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ICA Rescue Home in Cambodia

ICA Rescues Girls from Sex Trafficking

In October 2007, ICA and its partner Hagar International established a home for girls ages 4-14 who were victims of sex trafficking, forced prostitution, rape or other sexual crimes. These were girls that had been physically removed from a life of sexual slavery in a rural area where underage prostitution is rampant. Girls as young as 4 years-old had been taken, sold, kidnapped and kept for the sole purpose of being sexually abused by adults.

After being rescued, the girls came to our secure home where they receive shelter, food, medical care, legal support, clothing and education. They also received spiritual, emotional and psychological counseling. Our program employed teachers, counselors, mothers, cooks and security personnel who lived with the girls 24/7. There were 27 girls in the home, and they lived in family units consisting of six girls and a mother. ICA aimed to replicate a loving, caring and stable family setting for each girl.

After the initial 27 girls completed the rehabilitation program, the home was forced to be closed due to lack of funding. When possible, the girls were reunited with their families after careful scrutiny with the family and after the family also received counseling. The rest of the girls were placed in loving Christian foster homes. Counseling with the child and family continue today and the girls are thriving in their new lives.

ICA Builds a Community Center

In addition to the girls’ home, ICA also built a community center in a village approximately 60 miles west of Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2007. The center is used for a classroom, community meetings, church services on Sundays, and will also house up to 12 orphans."

Sokey's Story

Sokey*, who is 15 years of age, lived in a remote village in provincial area of Cambodia with her family who are Buddhist. One day a woman visited the village where she lived with her mother and father and younger brothers. She looked around the village and made an offer to Sokey's parents to take her to another province to work as a domestic helper. Her family was very poor and so her parents agreed to let her go. Sokey left home at the age of 12 to a place she did not know and people she had never met.

She worked for 2 weeks as a domestic helper, caring for children and working in the rice fields. Then the son of the lady that had visited her village took her to a brothel. There she saw beautiful girls in sexy clothes. She was given something to smoke but was very scared of it so refused to smoke it. She saw girls having sex with men and was afraid of what would happen to her next, knowing it was only a matter of time. After a while a neighbor of the brothel saw Sokey and took pity on her because she was so young. She took her back to her family but they said she was crazy and that she just sat and stared into space. Sokey had been drugged and was very traumatized by her experience. The family then took her to the Police who referred her on to a Human Rights Organisation, who in turn asked Hagar to provide care for her.

Her home situation is very unsafe and Sokey is afraid to go back home but she longed to be back in her home province and away from the city. It was decided that Sokey would move to the new Kampong Thom shelter when it opened.

Sokey's father was an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier, who himself, was traumatized and had psychological problems. He would laugh and tell how he killed many people. Tragically, Sokeys father was murdered during 2008 over an argument over fishing rights. Sokey returned home for the funeral and mourning period and has had trouble settling back into her schooling since she returned to the Aftercare Centre, but is slowly making progress. Every day she bikes to the local school where she studies at Grade 6 level and each afternoon she learns English. At Kampong Thom Aftercare Sokey is a leader and the younger girls look up to her as their role model.

She has told her counselor "One day I would like to design clothes and learn to sew so do you think I might be able to work Hagar Design one day?"

It is a great sign that Sokey is thinking about her future, and has dreams for what she could do one day.

*Not her real name, name has been changed for confidentiality.