world. “No woman, no child wants to be abused,” she says. “If you pass them in the red light district, don’t look down on them,” she says.

Beyond that, combating human trafficking will require educating men. “If we really want to end the problem we have to end the demand.”

The women and children helped by AFESIP get shelter, education and vocational training so they can escape the brothels for good. “I want them to be lawyers because, with what they’ve been through, they can’t be corrupted,” says Mam.

She praises the work Lexis-Nexis has done with her foundation because the company has given not only money, but also expertise in grant writing, technical support and the time of company professionals. One senior manager spends half his time helping her.

Mam and her foundation have very visible support from global celebrities, including Angelina Jolie and Susan Sarandon, and says their power and connections help raise awareness.

“It’s not just money that I need. I need them to come and see my world. This world is so big. I can save 5,000 girls but there are so many more.” And Mam says, the children targeted by the traffickers are getting younger.

Mam claims that dealing with donors and government officials is more nerve-wracking than death threats. “You have to know how to talk to them, but I’ve never been educated,” she says. “(It’s) hard work making the people understand me. That is my challenge.”

On the ground in Cambodia, Mam works to save girls one at a time. “My goal? Save the children and make them happy.”

Just because Alan Perry never saw "sex slaves" firsthand, does it mean that it does not exist in Cambodia?

Focus on Cambodia's Human Trafficking is Misleading

3/27/2009
By Alan Perry
Hawaii Reporter

"If Alan Perry's point of view is taken to the extreme, just because he never saw a Khmer Rouge soldier killing Cambodians in the 70s firsthand, does it mean that genocide never existed in Cambodia under the KR? The fact that Alan never heard about Afesip which is working with Cambodian police says a lot about Alan's knowledge of Cambodia, or lack thereof." - KI-Media

Rory Byrne's March 23rd article "Human Trafficking On the Rise in Cambodia" from VOA News is misleading and uninformed. The first glaring error is of course the misspelling of the Capitol City of Phnom Penh in the article. Let us hope that this is a simple editorial mistake and not an indication of how well he understood his subject matter. Unfortunately I think it may be the latter.

The real problem with the article is that it lacks perspective or any other viewpoint on the Human Trafficking issue. There is no dissenting voice or opinions reported. Cambodia has become for lack of a better word the worlds favorite sex "obsession". With daily breathless reportage on Human trafficking and child sex convictions one is left with the mistaken impression that Cambodia is a place where one can simply walk down the street and pick out your favorite 13 year-old girl or boy for an hours pleasure. This is simply not the case.

I first came to Cambodia 15 years ago and now have lived here for 2 years and own a business. In all that time I have never witnessed any such activity nor could I direct anyone to any place which deals in such a thing. I have traveled widely here and employ a number of Cambodians and in conversation with them I cannot find a single person that knows about the "sex slave" trade. I do however know that it is often the families of these girls and boys who send them away or sell them into "jobs" in prostitution. Many boys are sold into the military so their family can get the stipend the government gives out for that and many escape. Most of the girls, if the truth be known, are sent into this trade by their families, not lured there by strangers. Most are free to come and go as they please because having been sent there by the parents they often will stay out of respect and fear of the parents. The parents receive a payment, the girl is expected to work for a period of time.

This is not slavery, at worst it is indentured servitude. There is a very important difference. Of course no one wants to see children sent into the sex trade by anyone, let alone their parents, but I believe the notion that there are thousands of girls chained in basements being used as sex slaves defies logic. Most of Cambodia is a crowded and busy place especially the cities. Keeping something like this from the police would be very difficult here, to say nothing of the fact that I have never seen or heard of a house here with a basement. While many of the police are corrupt not all of them are by any means and there are many levels of police in a given area. This makes it especially difficult to keep slaves locked in your "basement" without your neighbors and the police finding out and reporting on you.

The article does not at any time cite one single credible study of this problem and for good reason...none exists. Some organizations such as World Vision raise millions of dollars in the U. S., Britain and Australia beating the child sex and human trafficking drum. Only a trickle of those funds are ever spent here in Cambodia actually doing anything about the problem. A problem that I would argue is no worse than in London, Honolulu or Des Moines.

The article goes on to cite how there were girls rescued from this business by the organization named in the article, one I have never heard of previously. It is written in such a way as to leave the impression that all these girls were "sex slaves". I would defy the writer or the organization cited to bring forth one credible person with that story. It seems clear to me that what is most likely is that there was financial incentive for these girls to leave or that they felt they had no other place to go if they left on their own. Many families wont take a girl back who has shamed them by working in this industry and many continue in the business for the very good financial rewards. Consider that the average wage of most Cambodians is often cited at less than one US dollar a day. A girl or boy working in the sex trade can make 10, 20 or 100 times this in a single day. With this they buy cell phones, motorcycles, nice clothes and send money home to the family. This scenario is the real story of the sex trade in Cambodia.

