I read about trafficking every day. Sometimes the barrage of information from blogs and newspapers and government documents is overwhelming. I find myself thinking I know, I know. There are so many atrocities around the world. I get it. I’m trying to help, but I just can’t read one more sad/depressing/frustrating story. Sometimes it feels too far away and I loose touch with the urgency of the situation. Over time it can be tempting to ignore the problem and go on with life.

But then I read articles like these. Lives are changing. Survivors are thriving. Not only on other continents, but here in my home country and my home state.

• Human Trafficking Victim Graduates High School as Valedictorian
• Slavery Survivor Honored for Work at Statue of Liberty

So be encouraged. Change is happening—and keep your eyes open so you can be a partner for healing and freedom where you live and wherever you go.

We have a couple of cool events coming up in July!

Saturday, July 3rd 5:30pm
Freedom Without Walls
Freedom Center, Cincinnati

Come celebrate the opening of the new Berlin Wall exhibit at the Freedom Center and visit the Stop Traffick Fashion table!  (Tickets are required and an RSVP is necessary by June 30th)

Sunday, July 11th 12-5pm
Second Sundays in Over The Rhine
Main Street, Cincinnati

This months theme is Global Groove: a celebration of dance, art, and music from around the world!  Perfect for Stop Traffick Fashion.  Last month was a great event so we hope to see you there.  Also, if anyone has a tent we can borrow we’d appreciate it!

I’m sure I’m going to be processing everything I’ve learned on my trip to visit Hagar in Cambodia for awhile. What should I do with all of this new knowledge and experience? Maybe you are wondering the same thing. Maybe you’ve read what I’ve written and are interested in doing more. I hope that is the case! If so, here are some ideas for ways to learn more and get involved. If you’re interested in talking more please contact me at hello(at)stoptraffickfashion(dot)com.

• Learn more about the Khmer Rouge and the implications that has for the Cambodian people. It’s unfortunate that Americans don’t have a better understanding of such a recent genocide and it’s affect on the people. You can watch the 1984 movie, The Killing Fields or read one of the many books on the topic such as, First They Killed My Father by Luong Ung.
• Educate yourself about the situation of human trafficking in Cambodia by visiting the Chab Dai website.
• Pray for Cambodia, it’s people, Hagar staff and the staff of other NGOs working here.
• Blog, Facebook or Tweet about Hagar
• Become a fan of Hagar on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, or sign up for their newsletter.
• Host a Dining for Hagar event to tell your friends about Hagar and help raise money.
• Set up an online fundraising page to help raise funds for a new playground at the Hagar Catch Up School in Phnom Penh.
• Become a monthly donor to Hagar. Your monthly gift is extremely important in paying the salaries of Hagar counselors, teachers and other staff that enable the great work Hagar does. Without funding they cannot continue to restore broken lives.

Hagar’s ultimate goal is to restore their clients to life in all it’s fullness.  They do not want clients to be in intensive care forever, but to be fully re-integrated into society.  For those that come to them as children they focus on getting them the best and highest education possible to set them up for success in life.  For those women that come at an older age, they focus on job skills training in a program called Career Pathways.

Their job skills training begins with 3 months of soft skills so that the women can learn how to be punctual, resolve conflict and understand what employers are looking for in employees.  After that, they are exposed to various types of vocational opportunities.  Hagar has their own social enterprise - Hagar catering, and they also partner with around 40-50 other private enterprises in Phnom Penh who employ Hagar clients.  In fact, their clients are well known because they receive such thorough training in soft skills.

While I was in Phnom Penh we visited 2 of the Hagar catering locations and the food was excellent!  They also have contracts with 18 different companies where they run cafeterias for the workers at lunch.  We also visited the StopStart factory - one of the organizations that Hagar has a close relationship with and that employs many women from Hagar.  It was great to see the women at work and to see where some of the fabulous bags we sell are produced.

Here are a few pictures from my visit.  I hope to post some more pictures on Facebook soon!

The highlight of our visit was definitely Wednesday afternoon.  We spent the afternoon at the Women’s Recovery Shelter making jewelry with many survivors of trafficking and other domestic abuse! (Although visiting House of Smiles was a close second.)  The women were absolutely beautiful and had such a great time making some fun, beaded jewelry.  They were absolutely beaming and so was I.  It was great to see how happy they were and how much fun they were having.  Hagar is definitely making a difference in their lives!  I definitely recommend reading the hopeful stories they have posted on their website.

Hagar has several types of recovery centers.  The first is a women’s shelter for survivors of trafficking, rape or other violent, domestic abuse.  The second is a girls recovery center for girls 4-16 rescued from sex trafficking, the third is a children’s recovery center for both boys and girls who have suffered abuse, and the last is for children with mental and physical disabilities.  The recovery centers include constant care with a house mother, education, counseling and medical care.

However, their ultimate goal is to reintegrate all of their clients into society so they can create sustainable, independent and fulfilling lives.  After they have recovered sufficiently in the shelters they are moved to foster families and then given training to enable them to be fully independent.  Hagar wants everyone to be confident and resilient on their own!

Speaking of reintegration - I’ll cover their career training and reintegration programs in the next blog post!

