Sophea

When I was a girl, I dreamed of growing up, marrying a wonderful man, and
raising a family...

Abused by her stepmother, Sophea ran away to a Cambodian city. A woman met her on the street and told her she could employ Sophea at her home. Sophea followed...and was put to work in a brothel.

Two years later, at age fourteen, the girl convinced her "employer" to let her return to her family. Finding them, she found she was despised by them. She went to a field and waited for men. Having "earned" enough money for food and a bus ticket, she returned to the city.

A man there told her he could help her. He sold her to another brothel.

"How," my mind wondered. "How could she trust again? How could she trust an agency that may come to to help; how could she trust a man?"

I am now 24, and I am dying of AIDS. My greatest fear is that no one will come to my burial.

Half a world away, she had my needs, my wants. There are no guarantees.



World Hope International's page on human trafficking: http://www.worldhope.org/trafficking/faastdebut.htm

US State Department's 2006 report on human trafficking: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/