Many do it as a sideline, some go to school, and others do work in brothels. some come to escape the poverty and closeness of village life. Some of the young people that turn to this trade do it because they have lost a good job in a factory due to layoffs. Consider this the next time some well meaning organization asks you to help stamp out child labor in Cambodia, Thailand or where ever: If these young people lose their jobs often the next stop is to turn to prostitution to make sure they eat everyday. This is the real story of the sex trade.

People often fall into this trap when writing or reporting on Cambodia. With little or no knowledge of the country and it's people they rely instead on those with an axe to grind, an issue to promote or in the case of some organizations, money to be raised by keeping this issue on the front burner and sounding as horrible as possible. It would be nice to have a reporter ask some hard probing questions, explore the logic and interview others with a different viewpoint. Unfortunately Mr Byrne seemingly did none of that.

Alan Perry is a resident of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, and is with DevaRaja Villa and Bungalows, Intimate Stylish Personal Attentive. Reach him at aarthurperry@gmail.com

Another nod for Somaly Mam

Fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg (right) poses with the 2009 global leadership award recipients Somaly Mam (centre) and Temituokpe Esisi of Nigeria after their news conference in Washington, DC, on Thursday. Somaly Mam, whose work with anti-trafficking NGO Afesip has earned her numerous accolades and awards, including the Glamour Woman of the Year award, was herself trafficked into sex work as a young girl. (Photo by: AFP)

Cambodian Anti-Prostitution Activist Wins Human Rights Award

Somaly Mam hopes her work will help make other victims happy
Cambodia's red light district attracts sex toursists from around the world
Literacy is one area AFESIP focuses on

24.11.2008
Deutsche Well (Germany)

A survivor of child slavery and prostitution, Somaly Mam battles forced prostitution in her native Cambodia. For helping to better the world for others like her, Mam received the Roland Berger Human Dignity Award Monday.

“Myself acquainted with misfortune, I learn to help the unfortunate” -- so said the poet Virgil over 2000 years ago. The saying, however, is one that could have come from the mouth of Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who lived through slavery and prostitution as a child and faced every conceivable form of violence.

Having escaped that misfortune, Mam now uses her horrendous life experience to help fight for the rights of other young women who have been in her situation. Twelve years ago, she founded an NGO for women and children who were used as sex slaves called AFESIP, or Acting for Women in Distressing Situations.

On Monday, November 24, German President Horst Koehler recognized Mam's work by presenting her with the Roland Berger Human Dignity Award. The award, intended for those who work in the field of human rights and financed by the Roland Berger Foundation, is endowed with a million euros. This is the first year the prize has been awarded.

Childhood over at ten

Born around 38 years ago to parents she would never know, Mam was raised by foster parents in the eastern Cambodian province of Mondolkiri. At the age of 10, she moved in with an older man whom she referred to as “Grandpa” and began her work as a domestic slave to the attentive man. Her childhood ended then; running the home became her most important duty.

Four or five years later, Mam was handed over by “Grandpa” to a man twelve years her senior, forced to marry to settle an outstanding debt. That her grandfather had made such a decision about her life, her body and her destiny is something she didn't question.

“In Cambodia, women don't have the right to say no,” she said. “Women and children must sacrifice their entire life to the family.”

Her husband disappeared shortly after their marriage and “Grandpa” then brought her to a bordello in the Cambodian capitol of Phnom Penh.

“I thought I owed him something. He fed me so I thought I had to be thankful and do everything for him.”

Trust fell by the wayside

The years following saw Mam held as a sex slave. In those years, violence, malnutrition, abuse and drugs intertwined. Attempts at escape were always hindered.

“My pimp would catch me and barricade me in a cage with snakes,” Mam recalls.

The memory floods the beautiful woman's brown eyes with tears when she relates it even today. Still, she speaks and writes about her experiences often. Her memoir, “The Road of Lost Innocence” was published two years ago.

"I can smile and speak today, but deep in my heart, I don't feel as normal as you,” she told guests at the book's launch party. “I don't know how to love another person. I don't know how to trust anyone.”

Mam has, however, learned to trust at least one man: Pierre Legros, a Frenchman she met in Cambodia who helped her to flee from the brothel. She went with him to France, married him and later returned with him to Cambodia, where she founded AFESIP.

