Mothers as Traffickers

Recently, the headline story on CNN.com was “The Women that Sold Their Daughters into Sex Slavery”.  This shocking headline caught my attention, and I clicked on the link to read more.  The article by Tim Hume, Lisa Cohen, and Mira Sorvino featured three mothers living in Svay Pak, Cambodia who all faced a similar problem – poverty.  All three mothers had taken thousands of dollars from loan sharks to help their families survive.  They were in so much debt; they had to make their children work for income to pay down their debt.  Instead of sending their daughters to work in factories or to be nannies, they did something no mother should ever do.  They sold their daughters to sex traffickers.

The mothers who sold their daughters into slavery.

Take Kieu, 14, for example.  When she was 12 years old, her father became very ill with tuberculosis and was too sick to work.  The family had to take loans from a loan shark to survive, their debt rose to more than $9,000.  According to Kieu’s mother, Neoung, “virginity selling” was common in the neighborhood, and she viewed it as a good option to bring in income for the family. 

At only 12 years old, Kieu’s mother sold her to a man at a hotel, who kept her there for two days.  After this, Kieu’s mother sold her to a series of brothels to work as a prostitute.  One of which was 400 kilometers (almost 250 miles) away near the Thai border.  Luckily, Kieu was able to escape her home when she learned her mother planned to send her away again, only it would have been for 6 months.

Svay Pak, Cambodia

The story doesn’t stop here.  This is the sad reality facing most of the young girls living in Svay Pak, Cambodia.  Most people in Svay Pak live on less than $2 per day; the poverty in the neighborhood is overwhelming.  Don Brewster, a 59 year old former American pastor moved to Svay Pak with his wife in 2009 after an investigative trip to the neighborhood.  He said “When we came here three years ago, and began to live here, 100% of kids between ages 8 and 12 were being trafficked.” Brewster has since started an organization, Agape International Missions (AIM).  AIM helps to rescue girls from their traffickers and brothels, as well as destroy and prosecute the networks of traffickers.  After they rescue the girls, they can bring them to their rehabilitation center, where the girls can be educated and given access to legitimate work opportunities. 

Don Brewster

The more I read this article, the more I realized it brought to life what we learned in History class.  In early December, we completed a short unit about modern-day slavery.  We learned many statistics about modern-day slavery, including the fact that there are currently 27 million enslaved around the world, with approximately 9 million being children.  We learned poverty combined with weak law enforcement, fractured social structures, and political turbulence/corruption are the key reasons as to why slavery still exists today.  Perhaps the most jaw-dropping and heart-breaking fact we learned was that today, sex slavery, particularly child sex slavery is becoming a huge industry and a big problem.

The information in the CNN article about child sex slavery in Cambodia helped me to further understand the problem that still exists in our world today.  All of the information presented in the CNN article reinforced what I had been taught in class.  Although it was extremely disturbing and difficult to read, I found the article to be very informative and it clearly explained the connection between poverty in Svay Pak leading to the sex trafficking among young girls. 

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the article for me is the fact these young girls were sold into sex trafficking by their own mothers.  It is incomprehensible to me that a parent would sell their child and then talk so freely about it, making it sound socially acceptable.  Selling your child into slavery is something no mother should ever have to do or believe is a normal option for her family’s survival. 

Bibliography:

Cohen, Lisa.  Hume, Tim.  Sorvino, Mira.  “The Women Who Sold Their Daughters into Sex Slavery.”        

CNN.  10 December 2013.  CNN.com.  http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/12/world/cambodia-child-sex-trade/ (accessed 29 December 2013).

Pictography:

Montessuis, Jeremie.  “Don Brewster, a Former Pastor from California.”  Photograph.  The CNN Freedom

Project: Ending Modern - Day Slavery.  12 December 2013.  http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/12/we-need-more-recruits/.  Accessed 2 January 2014.

Montessuis, Jeremie.  “Svay Pak, an Impoverished Neighborhood on the Outskirts on Phnom Penh.” 

Photograph.  The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern - Day Slavery.  12 December 2013.  http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/12/miras-cambodia-journal-day-one-arrival-in-cambodia/.  Accessed 2 January 2014.

Montessuis, Jeremie.  “The Women Who Sold Their Daughters into Sex Slavery.”  Photograph.  The CNN

Freedom Project: Ending Modern - Day Slavery.  10 December 2013.  http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/10/every-day-in-cambodia-the-women-who-sold-their-daughters-to-sex-slavery/.  Accessed 2 January 2014.