One woman's story: Lita's journey to Forgiveness

For Lita, it was a long road to find peace. As a young girl, this Daughters client was raped by two men, and the trauma of that experience continued to haunt her well into adulthood.

Lita says she felt trapped by her feelings of anger and hurt — feelings that had kept her from moving on with her life. She would often lie awake at night and cry as memories of her rapists came back to her. More than anything, Lita longed to be free of those memories and the hatred that came with them.

Year after year, Lita struggled with these feelings that entrapped her. But recently, she decided to pray a prayer of forgiveness, letting go of the hatred she felt for these men. Immediately, she says she felt the burden of her memories dissipate only to be replaced by an uplifting spirit of freedom. Lita says she is no longer a slave to her feelings. She no longer lies awake at night in anger. She can sleep well, and she feels the most amazing peace has overtaken her.

Now, Lita is able to focus on her work in the Daughters sewing room, where she is part of the team that cuts patterns for all Daughters' products. She enjoys the challenge and pace of the work, and is grateful to be at peace now whether at work or home.

One Man's Story: Sokun's Shame

Sokun came to Sons of Cambodia two years ago, shortly after the program was launched. Today, he works in the wood shop, learning the skills of carpentry. He's made a lot of progress in the last two years, but as with all of our clients, total life transformation is rarely instantaneous, and it's never easy — especially when they come from a home like Sokun's.

When Sokun was growing up, his father was almost never around. When he was, it was usually to abuse Sokun's mother.

Between the beatings and his mother's blindness, Sokun quickly became the caregiver in the mother-son relationship. He aspired to go to school, but wound up missing classes to stay home and care for his mother. When money was tight — which it often was — he and his mother would go door-to-door begging for money from their neighbors.

"This made me feel very ashamed," Sokun said of their begging. But it was the only way the boy could provide for his mother.

As Sokun grew up, he said he always felt feminine. He grew his hair long and was known in his neighborhood as an effeminate boy. Male neighbors took note and abused him.

Later, Sokun left his home to find a job in Phnom Penh in an attempt to support his mother, but his lack of schooling made his job search difficult, as he did not know how to read or write.

Unemployed and desperate, Sokun easily fell in with a group of ladyboys. He started dressing as a girl and selling his body to male clients. But he still barely scraped by, sometimes sleeping on the streets and usually going hungry.

Then, Sokun met some people who worked at Daughters. They told him about the new Sons program, and Sokun joined.

Two years later, Sokun is employed and off the streets. And he's finally learning to read and write. He finds special comfort in the Bible and discipleship classes, and, earlier this year, he became a Christian.

Sokun says his anger toward himself and others is reducing and, in an outward sign of his inward transformation, says he wants to start dressing like a man again.

Today, Sokun harbors great ambitions for his future. Once he learns to read and write, he wants to work for a wedding dressmaker, helping brides change in and out of their intricate and elaborate traditional wedding costumes. When he's saved enough money, he hopes to become a hairstylist and open his own barber shop. Someday, he wants to get married and start a family.

Srey Pov's Story: "My Worst Nightmare"

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.

Marika's Story: Trapped in a foreign brothel

Marika left Cambodia with high hopes that working as a domestic servant abroad would help her provide for her family. But once she arrived at the home of her new employer, it became clear this was not going to be the case. Marika became a virtual slave to her employer, who confiscated her passport and withheld her wages. One day, she worked up the courage to escape, only to fall into the hands of a trafficker -- a man who had promised to help her but instead raped her and sold her to a brothel.

She spent three years trapped in the brothel, where she was raped and beaten daily. Yet her spirit endured, and she was again able to orchestrate her escape. This time, she was successful in making it back to Cambodia. But even at home, she found she wasn’t free. Vivid nightmares haunted her dreams while all-too-real flashbacks tortured her waking hours. It was too much, and she turned to drugs to dull the pain.

But then, Marika found Daughters. With help from Daughters' social workers, Marika was able to overcome her trauma and beat her drug addiction, and the flashbacks stopped. She earned a good wage in the Daughters' sewing room, where she quickly advanced to fine hand-stitching work.

For the first time since she left Cambodia to work as a maid, Marika felt empowered, and this time, it lasted.

She was so excited about her transformation that she wanted others to feel the same. She started going on Daughters’ outreaches in Phnom Penh’s red-light districts, giving girls trapped in the life she once lived hope for the future. She dreams she will someday be able to locate and free the young women who remain trapped in the foreign brothel that once imprisoned her.