The organization and its workers, with support from UNICEF, have thus far freed a thousand women and children from forced prostitution. AFESIP helps them to win back their self-confidence, to re-enter the community, to read and write and later, to train for future careers.

Every time Mam helps a young girl, she is faced once again with her own fortune and sees the pain and suffering in them reflecting back at her like a mirror. It's an immense burden but also an advantage, Mam believes.

“If I hadn't had the experiences that I'd had, I couldn't have been able to help these young girls so well.”

Threats an everyday experience

The necessity of Mam's work is clearly shown when one looks at the horrific statistics concerning sex slavery in Cambodia. A UN report estimates that 50,000 women and young girls are victims of sexual violence every day. Ninety percent of children freed from brothels have tested positive for HIV. The country ranks as a top destination for sex tourists, which supports a continuation of forced slavery and human trafficking.

Still, not everyone agrees with Mam's work. She's publicly attacked politicians and businessmen in her homeland for their involvement in corruption and prostitution. Threats of murder and verbal attacks at the “whistleblower” are an everyday part of life for Mam, as are muggings and kidnappings. But she won't let that stop her.

“Every day, when I see these victims, these women who have been abused, who have so much pain, I know I simply can't turn my back on them. I have to fight with all my power. I will never give up. Never.”

Book Review: The Road of Lost Innocence - The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine by Somaly Mam

November 14, 2008
Written by Jennifer Bogart
Blogcritics Magazine (USA)

Some books are dangerous; reading them opens your eyes and makes you see the world around you in a different way. After reading them this new understanding of reality lingers and is not easily dismissed. Stories like these drive you to action, serving as a call to take up arms. Somaly Mam’s memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, is one such book.

Born in Cambodia during years of political turmoil, Somaly never knew her parents – she still doesn’t know what became of them. Left by her grandmother in a tribal village, her early years were spent outdoors, roaming amongst the huts looking for food. These years were happy compared to those that would follow after leaving northern Cambodia with a man who claimed to know of her parents at the age of six.

This man, her “grandfather” would proceed to beat and molest her, sell her virginity to pay his debts at the age of 11, marry her to an abusive husband at the age of fourteen and finally sell her to a brothel at 16. As you can imagine Somaly’s story is not an easy, feel good read. The list of travesties, betrayals and corruption she has known is far too lengthy to detail here.

Catching glimpses of a better life, Somaly is eventually able to escape from the bondage of sexual slavery. Using the only currency at her disposal she begins to make alliances with foreign men – those with wealth and power – and uses them to begin her slow ascent out of prostitution. After achieving her freedom the girls she left behind haunt her. Knowing the devastation trafficking in girl-flesh wreaks she cannot stand motionless while atrocities are committed; hopefully you won’t be able to either when this story comes to a close.

Presented in spare, matter of fact prose the writing itself mimics the Cambodian attitude towards life; silent, understated. Coming from a people who disguise their emotions to the utmost – simply writing this memoir is a break with traditional Cambodian culture. Somaly however, has long since ceased to be a traditional Cambodian.

The words seek to describe without betraying the depths of emotional pain behind them, but it still seeps through. Between each and every line, in the silences and pauses the pain is there alongside the fear and anger. The Road of Lost Innocence is the anguished soul cry of a woman who has never truly been loved, the heart breaking sobs of a shattered little girl.

Somaly brutally exposes the truth of modern sexual trafficking in south-east Asia through her own story and that of those she has rescued from slavery. She outlines the beginnings of her non-profit organizations that rescue girls and women from brothels, sketching out plans for their reintegration into society. Free of her physical bonds and able to offer hope to those in chains, she remains a broken woman. The aching sadness created throughout her life’s circumstances is still present; only slightly mitigated by her relentless drive to rescue the weak and defend the defenseless.

She tells her story not to evoke sympathy for herself, though her pain is apparent. She writes, offering herself up to the public eye to draw attention to the plight of the girls and women who are still captive; taken against their will and viciously used. Somaly truly wants nothing for herself other than the opportunity to continue working with the victims of sexual trafficking and to draw awareness to their plight.

Truly, every responsible citizen of the world should engage Somaly’s work. The difficult stories need to be told, more than that - they must be acted upon. Only with eyes opened to the atrocities surrounding us can we step out in faith, reaching into the darkness to rescue those bound there.

Visit the Somaly Mam Foundation to learn how you can make a difference in the lives of those affected by sexual trafficking.

