CNN recently wrote a feature on sex trafficking in Cambodia. Following the stories of survivors, the reporters traced all the way back to the mothers in Cambodia who sold their daughters into sex slavery. The motives were mostly simple. Poverty is a everywhere in some towns of Cambodia that continues to drive people to make rash decisions for the promise of money. When a family falls into debt that they cannot pay, they do anything for even a little bit of money, even if it involves giving up their own daughters to voluntarily be raped by men.
This scars the victims for the rest of their lives. Knowing that their mothers are in the car outside, voluntarily allowing them to be molested and physically abused by two or three men a night has a huge effect on the victims' sense of self worth. These mothers have to stoop so low and get their daughters to take such a low place that it's horrifying what people would do for a bit of money.
The article introduced organizations such as Agape International Missions, which rescue and rehabilitate victims of sex slavery, and described what they have done to prevent the issue. It ends on a hopeful note, talking about how the victims now have hope for a beautiful future in which they can pursue their own dreams so that they can provide for their family in ways that don't require them to harm themselves in any way.
Yes, slavery does exist in the 21st century. People do anything to survive and make ends meet, even if it is at the expense of their own dignity and the rights they have as humans. That's why I think this feature article captured something so important, so necessary. The media needs to step in and become the voice of the victims and their families on this issue that is so gruesome and dark that it's left in the shadows of countries that participate in sex trade.
It's time not only to bring these secretive, in-the-shadows issues to light, but also to start proposing ideas on how to get involved to end them.
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