Child Abuse

It's shocking to realize. This small, round-cheeked 14-year-old in the pale, pink sleeveless top (we will call her An, though her real name must be withheld to protect her privacy) could be a poster child for modern-day slavery.

Sold by her aunt and brutally raped by a sex predator, An’s experience parallels that of the approximately 2 million children in the world today enslaved in the global sex trade.

"I Thought He'd Kill Me!" Last year, An recalls, she was invited to visit her aunt's house a few miles from the home she shared with her grandparents in Phnom Penh. During the visit, An's aunt asked her to walk with her to see a friend. When they arrived at an abandoned house, "My auntie told me that it was her friend’s house," she says. Claiming she needed to go shopping, the older woman told her niece to wait."My auntie promised to return, but [hours] later a man with a long beard came rushing toward me. He was very big, and when he pushed me, I had no energy to defend myself." When the man began to rip her clothes, she said "I thought he'd kill me.

I wanted to call out … but could not shout."An was brutally raped three times that night. It was just the beginning of a horrific siege of abuse. "I was imprisoned in that house," she explains. "The man kept doing the same thing to me every night. During the daytime, my legs, arms, and mouth were tied.”How could a relative sell her own flesh and blood to a sex predator?

There are no easy answers. But we do know that poverty makes children more susceptible to exploitation. Cambodians are among the world's poorest people, around a third of the population live on less than a $1 a day, and the vast majority go without electricity or running water. In this deeply impoverished Southeast Asian nation, the asking price for a child's body is $50 to $800.
While most of the men who abuse children in the country are local Cambodians, foreigners from wealthy countries searching for sex with children fuel an increased demand for young victims. Traffickers and brothel owners quickly service the demand. So-called sex tourists come to Cambodia, where they know they'll find impoverished, hence vulnerable, children; low-cost prostitution, anonymity, and a likely escape from prosecution.The result of this toxic equation? An estimated one-third of prostitutes in Cambodia are children.

Like An, these youths typically have been abuducted, lured, or deceived into sexual slavery — many of them sold to brothels.

An's physical torment ended one humid, hot afternoon, two months after her ordeal had begun. Her rapist rushed breathlessly into the abandoned house where she had been imprisoned. "He untied my legs and arms and gave me $10 to leave. I jumped up and ran to find a taxi to take me home."After telling her story to her grandparents, her grandmother cried, An says, adding: "I thought I was no longer a good girl for having my virginity taken away from me."

Hearing of the small girl's tragic ordeal, one of An's neighbors suggested taking her to the Neavea Thmey Center. A sexual trauma recovery facility operated by World Vision, it is supported by donors who participate in our "Child in Crisis Partners" program.

Message: Count our blessings everyday is a must but at the same time, we should also do our bit to help those out there. For further information on how to, please visit http://www.worldvision.org/