Somaly Mam wins $1.3 million award from Munich-based Roland Berger Foundation

Cambodian woman activist given $1.3 million award

November 14, 2008
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian woman activist who has spearheaded her country's battle against sex traffickers is the first recipient of an award from a recently established human rights foundation, the German Embassy announced Friday.

The 1 million euro ($1.269 million) award to Somaly Mam from the Munich-based Roland Berger Foundation rivals in amount the Nobel Peace Prize, which includes a grant of 10 million Swedish kroner ($1.268 million).

The Roland Berger Human Dignity Award was given to Somaly Mam — who herself is a former sex trade victim — "in recognition of her fight for a world without slavery," the German Embassy said in a statement.

Somaly Mam was sold into prostitution as a child and later escaped with the help of foreigners and aid workers. She has written about her experience in a recently published book, "The Road of Lost Innocence."

She currently heads a group named AFESIP — from the French acronym for Acting for Women in Distressing Situations — which has helped build safe houses that provide refuge, care and schooling for girls rescued from slavery.

AFESIP has rescued about 4,000 girls and women from the sex trade since it was founded in 1996, AFESIP spokesman Som Sophatra said. There are 166 former victims now living in the group's three shelters in Cambodia.

Somaly Mam could not be reached for comment Friday. Colleagues said she was traveling abroad.

Som Sophatra said she received news of her award two weeks ago.

"First she didn't believe it and she went to confirm the story (with the foundation) about the donation," he said. "She was nervous and very happy at the same time because she never got such a big amount of money."

He said the award could not have come at a better time as the group has been facing a shortage of funds since the beginning of the year.

German Federal President Horst Kohler will present the award at a ceremony in Berlin on Nov. 24, the embassy said. It praised Somaly Mam for her "fearless voice for political lobbying and numerous campaigns against human trafficking."

In April, Somaly Mam received an award from the Swedish Children's World Association for her work. In 2006, she was honored as one of Glamour magazine's women of the year.

The independent Roland Berger Foundation, which documents human trafficking and slavery, was founded in March by Roland Berger, a guest professor of business administration at the Brandenburg Technical University in Cottbus, Germany. It says the award is intended "to raise awareness on human dignity and human rights worldwide."

From brothel to boardroom

Somaly Mam at her organisation, anti trafficking NGO Afesip's offices in Phnom Penh last week. (Photo by: CHRISTOPHER SHAY)

Monday, 03 November 2008
Written by CRISTOPHER SHAY
The Phnom Penh Post

THE RISE OF AFESIP'S SOMALY MAM
As a child, Somaly Mam was sold into a brothel and never knew her real name. When she escaped from prostitution she chose the name Somaly, meaning "the necklace of flowers lost in the virgin forest", as it fit NWEidea of who she was at the time. In 1996 she and Pierre Legros, a French human rights worker, founded the anti-trafficking NGO Afesip ,of which Somaly Mam has been president of for the past 12 years. She is an internationally acclaimed activist: In 2006, she was Glamour Magazine's Woman of the Year and this year, won the World's Children's Prize. In Cambodia, she is a more controversial figure. Afesip, has been criticised for its cooperation with law enforcement agencies and for allegedly not allowing sex workers to leave the NGO's safehouses. Last year Somaly Mam released a critically acclaimed English-language translation of her memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, which chronicles her rise from sex slave to activist.

Somaly Mam counts Tyra Banks, Hillary Clinton and the pope as acquaintances but still strives to help ‘victims' of prostitution

How do you feel about your newfound fame?

I'm not famous. We're still Afesip as normal. I feel normal. I just hope we can change the country, and we can get more people to pay attention to trafficking. People tend to keep talking and don't do enough acting. I'm fed up. I don't think I'm famous, but I'm here letting people know about what's going on in trafficking. People outside the country have to know too. Afesip does our work, and we are still small. We try to find solutions. We are a local organisation; we cannot find all the solutions. We have to have the political commitment to change.

Where does Afesip get its funding?

A lot of funds come from the Spanish [government], but also from the [United] States. We have funds from Queen Latifah and Barbara Walters. I was also lucky to meet Susan Sarandon, who helped me a lot.

What is your opinion about Cambodia's new anti-sex-trafficking law?

It's complicated. We should have law. The problem is the people who implement the law. When we passed the law, no one understood it. They didn't talk about it to the people. Afterwards, there were people playing with the law - the police - who always manage to find a way to take money. I think we should have the law, but we have to work very strongly on the law enforcement.

A few months ago, sex workers came together to protest the new anti-trafficking law.

