For
Daughters client, Srey Pov, it was her worst nightmare: After leaving the sex
industry behind, she discovered she was pregnant by one of her former clients.
When
the pregnancy test came back positive, Srey Pov became desperate. She contemplated suicide and told counselors she planned to take not only her own
life, but those of her small boys as well. She talked of taking them to Phnom
Penh’s tallest bridge and pushing them to their deaths before taking her own
life.
Even
as counselors worked with Srey Pov to find alternatives, they arranged for
trustworthy people to monitor her outside of working hours to ensure the safety
of her and her children. But alternatives proved difficult to find. Slowly,
Srey Pov stopped talking of suicide and instead contemplated abandoning her
children with her estranged husband — an unacceptable alternative, as her
husband had previously considered selling their children to traffickers and had
more recently expressed hope that Srey Pov’s unborn child would be a girl, who
could fetch a high price.
But
the social work team was finally able to find an answer in a partnering women’s
shelter offering a yearlong program that would furnish a safe place for Srey
Pov and her children while providing a family and group support structure.
Within 24 hours of hearing about the shelter, Srey Pov agreed to go. She went
home, gathered her boys and their belongings and, with the help of Daughters’
social workers, moved into the shelter right away.
Now,
Srey Pov says she feels happy, and, for the first time since reading that
pregnancy test, she says she has hope. Daughters’ social workers continue to
work with Srey Pov to find a long-term solution for after she finishes the
yearlong shelter program and are currently looking for families or permanent
live-in centers outside the city and away from her husband that could provide
her with work as well as a safe and stable environment for her children, whom
she now says she wants to raise on her own and protect from traffickers.
