Story of a girl named "Mliss"

My name is Mliss*, I am 18 years old. My father died at 60 and my mother died at 53. They had 5 children, 2 sons and 3 daughters. I am the 4th child in the family and I studied to grade 4 at school.

After my parents died, my brothers, sisters and I went to live with my Aunt but her family is very poor. When I was 10 years old, my Aunt sent me to work as a servant for a family The house owner ordered me to cook, clean, wash clothes etc. and cursed me. Sometimes I did not have enough food to eat. I got 10 0000 riels per month ($23). I worked for this family until I was 14. My Aunt then took me to a garment factory for 4 months – she would come to collect the money to take care my family. At the garment factory, I had a friend who asked me one day if I wanted to go to work in garment factory in Phnom Penh, she said she knew a factory we could get a lot more money at. I decided to go with her but I felt unsure.

We arrived at a place she said was her Aunt’s house. I was told to wait for the Aunt to come and get us work whilst my friend was sent to get us something to eat. I waited until evening but I didn’t see her come back. When the lady went to close the door of the house I asked why my friend hadn’t come back and why she was closing the door. She replied that my friend had sold me and that I must stay in a room and for wait for a job to do. Shortly after a large man came and forced me and locked me into the room. I could not run away, I had to follow their orders. I cried but they paid no attention. Several hours later, I heard people talking and my door was opened. The woman announced there was a man wanting to see me and I wasn’t to be hopeless. I felt very afraid like an animal that sees the tiger. This man forced me on the bed and removed my clothes and raped me. I was afraid of him and I hurt from my body. The man thanked me as he left.

The lady came and ordered me not to cry, I needed to do more. She told me to take a bath. I felt hopeless - I didn’t want to live any more. The brothel owner sold me to Chinese man for a week, he always forced me to copy sex from the videos. Back at the brothel I was forced to have sex with 10 guests a day, if I refused the brothel owners orders, she refused me food or she did something to me physically which would eventually kill me.

In 2007 this brothel owner sold me to someone else. They locked me in a room for 4 days and then forced me to have sex with 12 to 15 men a day. If I had menstruation, they didn’t allow me to rest. So, I worked in there until I was sick but they forced me to use drugs to keep going.

When I was 16, a man helped me to escape from this brothel. I lived with this man until I was 5 months pregnant, at which point we divorced because he was always very violent to me. So, I decided to go and live with my Aunt until my baby was born. A month after the birth I went to work in a karaoke bar for 5 months where I met the peer educator from AFESIP. She brought me to clinic where I learnt about AFESIP’s centres and I was to allowed to stay to study skills.

I now studying sewing, English and computer at AFESIP. In my future I would like to become a good tailor and to design clothes and sell them through the internet.

The Government of Cambodia and NGOs should work together to help stop sex trafficking and prostitution and that the buyers of commercial sex increase sex trafficking and prostitution. Buyers, traffickers/pimps should arrested by the police and receive punishment from the law.

I would tell all women to be very careful in who they believe. If you decide to do something, you must investigate it on your own to be clear. I trusted and was sold by my friend.

From: http://www.afesip.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=109

http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/southeastasia/outreach/resources/cambodiawebunit/culture.html

Cambodian culture is very different than American culture. This link gives us a better understanding of their culture, what their holidays are, and how they celebrate special occassions such as weddings.

AFESIP Cambodia

This is the website of the program that Somaly and Pierre got involved in. It helped them raise money in order to save the girls that are stuck in prostitution.

http://www.afesip.org/

Preparing for your trip to Cambodia

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/cambodia.htm

In order to travel from the U.S. to Cambodia, you need to have certain vaccinations. This link has an article that describes the vaccinations you need and anything else you would need.

Somaly Mam Foundation

The Somaly Mam Foundation is a nonprofit charity committed to ending modern day slavery in North America and around the world.

http://www.somaly.org/whoweare

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rhetoric/105H17/nnguyen/cof.html

This article displays similarities and differences in Japan and Cambodian prostitution. It discusses prostitution in Japan. Prostitutes are treated very differently in Japan, they are treated with nore respect. However, there are some similiarities in which this article reveals.

