The girls and women each have their own stories that are theirs to share.
We are so thankful for each one that has been able to start a new life
and have escaped and overcome the oppression of the past.
Here are just a few stories:
“This is My Story”
The trafficker offered to get me a job baking cakes, and I agreed. But it was a lie.
She took me to a brothel and sold me to the brothel owner…… Working there, I felt I was in Hell and would never get out.
I thought I would die there and never return home.
It was beyond my belief that I had become a sex worker.
I felt so hopeless, so worthless, without value.
I stayed locked in that brothel for one year.
My feelings and my life are so different now, at Daughters.
The difference is like the distance between earth and heaven.
My life feels like a dream compared to the life I led before.
I love my job now. I love the programs at Daughters.
They give me “penh chet” (a full heart) and hope.
Now I make products. Thank you for helping me to have a new life.
“Sopeap’s Story”
A friend of my cousin sold me. She asked if I could babysit her child, but it was a trick.
When I arrived, I carried her baby inside, but she had taken me to a brothel.
She took money from the brothel owners and left me there.
At first I was desperate to escape, but after awhile I realized I had nowhere to go so I stayed there.
I wanted to go home, but I was too ashamed to face my family.
I never received money for se work, the pimp took it all.
They injected me with drugs, telling me these would make me beautiful.
After one month of this, they forced me to have sex with customers.
The customers beat me also, and I realized I had no way out of the situation.
I was never allowed to refuse customers, even if I was sick. I had no hope and was full of fear.
It was hard to breathe, and I had no self-worth. Every night I had nightmares, panic attack, and intense fears.
Then, I found Daughters of Cambodia. Daughters gave me a job and helped me get treatment when I was sick.
They gave me counseling and my feelings began to change.
I can usually sleep well at night now. I know I have value now.
“I Was Hopeless”
When I was a young teenager, my mother was drunk every day and cursed me and my siblings.
My father had run off with another woman, and my neighbors insulted us
because I had no father and an alcoholic mother.
I was hopeless. My sister and I could not go to school like other kids our age,
because we had to earn money to support ourselves.
People insulted us because we worked as sex workers.
