Why Cambodia?

I love children.  I currently have 6 children at home and my husband and I are kept busy looking after them.  It is my love for children that has led to this blogspot, a first for me, as I am terribly computer illiterate.  Anyway, I was in church one day and a guest speaker was talking about his trip to Cambodia.  He spoke of the horrible things happening to children.  Children are being sold into the sex trade.  Sex traffickers sole job is to find young girls and boys and purchase them or lure them away from their homes with the promise of a job that will solve all of their family's problems.  I am sure there was not a dry eye in the room when he was done talking.  I knew I had to do something.  I couldn't just pretend this wasn't happening to children.  I pictured my four year old daughter and my three year old son and thought about what I wouldn't give to spare them from any such horror.  I reached for my checkbook.  I definitely will do something I thought.  I was quite surprised when I heard that quiet voice inside me say "it's not enough."  Before the day was done my new hearts desire had become to fundraise for the sex trade in Cambodia.  But how does one do that?  How do you get money to go specifically to the sex trade?  How do you find out about it?  How do you raise money?  Couldn't I just write a cheque?  The first thing I did was call my friend who spends much of her life looking for ways to make a difference in the lives of children.  When I spoke to her about taking on Cambodia and the sex trade as our fundraising "thing"- something we would do now and always, she immediately said yes.  I knew she would.  So we got together and decided to look for who we would support. Who would we raise money for?  In short order we were overwhelmed not really knowing how to go about this, and decided given that it was the end of June, that we should wait, pray, and spend the summer researching the sex trade and learning what we could about what is happening each and every day. 

Researching is not a job for the faint of heart.  If you dare look - what you will find is appalling. Most can not bear to listen to your findings, for instance, although the going rate for selling your daughter is along the lines of $50 to $100 some have been sold for as little as $10.  Families so poor, so hungry, so desperate, we can not even imagine. Young innocent girls are particularly at risk, especially because virgins are highly valued.   Because of the high value placed on virgins, girls are commonly stitched up so that they can be sold as virgins repeatedly.  Children become compliant either through sheer fear of their circumstance, through drugs that are forced upon them or through the insertion of electrical devices into their genital areas that can be stimulated if they are non compliant.  If at this point you want to turn off the computer and have a cup of tea, I don’t blame you.  When the news is too much we turn it off, we can’t stand it. It is too much to bear. It is heartbreaking.  But these kids can’t turn it off.  Multiple times a day, sometimes as many as 20 times a day they can’t get away.  CAN WE IGNORE THIS?  What wouldn’t you do to help just one child not experience this?  I am crying as I write this because of some of the horrific images that I have found in my research.  Anyway I digress.

Shortly after our decision to spend the summer researching I was sitting with my father having a coffee.  He had recently started attending a new church.  He was sharing with me about his church and tells me about this safe house in Cambodia that he and his church are sponsoring.  This safe house has the primary purpose of pulling vulnerable, “at risk” children off the streets.  He goes on to explain that the safe house reports on the activities of sex traffickers and educates the community about the methods traffickers are using to lure children into the trade.  I sat staring at him with my mouth wide open.  Let me tell you how many times I had said the word Cambodia in my life - maybe once or twice in a geography class.  How many times had I ever heard my father say the word Cambodia?  I am pretty sure never.  Yet here we were both talking about Cambodia.  “Did mom tell you I was going to fundraise?”  I asked.  He looked as surprised as I was.  “There are some people you need to meet” he said.  “They will really want to meet you.”

I don’t think my friend and I had even met them before we received an itinerary for an upcoming trip to Cambodia.  We met them and learned they were pastors that had just recently moved to Victoria, had a real heart for these safe houses in Cambodia, and believed that God was going to bring other people with hearts for Cambodia into their lives.  Well now, how exciting was this!

   Now I don’t know if you believe in God or not, but at this point I was really starting to think that HE had a specific plan for me and that perhaps I was meant to go to Cambodia.  Well, I thought to myself…I’ll know soon enough if I’m meant to go when I present the whole idea to my husband - who will be left at home with all of our children, the youngest of which is 2.

As you probably guessed he supported me going wholeheartedly, in fact there have been some things that have come up that have caused me to doubt and question whether or not I should go and it has been his support and encouragement that has enabled me to keep saying yes I will go! Yes I will do this!

And now here I am.  I leave on the 15^th of November for 2 weeks.  Little ‘ol me heading to Cambodia…what can I do?  What can one person do in a world of hurt?  I don’t know.  But I know I can try.  I can try to make a difference.  Whether that is by trying to raise a little money to help stop something everyone would agree needs to be stopped, or whether it is by simply raising awareness so someone else with a lot more experience or resources than me, I don’t know.  All I know is one person spoke in my church.  I think he spoke for about 15 minutes.  And here I am flying to Cambodia.  He made a difference.  So here I am speaking to YOU.  I will continue to speak to you from Cambodia when I can.  I have no idea how often I will be able to connect, but when I can I will.  I will tell you about the people I have met and the things I have seen and if I can some thoughts and ideas about how WE can help the children of Cambodia.