I know that the law is not easy to understand. I know the law is not perfect for protecting the victims. I know that some articles are not clear. What I don't like is people who take the victims - I don't want to call them prostitutes, they're victims - who use them to fight against law. I just want to say to them, "Stop using these girls". They have to make their own decisions. When I saw associations using victims for politics, I wanted to know, "Why do you have to use them to fight?"

What's the state of the sex industry in Cambodia right now?

If you go to the streets, everything is closed down, but they're just closed in front. Underground, we have the problem again. We cannot say that right now is better. In my opinion, it's getting worse and worse. We cannot see them [prostitutes]. We cannot access them to give them condoms or bring them to hospitals. They are afraid of the law.

Could you explain how you work together with the government?

We cannot work without them. It's not easy. Some of them are bad. There is corruption, but some them are good. Right now, we've identified the people who are working hard like the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the police. We still have a problem with justice. The problem is the court. We also have some problems with the police in the countryside. They don't understand law enforcement involving victims. In Phnom Penh, it's better now.

When police take sex workers into custody, do they bring them to your clinic?

We work with the anti-trafficking police. Yes, they bring them to us. We also work directly with the [Ministry of] Social Affairs. They have a shelter. When they save the girl, they'll call us. We go there and try to talk to the girl and tell them about Afesip. If they agree to come, we bring them.

If a sex worker decides to come in the clinic, what happens then?

If they want, they can come. Some of them, we just say, "You should come visit us". It's not our staff always going to talk to them. The victims themselves come. Sometimes they agree to stay one week, and then they make the decision to go home or stay longer. If they ask us to bring them home, we bring them home.

Do all the girls make the decision to stay at Afesip?

Not all of them. Some of the victims are young. They are underage. We cannot let them go back into a brothel because they are seven or 12.

They stay because they are children. What I like to see is them becoming children again. They take off their make-up. It's my dream to see them playing and laughing again.

How does your organisation, Afesip, do its brothel rescues?

We are not rescuing. We are cooperating. When we know something, our investigations team tells the trafficking police. They are the best.

They can work with us. We cannot go into the street. We work with them. When they have our complaint, they go into the brothel to make sure there is a problem. Then, if someone signs an agreement saying we can go into a brothel to save the girl, then we go in. We are not saving them. We are going with the police.

How does your organisation determine which women are sex workers and which are sex slaves?

A lot of them have been raped before they become part of the sex industry. A lot of them when I go to see them, and I ask, ‘Why are you in the brothel? Why don't you want to get out?' A lot of them have psychological problems. They agree to sell themselves. They are sex slaves, because they have to survive. A lot of them say they are free, but for me, they are not free. They are the victims of the situation.

Are all women in brothels victims?

Yes. It's really hard when someone comes to me and tells me, "I had more then 10 clients who raped me with a plastic bag. I tell them we have Afesip, but they tell me, "I cannot now". I am surprised at all the girls who do come to Afesip.

Many of the girls, they are destroyed. They have problems because they feel guilty themselves. Give the victims time and try to work with them and prove to them that you really want to help them. You have to have patience.

How has your background as a former sex slave affected the way you run Afesip today?

I work by my emotions. What I was denied, I want to give to others. I want to give them love and trust. I'm not a manager. I have my team who manages for me.

I work by emotions. I just want to take care of the girls. We need both. We have to have heart and patience. I can find money for Afesip. Normally when you're president, you have to stay in the office, but I hate staying in the office.

Interview by Christopher Shay

Book Review: The Road to Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam

September 14, 2008
Written by Carole McDonnell
BlogCritics.org

I am often amazed at human nature and how cultural differences such as education, religion, and culture affects it. Rousseau, for instance, believed in the noble savage. I have read so many memoirs of missionaries in far-off lands, histories of the wild west, and war stories that I have come to believe that innate human nobility is a rare find. Sure there are those one-in-a-million tribes and countries where everyone in the clan is like a living saint but usually it’s not that way with we humans. Especially when power and money is involved.

In The Road to Lost Innocence, Somaly Mam’s account of her life in Cambodia before and after the Khmer Rouge, we see this kind of savagery. Now, I’m not an expert in Southeast Asian history and born even before the war it seemed that certain cultural cruelties were pretty ingrained, as if they were a part of a thousand-year culture. Specifically, the oppression of women, racial prejudice against dark women and dark tribes.

Somaly belongs to the Phnong, a dark tribe that lived in the deep forests of Cambodia. Unlike the Khmer, who were lighter, the Phnong were considered savage, stupid, dirty. Yes, yes, I know. Sounds familiar, but as Somaly Mam writes, all these Asian countries like light or white skin. War and poverty, of course, only made these racial prejudices and the oppression against women even more cruel.

