I happened to lay my hands over an earlier issue of the Reader’s Digest. The top story covered the horrendous truth shrouding the lives of females in Cambodia. The trafficking of girls, especially minors is fueled by the bad economic condition of the families thriving on the soils of Cambodia. Not only that, Cambodia is the source, transit and destination for human trafficking. Girls are sold at as less as $10 and exploited sexually after being trafficked from the rural areas to the urban regions.
Talking about the flesh trade, every year about a million young girls are forced into the sex slavery on the pretext of giving them jobs. Human trafficking stays as the second largest organized crime in the world, which helps earn the callous souls indulging in this dirty business, a profit of $9-10 billon per year. And the victims of this trade, sad is their plight- subjects to torture, rape, physical abuse, starvations, abortions, life threats, drugs, and what not. Abysmal life. Sad indeed.
Now called Mam with reverence, Somaly Mam was a teen when she was sold into prostitution by a man who posed as her grandpa. She was made to work in a brothel along with many more young girls, and was tortured and used by many men. Initially, she was audacious enough not to go by the orders of the men who “owned her”, but the gruesome torture inflicted upon her by them made her give up. Moreover, she was made to witness the gory death of her closest friend in the brothel. The girl was shot dead in front of Somaly’s eyes.
And then, Mam took a vow. A vow, not to leave the men who changed her and many others’ lives forever. A vow, to help the other hapless souls around the world who are desperate to flee from the darkness of the sex trade.
Mam married Pierre Legros, who then helped Mam to establish a non-profit org-AFESIP. This organization helps the police in tracking and rescuing girls forced into prostitution. Mam foremost helped the police raid the brothel where she was sold and helped the other miserable girls trapped there. AFESIP helps rehabilitate and reconstruct the lives of the girls who were victims of sex slavery. Despite continued threats against her life and her family, Mam continues rescuing girls, providing them care, education and scraping way the dolorous memories of their previous lives. While she dauntlessly carried her mission, her daughter got kidnapped and she got separated from her husband. But, nothing could stop her. She managed to rescue her daughter and still continues to build lives of the girls who’ve bn dumped in the dark brothels. Today, she stands as a recipient of the Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year Award and was featured as a CNN Hero. Mam as she says has no fear, not even of death. The horrors of the triste life she lived in the brothel and the innate courage she nurtures, all make her relentlessly follow her mission. She is the hope of the numerous small girls and teens, who remain shadowed by the murky clouds of the dismal flesh trade. And, she is that ray of hope which would show them the light at the end of the tunnel. The light which would remove the darkness of the silence which blares in their heart. The light which would fill their lives with the colors of joy, care, smiles and freedom.
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