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| Activist Somaly Mam attends the US Stop Sex Trafficking Of Children & Young People Campaign kick off event in New York City Photograph: Bennett Raglin/WireImage |
Cambodian anti-sex trafficking campaigner and founder of AFESIP, rescuing women from brothels and supporting their recovery
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Emine Saner
The Guardian
Growing up in extreme poverty under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, Mam was sold into sexual slavery when she was 12, eventually ending up in a Phnom Penh brothel where she endured unimaginable daily torture and rape. After being made to watch as another girl, her best friend, was murdered, Mam escaped and was helped out of Cambodia by a French aid worker.
Instead of trying to rebuild her life in France, where she married, Mam returned to Cambodia to help girls who hadn't been so lucky. In 1996, she set up her organisation Afesip (Action for Women in Distressing Situations), to rescue girls and women from brothels and support their recovery. She has already helped more than 4,000 women and children, some as young as five, escape sexual slavery in south-east Asia and in 2007 set up the Somaly Mam Foundation, to raise awareness, campaign for change and fund projects to rescue and rehabilitate women and children sold into slavery.
Mam's work has come at a terrible personal cost. Her life has been threatened by pimps and brothel owners, and in 2006, her then 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped and raped by three men, as retaliation for the work her mother does. In an interview in 2005 , Mam admitted to periods of desperation, including more than one suicide attempt. But in more recent years, asked why she continues to fight, she has always responded, "I don't want to go without leaving a trace."
6 comments:
i love my sister.....go for it mama.
You are the heart and soul of our future young woman.
I love you. I will support you all the way.
But she is a WHORE! Whore have no rights!
Who are making young,women Khmer so
terrible?Who want Khmer to get sick,
dead,poor,and their bodies as sex slaves?
Who is the selfish one in Cambodia?
Why does he do that to Khmer people?
Does he have justice,virtue,and
self- discipline or morality in his
mind?
Thank for your good heart and work
hard for people.
2:am You are a fucking scambag ever
existed the on this earth .you must go to hell.You piece of shit
you are the most courageous woman i have ever met.I wish I will meet you someday.My sincere condolense to daughter.
Somaly Mam is a lier lier lier Her school friends and family say none if it is true, it all about raising money.
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