Disscusion Questions #3

If you were given the opportunity to save a prostitute from her life, would you?

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64833/joel-brinkley/cambodias-curse

While much of Cambodia -- and of the world -- holds on to memories of the country’s sorrowful past under the Khmer Rouge, few seem to notice that the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen is destroying the nation.

Riverside Brothel Operator Deported, Accomplice in Limbo

Illegal immigrants found guilty of, “attempted promoting or compelling prostitution," a felony. Hampton Bays resident deported.

http://riverhead.patch.com/articles/one-riverside-brothel-operator-deported-another-still-in-limbo

3 women saved from brothel

MUMBAI: Acting on a tip-off from the human rights agency International Justice mission (IJM), the Nagpada police rescued three women who were forced into prostitution from a brothel in Mustafa Chawl building in Kamathipura on Thursday. All three women had been trafficked from Bangalore under the pretext of being offered better jobs in Mumbai. "The stories of the women freed from the Mustafa Chawl brothel match a disturbing reality we are seeing in the Kamathipura area," said IJM advocate Michelle Mendonca.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-30/mumbai/28356487_1_brothel-kamathipura-three-women

Book Review

This is a book review of this book, about someones opinion on the story and the way that it is being told.
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-road-to-lost/

Sex Slave Blog

Katia, from Moldova, was sold into sexual slavery in Turkey. Her husband decided to go undercover and try to find her.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/

Volunteer Latin America

Some books are dangerous; reading them opens your eyes and makes you see the world around you in a different way. After reading them this new understanding of reality lingers and is not easily dismissed. Stories like these drive you to action, serving as a call to take up arms. Somaly Mam’s memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, is one such book.

http://www.volunteerlatinamericablog.com/the-road-of-lost-innocence

Main Characters

Somaly: the writer and the main character of the story. The story is told from her perspective of the life that she lived as a child. She had three different names and was abused and raped by, what seemed to her, every man on the earth. Somaly is in this book because she is the narrator and the person who this book is about. She is the young girl that has been abused and also become a victum of prostitution.

Grandfather: Somaly's "care taker", he abuses Somaly and rapes her if she didnt get her the money she was supposed to get. He was Somaly's main care taker when she was a child, he made her buy him things and make money for him. She also had to sleep with him and when she didn't return home for the night the next morning she had to be prepared for a beating from him.

Mother/Father: takes care of Somaly as she becomes friends with their family, take her in for nights to "get" her away from Grandfather

Phanna- Daughter of mother and father. Somaly, while at the brothel, was aloud out so that she could go to her wedding. She gets married to a man the beats her and does not treat her right. Phanna is an example of a cambodian that had potential to do great things and be beautiful, but the cambodian life style destroyed her like it does to almost all of the women in the country.


Aunty Nop: A friend of Grandfather's, who is buys Somaly from him.

Aunty Peuve: she buys Somaly from Aunty Nop in order for her to work in the Brothel

Li: Ex-military, he beats all of the women who are working at the brothel. He is Aunty Peuve's husband

Dietrich- He is the one that rescues Somly from for the brothel. He asks her to move in with him and after much resistance she desides too. He takes care of her, feeds her, and gives her clothes. He is rich and from Switzerland.

Pierre- French man that is rugged and he is poor. Somaly likes him but then she gets hit from him and is put into her place. He opens up a restaurant and gives Somaly a job and $20 a month. He returns to France and brings Somaly with him. He never does things for her and says for her to figure things out on her own. This is a very important thing because Somaly learns to become more independent and when they finally return to Cambodia she stands up for herself and helps all of the cambodian prostitutes. The two got a divorce in 2006.

Guillaume- Friend of Dietrich, took Somaly in after Dietrich left her, he never raped her but took care of her and treated her like a man should.

Discussion Question #2

If you had a chance to escape from being a slave would you risk your life for freedom?