I recently read Somaly Mam's autobiography titled "The Road of Lost Innocence". I was absolutely shocked by her raw and heartbreaking accounts of human trafficking and the sex trade of Southeast Asia. I feel very naive about how unaware I have been about the lack of human dignity found in this area of the world.
Somaly Mam is of mixed race, Kmer and Phnong, and because of her dark skin she faces much discrimination. This broken and unloved child spends her earliest days living on her own in a forest, until a man claiming to be her missing family takes her to his village. There he abuses and beats her, sells her virginity to a store merchant, and eventually sells her to a brothel in Phnom Penh. Somaly Mam describes the horrors found in the brothels and the severe mistreatment of the girls who are enslaved here. She recounts the girls being raped and abused, and even tells of a few girls who were killed. After discovering the advantages of finding foreign "clients", she eventually breaks the cycle and ends up marrying a Frenchman.
When she returns to Cambodia from France, she cofounds a non-profit, AFESIP and the Somaly Mam foundations, which have rescued thousands of enslaved girls-- as young as 5 or 6 years old. She shelters the girls and teaches them employable skills so that they too can rehabilitate and find their place in the world.
Overall, I find this book to be an important read. This truly is an inspiring story of strength and healing, but it also effectively spotlights serious issues that are occuring today all around the world (she mentions incidents even in our nation). The events she has endured are heartbreaking, but just as worst is the fact that this cruelty and horror is very common-- She is not the only one. We need to stand up for these silent girls and women who are being mistreated beyond words, and fight for the culture of life.
"It's still happening, today, tonight. Imagine how many girls have been raped and hit since you started to read this book. My story doesn't matter, except that it stands for their story too, and their stories are why I don't sleep at night. They haunt me." (61)(I have to add a note that the foundation also distribute birth control to the sex workers due to a growing AIDS crisis. I am not sure whether this is justified protection for these girls, but ultimately I don't think it is a reason not to read the book and be aware of the issue).
1 comment:
Wow - honestly - I don't even know if I could read the book (as lame as that is). I feel how weak my faith is when I realize how much sin, especially violent sins, scare me.
Saints seem to be able to look sin in the face. Maybe because they have also seen God more clearly, and see how pathetic sin is in comparison. Or, maybe because they see more clearly past the sin, and look at the sinner.
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