After a harrowing childhood of whippings, cruelty, and abuse, the author’s “grandfather,” a Muslim man who has been abusing her, sells her into a brothel. He had originally sold her to an abusive husband to pay off a debt but when the soldier didn’t return from a battle, the grandfather came by and sold her to a Muslim woman, a meebon, a keeper of a brothel. Somaly then became a srey kouc, a “broken woman” who could never be fixed.

I don’t know much about American prostitutes, their johns, their drug addictions, or their pimps but it seems to me – from American movies, anyway — that American prostitutes don’t suffer as horribly as their Asian counterparts. They aren’t thrown into dark sewage pits, for instance with snakes crawling over them. They don’t have cruel men beating them or murdering them. They don’t have Chinese men renting their services then taking them to a room somewhere to service twenty other Chinese men. They weren’t forcibly aborted. And generally, the mothers of American prostitutes aren’t prostituting their daughters. Neither do American johns seek young virgins to sleep with in order to be cured of AIDS. The trouble is that after war ends, and sophistication and education supposedly arrives, prostitution still exists.

Somaly Mam tells about how she gradually lost all her heart and soul as an abandoned child and sex slave. Slowly, through the help of barang, “foreign” men, she began to gain her heart. This rebirth of her heart began through her compassion toward other sufferers like herself and through her contact with other foreign men who perhaps used her but who were not as bad as the men she knew as a child when she was working off her grandfather's debts. Through contacts at Doctors without Frontier, she stumbled into her life's work: preserving women from prostitution and rehabilitating them.

In the end, I came from this book with two strong opinions. The first was truly a painful one, but it’s a truth I have always somewhat known. I suppose I only had to be reminded of it again. It is this: that humans need to be spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically trained to love their neighbors — and even their children — as themselves. When one reads of women selling their own daughters into sex-slavery or fathers raping their own daughters to “hurt their mother” (because “the woman carried the child, not me”) one has to shake one’s head. Perhaps living in the United States where the US media continue to train its viewers how to live in the shoe of the other — other races, other sexes, other religions, and even others in our family — has contributed to the opening of the human mind.

The second truth is that humans can be emotionally healed of anything and after they are healed, they can help to heal others. Somaly Mam became a great hero and is the cofounder and preident of AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Situations) in Cambodia. Under her inspiration and leadership, she has saved, rehabilitated, and restored many former victims of secual slavery in Southeast Asia.

We get a glimpse of the history of Cambodia, of course. But that isn’t what is important. We in the west are too used to studying war as the strategies of good men versus evil men. That may or may not be true, but here is a war from the point of view of those indirectly involved – non-combatants in a war-torn country where the old evil mixes with the new evil. And aside from the specifics of a particular war, we see the ongoing eternal war in which the powerful oppress the weak.

Highly recommended.

Cambodian Heroine Fights Against Human Trafficking

Cambodian Activist Somaly Mam (Photo by Ken Levinson)

Sept 2008
Contact: Janet Sassi
212-636-7577
fallersassi@fordham.edu
Fordham University (New York, USA)

When Somaly Mam was on the brink of adolescence, her grandfather sold her into the sex trade in Cambodia. Today, Mam is a published author and advocate for victims of a global human trafficking industry that sells nearly a million people into slavery each year.

Mam recounted her unlikely life journey at “Speak Truth to Power,” an event sponsored by the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) and Fordham Law School on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Addressing an audience of 150, Mam painfully recalled the decade she spent in a brothel, forced into prostitution where virgins were at a premium and captives became younger and younger—as young as five years old.

She recalled “having to close our eyes, and accept 20 to 30 men per day” or else face being beaten by their captors. On three occasions, Mam said, she tried to commit suicide.

After she witnessed her best friend’s murder at the hands of a client, Mam escaped the sex trade with the help of a French aide worker.

“I know how to react under fear, but talking here is not easy for me,” said Mam, author of The Road of Lost Innocence: The Story of a Cambodian Heroine (Spiegel & Grau, 2008). “I don’t know my age, my real name or my family, but I thank every one of you who has helped me to understand what love means. Now I have my mission, to save others from the brothel and to help them find a new life, to give them love.”

In addition to being an author, Mam is co-founder and president of AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Situations), an organization that operates three shelters in Cambodia for more than 300 young girls who have escaped the forced sex-trade. Since most of the girls are between five and 12 years old, Mam has opened schools at the sites. To date, AFESIP has rescued 4,000 children from sex trafficking, she said.