The mission of Hagar is to care for women and children who have been cast out of society.  In addition to survivors of trafficking and other domestic and sexual abuse, Hagar also cares for mentally and physically disabled children.  In Cambodian society those children are often cast off for two reasons.  First, there can be a stigma attached to disabilities due to Buddhism. Their parents believe that the children have a disability due to problems in their previous life.  Second, they simply don’t know how to care for disabled children.

Because of this there is a great need to educate the people about how to prevent disabilities and how to care for their disabled children.  So Hagar started the House of Smiles program (Check out this video!).  Today we spoke to the founder and met several of the children and families involved.  The program consists of a residential recovery program, community foster care and education.  With this program the children can get the appropriate physical therapy and can also attend school for the first time!

Their ultimate goal is to integrate children into public schools to help eliminate the stigmas and raise awareness.  In the next year they want to develop job skills training for their parents to earn a sustainable income.  They also want to create a job program for the disabled since there are currently no jobs available for the disabled in Cambodia.

One of the coolest parts of visiting the families was to see that the parents of each of the children had taken in foster children from the residential program!  They had learned so much and their children had made such progress that they invited other disabled children to be part of their family and care for them.

Today we began a whirlwind trip to visit and understand the workings of Hagar Cambodia.  We met with leaders from the Nuturing Christian Commitment program, heard the story of a former Hagar client, heard from several of the counselors, the leader of the children’s programs and visited their catch-up school.  Phew!

I was extremely impressed by the passion and dedication of the staff, as well as the scope and continuous growth and improvement in Hagar programs.  They have recently worked with doctors and researchers at Johns Hopkins University to develop a rigorous trauma counseling curriculum specifically designed for Cambodians who have been raped or trafficked. Also, In the last year or so Hagar has added a program to provide rehabilitation for sexually abused boys.  In Cambodia, the people are only starting to become aware of the fact that boys can be sexually abused, are more willing to talk about it and less afraid to report it.   Despite the trauma, heartbreak and slow progress, the counselors “believe in something unbelievable,” as one stated.  They are motivated by the change they have seen and their desire to build resilience and self esteem in their clients.

The catch-up school is also an important program.  The children who come to Hagar are typically very behind in their education so they focus on getting them up to their current level by teaching 2 grades in one year.  They believe, of course, that education is the key to a new and sustainable life for the children that come through the Hagar programs.  The school serves children in Hagar recovery centers, children from other NGOs and from the surrounding, poor community.  They also stick with them through the highest level of education they are able to attain and help cover some costs of university as well.

They are determined to do, “Whatever it takes, as long as it takes, to restore broken lives,” and it shows!

Today was day one of my trip to Cambodia!  The day was focused on getting a big picture view of the situation in Cambodia by meeting with leaders of various organizations working here.  I had aspirations to summarize the many notes I took but now that I go through them there are just too many!  So I will highlight a few things and focus the biggest thing I took away from today.

Many of the leaders commented that the partnerships and networks among the NGOs are the strongest among many cities they have worked in.  The Director of World Hope stated, “There is no room for territorial-ism in this work.  It’s too big.  No agency can do it on their own.”  It’s easy to see from just one day!  We met with representatives from the following organizations:

Chab Dai - An NGO whose goal is to coordinate across all Christian NGOs working in the area of sex trafficking (Hagar is a partner in the Chab Dai coalition).  The Director, Helen Swan, provided an excellent overview of many facts regarding trafficking in Cambodia.  They have an excellent library full of many resources and strive to be a learning organization to provide knowledge to organizations in Cambodia and around the world.  Their primary focus is on awareness and prevention of trafficking.
IJM - We’ve mentioned IJM many times, but they work in the area of legal and social work to handle investigations, provide short term crisis intervention to victims who have been rescued, and advocate for victims throughout the trial process.  They also provide training to local police and judicial officials on the trafficking laws, how to prosecute them and how to treat the victims in order to create lasting structural change.
World Hope - An NGO who provides short term, emergency room aftercare for victims.  Once they have been rescued by law enforcement they are brought to the World Hope shelter for 2-2 1/2 months of assessment to determine whether they can be reintegrated with their family or what the appropriate aftercare services are.  This is where Hagar comes in, as they are one the possible shelters that may be recommended for long term aftercare.

Finally, we also visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum documenting many horrific acts of the Pol Pot regime.  All of that resulted in an extremely overwhelming day!  It would be easy to end in despair after hearing so many of Cambodia’s current problems.  However, in the end I was struck by the hope. Not just what comes from Hagar’s work, but I will, of course, focus on that in later posts.  (more…)

Several months ago Melissa posted a series of blogs on her trip to Kolkata, India to visit the Freeset organization.  If you want to catch up on those posts, start with this one then work your way through in chronological order.  Well, in a few days I’ll be able to start updating you on my visit to Hagar in Cambodia.  In addition to visiting the shelters and social enterprises that Hagar runs, we will also be talking to the teams from IJM and Chab Dai.

I’m looking forward to learning more about the industry leading work that Hagar does and seeing first hand the hope and restoration they provide.  I hope to be able to write some updates while we are there, but if not, there will certainly be some when I get back.