LCCS student on mission to combat Cambodia’s sex trade

Anna Doneson

Fri May 23, 2008
By Erin Frost

The Lincoln Courier (Illinois, USA)

Lincoln, Ill. - Lincoln Christian College and Seminary freshman Anna Doneson is on a mission. And that mission will take her to Cambodia within the month.

Doneson is involved with Rapha House, an organization that creates safe houses for girls involved in sex trafficking.

“We get girls from their parents, buy them from pimps, get them from brothels,” Doneson said. “We teach them life skills and we get them a job. We give them a new life and a new hope and everything.”

Doneson is currently working with several local organizations to raise money for the project.

She has hosted several fundraisers over the past month, including one Monday at Culver’s that she said had a very good turnout. Her final shot at raising money will be May 31 at Zamrazil Hair Studio, where a donation will get clients a free haircut.

“This is a fundraiser to help me get over there, and the rest will go to the girls,” she said.

Doneson plans to be in Cambodia from June 8 to June 23.

“The goal is to take a group of students over there to get a taste of what it’s like,” she said.

While in Cambodia, Doneson will be working to make Rapha House bigger and better as well as to extend its mission.

Rapha House is an organization “committed to rescuing young girls who are victims of slavery and prostitution and providing them with a safe home where they can heal and receive an education,” according to the organization’s Web site.
“Rapha” is the Hebrew word for “healing.”

Its parent organization, American Rehabilitation Ministries, recently received official Non-Government Organization status from the Kingdom of Cambodia, meaning they were given the freedom to build a house in Cambodia for their rescued girls.

Rapha House had operated without government recognition since 2001.

Rapha’s girls currently live in a rented house with a Cambodian staff consisting of around-the-clock dorm mothers and security guards.

“Some of the girls who will be coming to Rapha House have experienced extreme verbal abuse,” said ARM President Joe Garman.

“The majority of them are younger than 18 and lack proper hygiene. They will suffer from an array of mental disorders, depression, alcohol and drug addiction, fear of being kidnapped again, low self-esteem, rebellious and suicidal tendencies, sexually transmitted diseases, skepticism and suspicion.

“Treating their emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual needs will be a lengthy process and monumental task; but rescuing, rehabilitating, and redeeming these victims of prostitution is the work of God.”

People can find out more about Rapha House by visiting www.arm.org and clicking on the link for Rapha House on the left.

Leesburg couple leads efforts to rescue Cambodian children

Photo: Legacy of Hole International

Leesburg couple aims to rescue children in need

February 25, 2008
Rosalind Jennings
Special to the Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel (Florida, USA)

LEESBURG - Following decades of civil war, Cambodia's internal strife and corruption has hit the country's children the hardest, according to Tim Brown, co-founder of Legacy of Hope International.

The faith-based organization is dedicated to saving Cambodian youths from cruel practices such as sex slavery. It provides shelter, loving adult care, food, education and medical treatment. Brown and his Cambodian-born wife, Lakhina Brown, live in Leesburg and founded Legacy of Hope in 2003. Now they're looking for help in their efforts to save Cambodian children.

Cambodia, a tropical and largely rural, farm-based country, has extreme poverty and Asia's highest prevalence of HIV.

UNICEF statistics report at least 470,000 orphans in Cambodia. Many family members were murdered by the Khmer Rouge communist regime that controlled the country from 1975 to 1978 and did not fully surrender until l999.

The murders of 1 million to 3 million Cambodians occurred during a period of mass genocide. The killings were the subject of a 1984 film, The Killing Fields.

Half the country's population of about 14 million is age 21 or younger, according to the CIA World Factbook.

"One whole generation of Cambodians were slaughtered," Brown said.

Though some peace and political stability took hold during the 1990s, the country's inhabitants continue to suffer.

More than 25 percent of the adult population is illiterate, according to UNICEF. About 60 percent have unsafe drinking water, according to UNICEF.

"The average income is about $1 a day," Brown said. "Cambodia is a country that hasn't changed much since the '70s -- since The Killing Fields."

Legacy of Hope is building a Legacy Children's Village in Battambang, Cambodia. Plans call for three houses to care for 16 children each. Two and a half acres of fruit orchards and a tilapia pond could help fight malnourishment.

"Our kids will be healthy," Lakhina Brown said. "They will eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and they will learn to fish."

"We have property and have started construction," Tim Brown said. "We have compound walls up and the footings and pilings for the school. The overall project costs $500,000 to complete."

Brown said the immediate goal is to raise $280,000 to complete the school and administrative offices.

Legacy of Hope is a nonprofit organization recognized by the Cambodian government as a charity. The group operates a vocational center in Battambang.

"We serve up to 1,000 kids a day and teach English, sewing, computer, Bible and some guitar," Brown said.

But the school is beyond its capacity, so Legacy of Hope members plan on buying property to expand, the Browns said.

However, their first goal is to complete the village. He said most of their children come from Poipet, a dangerous border town.

"This town [Poipet] is like the Las Vegas of Asia," Brown said. "They have five gambling casinos. It's a gateway for child trafficking for Southeast Asians.

"Our goal is to rescue these children before they are sold into child slavery or abducted into child slavery," Brown continued.

Brown said relatives will sell children into slavery or prostitution. Lakhina Brown said they often do it unknowingly.

"It's also done through deception," Lakhina Brown said. "These people are not educated. They come to a poor family and say, 'You have so many children that you can't feed them.' "

She said criminals ask to take one or a few of a family's children and promise that they will get good jobs in the city and send money back home.

"They say that they could work as servers or cooks, but in the end they've conned the family. They are not going to a restaurant to be servers, they are sold to pimps and dealers," she said.

If the children don't obey their captors they are often beaten, electrocuted and murdered, Lakhina Brown said.

Legacy of Hope sponsors medical and sustenance missions to the country.

Tim Brown said the goal is not to westernize the children in their care, but to make them strong Cambodians, so the country's population can begin to fight corruption.

"We want to build them strong from the inside," Lakhina Brown said.

"One of our kids could be the next prime minister of that country," Tim Brown said.

Legacy of Hope would like donations and volunteers. Trips to the country take place at least twice a year.

To find out more, go to lohintl.org or call 352-326-3899.