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.

Christmas arrives at the Daughters

A set of Christmas bunting goes through a quality control inspection.

Christmas came early this year in the Daughters of Cambodia sewing room, where clients are busy stuffing stockings and sewing Christmas tree bunting. The sewing room has been a tangle of red and green since July, as our production team vamped up work on seasonal decor in order to meet an anticipated high demand for those products this fall.

This line's of Christmas products includes some of last year's best-sellers, like our Khmer-inspired Sarong Stocking, Christmas party bows and stuffed reindeer, as well as a few new items, like our snow-white polar bear bear sporting a festive Christmas scarf.

Our Christmas line will hit the shelves at the Daughters of Cambodia Visitor Centre shop in September. 

A client sews the lining into a Khmer-inspired Sarong Christmas Stocking.

A sample reindeer sits atop a pile of reindeer parts in the sewing room.

Stretching to the limit

Daughters of Cambodia's increased outreach efforts, which started at the end of 2012 and have continued into 2013, have been more fruitful than we could have imagined, with more than 100 new clients starting work with us so far this year. However, this exciting growth also brings new challenges for Daughters, as space in our sewing room and Operations Centre is becoming increasingly limited with each new client.

Nonetheless, Daughters is committed to maintaining our policy of never turning away a girl or boy hoping to leave the sex industry. But in order to do so, we will need to expand. Daughters is currently in negotiations with our landlord regarding rental of a building he is constructing immediately adjacent to ours. Such an expansion, if negotiations go well, could more than double our available space and ensure our strategic presence in the red-light district of Stung Mean Chey for years to come.

In the meantime, Daughters is continuing our outreach program to draw in as many clients as possible, and we're set to launch a new nighttime outreach later this month.

White Linen Boutique Hotel Opens

Daughters of Cambodia's newest social enterprise, the White Linen Boutique Hotel, opens today. In a country ravaged by sex trafficking, White Linen offers hope to young women who are looking for freedom and dignity outside the sex industry. White Linen aims to provide relevant training and employment to our clients in order to meet demand in Cambodia's growing hospitality industry, giving our clients the ability to sustain their exit from the sex industry long after their graduation from Daughters.

The name of the hotel was inspired by Scripture: "She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear," (Rev. 19:8, NLT), and represents a counter-narrative to the commonly held Cambodian belief that "women are like pure white cloth that cannot be made clean once stained." At White Linen, we help victims of trafficking see their own value through dignified, rewarding employment.

Soak in the view from our penthouse suite's private rooftop terrace.

The hotel itself is located on a tranquil street near the popular Russian Market and features five custom-designed rooms in a light and airy layout. Its breezy balconies and complementary home-cooked breakfasts make White Linen the perfect home-away-from-home for couples and tourists, while its common lounges, guest kitchens and flexible booking options make this hotel ideal for large families and teams.

Beautifully made custom products from the Daughters of Cambodia Sewing Room and the Sons of Cambodia wood workshop and screen printing press are on display throughout the hotel, from the screen-printed pillows inviting guests to "relax" or "sleep," to the hand-sewn laundry bags and complementary toothbrush pouches.

To learn more about White Linen Boutique Hotel, visit our website or book online now. To see even more photos of the hotel, visit our Flickr album.

The Frangipani Suite boasts a stunning four-poster bed.

Even the hotel's exterior is done in White Linen's signature light blue and white color scheme.

time to celebrate!

We had a wonderful reason to celebrate recently - Daughters just turned 5 years old on January 1st 2012, and we held a celebration in February in the new building we rented in February. It was a special time together :) to which we also invited a few partners and friends of Daughters. We had some worship together, testimonies from clients, a message pastor David Chacko (Covenant Renewal Centre), slide show looking back over 5 years, cake from Daughters cafe, and we all agreed together as I (Ruth) prayed this prayer:

"Jesus, we want to thank you for your great faithfulness to us these last 5 years. We acknowledge that it is you that has led Daughters and done an amazing work changing so many lives, leading so many out of slavery and darkness, into freedom and light. We give you all the glory for this, and we thank you for allowing us to be part of such a wonderful miracle. We are blessed and privileged to be part of this, and most of all to know you.

Thank you too for this great new premises which you have provided for us. Please fill this place with your presence, we invite you to come here. Please make our work fruitful in this place. We dedicate this building, we dedicate the work of our hands, and we dedicate our lives to you. In Jesus name. Amen!"

Valentines Day at Daughters!

cool gig to support Daughters

God is faithful to us!

God is so faithful to help us when there seem to be no other solutions! We had a situation of threat recently, which had no clear solutions without risking lives. One of our clients, N, has been with us for 2 years. She has dysfunctional behaviours and some frontal lobe damage from a childhood injury (ADHD and anger). Her husband is a violent ex-convict who beat her, and whose violence and alcoholism has caused serious health problems in one of their 3 children who got caught in the cross fire. He was referred to Teen Challenge last year by Hope for Life, a local church we partner with, and he has made huge changes after becoming a Christian there, so much that Teen Challenge and the local church are both interested in employing him as staff in the future. N also became a Christian through Hope for Life. But N has been engaging in very destructive behaviours in recent months (night time activities with bad people, live-in lovers, regularly abandoning her daughters aged 9 and 13, and substance abuse). She developed paranoia towards our staff member, Socheata, who is the manager of the Sewing Business where N is employed. When something goes ‘wrong’ in N’s experience (such as her shoes going missing 2 weeks ago, which subsequently were found on a different shoe rack), she curses Socheata and has recently been threatening her. We take her threats seriously. Her husband was imprisoned in the past for causing grievous bodily harm to a neighbour after N told him this neighbour has said bad words about N. Recently we suspended N for cursing others and bringing pornography into the building. N then threatened that a 3rd party (who she named, and he is a definite threat) would hurt either Socheata or Ruth the director if we fired her from Daughters. She also stated that her husband will quit at Teen Challenge if we fire her, and will be harmful to his recovery and Christian development, which is clearly in the best interests of the children. We sent out this story to our prayer network last Friday with this request: ‘Please pray for this client, to truly come to repentance before Jesus and put her life right, and that we will have great wisdom to know the best decision and strategy in this situation’. Before one day had gone by, we had a wonderful answer to this prayer. Last Friday at Daughters church, Ruth preached on repentance and purity. It was a powerful and anointed message. This client, N, was there. She cried all the way through the message. At the end of the message, she responded, desperate to repent and change her life and desperate to end the sin and behaviours she's been engaged in. It seems to be a wonderful victory and the best answer to this difficult situation :) Please pray for N to continue to sustain this choice, and to walk it through day by day.