Mam delivered an impassioned plea for support against a global human trafficking market that generates $9.5 billion annually, $4 billion of which goes to the prostitution industry. She also urged the audience to contact United States senators who do not support the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year to strengthen penalties for trafficking.

“I can go to a brothel and save a victim, or 20 victims, but the next day they will be replaced,” Mam said. “I cannot stop organized crime, but you can. They are still raping every day. So please, talking is great but more reacting is needed.”

Joining Mam was William Livermore, director of customer contact at LexisNexis, a political and financial supporter of Mam’s organizations. Livermore noted that there are still 11 states within the U.S. that do not have anti-trafficking legislation on their state books.

“Trafficking is a problem that is bigger than the sub-Mekong delta,” he said. “It is here in New York, Boston . . . so even in the United States, there is work to do.”

The event was co-sponsored by GSS, Fordham Law School’s Leitner Center for International Law and Justice, LexisNexis, Priority Films and Redlight Children, a non-governmental organization fighting child sexploitation.

Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to approximately 14,700 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in Westchester, and the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y.

Mother Of Lost Children

Herself a victim of abuse, Somaly Mam has led Cambodia’s battle against child prostitution. (Photo courtesy: Stan Honda/AFP)

2008-05-22
By CHRISTINA SCHOTT In Phnom Penh
The Jakarta Post/ AsiaNews

When Somaly Mam feels depressed, she drives to the countryside of Kampong Cham province—two bumpy, dusty hours from Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. Here, the woman who, is Cambodia’s symbol of the fight against child prostitution, feels at home.

In front of a long stilt house in Thlock Chhroy village, Somaly Mam stops. Immediately, a giggling bunch of girls rushes up to the delicate woman who almost disappears among ponytails and embracing hands. “My girls,” the 37-year-old, herself a mother of three, says lovingly.

The children’s gaiety belies trauma and turmoil. Little Mok Teta was just five when police found her in a brothel. Her face was so swollen from beatings that she could hardly open her eyes. Her body was covered with scars from stubbed-out cigarettes. In her head was a hole: somebody had hammered a nail in it.

"In 1992, she received an opportunity."

At least she was not HIV positive like her friend Srey Maeh, who at the same age almost was raped to death by her father, uncle and neighbours, before she was rescued by social workers.

Such tortured children don’t prefer to be with adults, including psychologists. They are aggressive and shut themselves off. Nevertheless, Teta and Maeh now go to school and are able to socialise.

Together with 32 other abused girls from age eight to 16, they found a home in the shelter of the non-governmental organisation, Acting for Women in Distressing Situations (AFESIP), which Somaly co-founded. Here, they can share their suffering without words: Somaly understands them by just taking them in her arms. She has experienced their story herself.

Somaly never met her real parents. Born in the mountain region of Mondulkiri, she lived with people of her tribe, the Phnong. When she was 10, she was sold to a travelling trader, whom she called grandfather. She had to cook and clean for him. If he was drunk, he would beat her brutally.

When Somaly was 14, the ‘grandfather’ forced her to marry a soldier, who beat and raped her. When the husband didn’t return from battle, the grandfather sold her to a brothel in Phnom Penh. She was 16. She then spent six tormenting years in different brothels, where she and other girls were broken physically and spiritually through beatings and other abuse.

“Sometimes I ask myself why I never ran away,” Somaly says. “But in our society, abuse is normal. People expect the younger to sacrifice themselves for the elders. Since they bore and fed us, we must obey and be grateful for the rest of our lives.”

However, when a pimp shot a friend in front of her eyes—for refusing to sleep with a client—Somaly decided to do something against forced prostitution in her country.

In 1992, she received an opportunity.

At a party, she met the man who would later become her husband and the father of her children, the Frenchman Pierre Legros (with whom she recently separated). Together they opened a bistro, which enabled her to finally quit prostitution.

In 1996, she and Legros founded AFESIP. A year later, they opened a shelter for prostitutes in Phnom Penh. Today, AFESIP runs three shelters in Cambodia and offices in Thailand, Laos and Viet Nam, and employs more than 300 people. The organisation has rescued almost 4,000 women and offers such victims psychological and medical treatment and vocational training.

For her struggle against child prostitution, she was conferred upon the Prince of Asturias Award in 1998 and has since then received support from Spanish royalty. In 2006, she was named Glamour’s Woman of the Year which facilitated her entry into the United States, where with much pomp the Somaly Foundation was founded last November to raise donations for AFESIP.

