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.

Making a Difference - Cambodia's Theary Seng Works to Heal Her Country

By Rory Byrne, VOA
Washington D.C
02 July 2008

Theary Seng video profile

Click here to listen to Rory Byrne report

Theary Seng's story is one of hope over adversity. As a child, she lived through the brutal Khmer Rouge years, before fleeing to the United States, where she studied to become a lawyer. Now, she is back in Cambodia, promoting human rights. As head of the Center for Social Development, Theary Seng is an outspoken critic of corruption and abuse wherever it exists. Rory Byrne has this report for VOA's Making a Difference series.

Theary Seng

Human rights activist Theary Seng has been shaped by her country's tragic history. As a child, she collected cow dung among the graves of the victims of the Khmer Rouge to fertilize the crops. Her parents died at the hands of the ultra-Maoist group, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

During their four years in power under the extreme-Communist leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the death of at least 1.5 million Cambodians killed by political executions, starvation or forced labor. In late 1978, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge fled to the countryside following invasion by neighbor and former ally Vietnam. The 10-year Vietnamese occupation (1979 - 1989) touched off almost 13 years of civil war in Cambodia.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Theary escaped to Thailand and then the United States, where she became a lawyer.

Theary Seng, right, consults with a colleague

Now she is back in Cambodia, working to help her impoverished country. "So, for me, it's to take my history and the loss of my parents and to shape it, to not let the Khmer Rouge leaders have the better of me - by making it into something more hopeful," she explains.

Theary heads the Center for Social Development, which works to overcome the dark chapter of the Khmer Rouge. "The Khmer Rouge years have scarred our psychology," she says. "There is a lot of beauty [in Cambodia], but it's unfortunately overwhelmed by all these social problems and ills of our current society."

Theary also speaks out against abuses around the world. At a recent demonstration in Phnom Penh, she tried to lay a wreath to honor those killed in the civil war in Sudan's Darfur region. Government officials prevented her from doing so.

Theary takes a special interest in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, or KRT, which is starting to prosecute the group's leaders for their crimes. She serves as an official tribunal representative for the victims. "I see the opportunity for other voices to join mine, and to enlarge the space where other voices could be heard in addition to mine," says Theary.

"The thing about Theary Seng is that she is unique in Cambodia, because she is able to bridge the chasm between America's view of things and Cambodia's understanding of the world," says US Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli. "Whether it's the KRT process or justice in general, or corruption issues, or land issues, Theary adds a certain dimension that is very unique and very special."

Cambodia civil rights activist Theary Seng

The activist, author and attorney uses every opportunity to promote human rights in Cambodia. She even hosts a TV show looking to find the country's next generation of youth leaders.

"Really, my work here is not to do anything big, but to be a common citizen back in my homeland, where I've suffered a lot," says Theary. "And now, I'm taking that suffering, and shaping it into hope, and trying to work with individuals who had not the time and space to heal that I've had."

It has been a long journey for Theary Seng, from a child slave under the Khmer Rouge to a gifted voice of fellow citizens striving to overcome their country's terrible past.