Recent News & Updates!

The Sewing room:

During the first half of this year, we have begun implementing exciting plans in the Sewing Room for this year – we are aiming during 2011 to become more professional in our production and capacity, and have commenced new training courses, run by a professional trainer to the garment industry in Cambodia. Ten of our best producers in The Sewing Room have attended 3 training modules in pattern cutting. We also chose 16 clients to attend production management training courses, which were held in April and May, and all 16 graduated, and are putting their skills to practice in our production rooms. We have been purchasing new production equipment and having coaching from a professional production trainer, to increase efficiency, quality and productivity.


We added a large number of new products to our range and these are available in our online catalogue - www.daughtersofcambodia.org/downloads/Daughters%20Catalogue%202011.pdf

Our new catalogue includes the beautiful jewellery made at Daughters, which uses locally sourced raw materials and several re-cycled objects. We have added lots of pretty accessories and cushions. We have also launched our beautiful new sleepwear range, designed by British designer Emma Hawthorne exclusively for Daughters. It is made from soft, light cotton in pretty colours and trimmed with hand-made lace. Emma is returning to Cambodia this summer to work at Daughters longer term, and we are excited about that.


Jewellery

Since opening our shop last year, we have found that our biggest seller, of all the products we make at Daughters, is the jewellery. We have recently hired an additional 3 clients from Daughters Sewing Room to make jewellery, making a total of 7 girls full time in the jewellery program. In addition, we have 4 of our boys in Sons program cutting the coconut pieces that we use on the jewellery along with other accessories such as buckles and buttons.

Wwere blessed to have several designers working with us since January, 2 short term jewellery designers and an accessories designer.


Silk Screen Printing:

WE have been working hard to improve our t-shirt program, under Sons of Cambodia. We have 2 volunteers, Chet and Amarja, both from the USA, who are managing the production and systems, such as inventory flow, management of orders, and systems for tracking stock. We have a silk screen expert, Matt from the USA, who is Amarja is training the clients in silk screen printing skills, and Matt is also working on some exciting new designs.


Other Skills Trainings

Two clients in our Visitor Centre commenced a twelve month training in management, provided by Hagar Career Pathways. They will return to Daughters at the end of the training and use their skills to each manage 2 of the small businesses based in our Visitor Centre. We are very excited for them!



Social Services Programs

Our social work team, now 7 people, has been very busy and active. Their work is often dealing with critical situations and emergencies involving domestic violence, or interventions to prevent the trafficking of babies or young children. Another very common problem is the clients’ lack of skill in managing their money. We have appointed one of our counsellors as money management counsellor, since many clients engage in gambling, reckless spending, or losing money because they do not keep it safe. Many also have debts that mean they cannot buy food or pay rent. We are working with them to help them reduce their debts, save a portion of their salaries, and manage their money better.

We have seen some recent successes in our men’s project. This is a new project working with husbands who perpetrate violence, or engage in other dysfunctional behaviours. We have made referrals of 3 husbands to a residential treatment program for substance addictions, and they are making extremely positive progress. We have been building relationship with a few other husbands, and have also seen them implement growing behaviour changes through the behaviour management techniques our social workers have been teaching them. We often find that their children are caught up in the family problems and some have been at risk of being trafficked as acts of revenge or due to neglect. We have been able to successfully prevent several babies recently from being trafficked. We have also made 2 referrals to a women’s refuge for victims of domestic violence, and this intervention has been very valuable in proving safety and support for those victims.

We promoted one client in the Sons program to be supervisor of the other boys. Since coming to Sons, he demonstrated radical lifestyle change from the first day, and has grown by leaps and bounds in taking initiative and responsibility. He is a fantastic peer mentor to the other boys, who respect him and learn from his example. His work is diligent and conscientious. We are very proud of him.


Workshop Program

We have held educational workshops recently on the following topics:

The importance of hydration (drinking enough water)
Emotional abuse education
Making healthy choices when selecting a mate
Prevention of Diarrhea
STD education
Correct use of medicines
Preventing intestinal parasites
The Immune System
Drug & substance misuse workshops (external trainers)
How to implement a savings scheme & money management
Hepatitis, dengue and malaria prevention
Education in the use and misuse of medications
Parenting skills



Medical Program:

We had an outbreak of rubella among our clients earlier this year, and due to the steady number of pregnant clients, we developed some new health policies which we have been implementing for the purposes of infection control. Rubella is particularly harmful to the foetus in the first trimester of pregnancy, and is very widespread among the community at large in Cambodia. We introduced isolation measures for clients with rubella and the incidences were eradicated at Daughters, which we were thankful for.

We have widened our infection control measures to include a range of other diseases that are important to eliminate without further spread.


Photography Classes:

We have 5 clients who are learning photography skills for a project which we ran for 4 months. They were trained by a photographer George Hsia from the USA. We will be producing a photojournal shortly as a result of this project. It was a great opportunity for them to learn this beautiful skill.