“AFESIP is my life,” Somaly says. “The girls in the shelters break my heart. I try to give them love and warmth, like in a real family. And they give me the same back. That’s where I find my strength to continue.”

Anti-sex slavery activist in Denver tonight

Somaly Mam (John Prieto, The Denver Post)
Somaly Mam and two former U.S. Air Force Academy cadets — Nic Lumpp, far left, and Jared Greenberg — are launching a private U.S. effort to fight the multi-billion sex trade that governments and police have been unable to kill. (John Prieto, The Denver Post)

04/04/2008
By Bruce Finley
The Denver Post (Colorado, USA)

Working as a teen-aged sex slave in a Cambodian brothel, Somaly Mam says she served up to 30 clients a night. Some hit her. "I never thought, just lived hour by hour. I played with nothing. In my head: nothing. It was dark, dark, dark. I never trusted people," Mam said Friday during a visit to Denver.

"I was dead."

She tried suicide, she said.

Her turning point: the day a brothel pimp fired a bullet through the head of her friend, Srymom, who dared refuse customers - warning other girls to obey. Mam said she then began trying to help a newcomer, a girl with dark skin like her, and eventually used the brothel keys to set her free.

Brothel owners soon released Mam, deeming her too old for Cambodia's booming sex trade.

Ever since, Mam has been arranging rescues of child sex slaves - more than 4,000 over the past decade. The group she formed - Acting for Women in Distressing Situations - counsels and rehabilitates them at shelters in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

Now Mam and two former U.S. Air Force Academy cadets - Nic Lumpp and Jared Greenberg - are launching a private U.S. effort to fight the multi-billion sex trade that governments and police have been unable to kill.

Based in Denver, the Somaly Mam Foundation (www.somaly.org) has raised $400,000 and aims to collect $1 million by July, thanks to corporate and celebrity backers such as actress Susan Sarandon.

"We need the United States. Americans are more active," Mam said. Cambodia's own efforts to combat the sex trade have been crippled by corruption of police and courts.

A preview of the film "Holly" tonight at Denver's Starz film center - continuing through next week - is designed to help publicize the effort. A fund-raiser has been set for next week in New York. And Mam's published account of her slavery - "The Road of Lost Innocence" - is scheduled for release this fall.

After graduating from the Air Force Academy in 2005, Lumpp and Greenberg resolved to do something about the global sex trade.

"It outraged us," said Lumpp, 25. "We couldn't just stand by and talk about it. It's a blatant disregard for human life."

Greenberg now works as a management consultant in Los Angeles, and Lumpp runs a Denver-based web business that helps parents teach children financial skills.

They discovered Mam's work and sent her emails. She received these with great skepticism, she said, and told the Americans to come to Cambodia if they wanted to help.

They visited for 10 days last year.

Mam said she still doubted them, suspecting they were sex tourists or pedophiles.

Meeting them at the airport, "I looked at them thinking: They are young. If they have commitment, that's good. I don't think they are pedophiles."

She brought them to one of her 60-person shelters and watched them carefully as they met recently-rescued girls. "I wanted to see their attitude," Mam said.

Lumpp and Greenberg played games. They worked with interpreters to ask girls and young women questions. Lumpp said they noticed those in Mam's shelters aspired to become educated, whereas those in brothels seemed listless.

Mam said she saw the two crying. "I said to myself: we can trust them."

"My staff said: You trust them? I said: Yes. They said: Why? I said: I just do. Normally I never trust men."

The foundation's approach is twofold: campaign to stop foreign sex tourists and others from entering southeast Asia in the first place, and fund continued rescues and rehab for girls and young women at shelters in Cambodia and neighboring countries.

Today sex trade owners seek younger girls, as young as 4, said Mam, who was sold from her village into slavery around age 12 after a "grandfather" used her as a household servant.

Rehab is difficult, Mam said. One girl at her shelter, 7-year-old Sokchea, seemed to recover well at first, starting school and excelling. Then after three months she quit. "We cannot release the pain inside her," Mam said. Another former slave, Srymuch, "has AIDs and is going to die."

U.S. diplomats have visited the 60-person shelters, where girls receive counseling, medical care, basic education, and training on sewing machines.

Rescues are high-risk operations based on tips received at Mam's shelters. Brothel owners have threatened to kill her, and thugs broke up a shelter in December 2004 after a raid on a hotel.

U.S. officials quietly offered her protection, Mam said. But leaving Cambodia is out of the question. "My heart is with these girls," she said.

"If I didn't run these shelters, maybe I could not survive."

Bruce Finley: 303.954.1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com