A’s Story
**Trigger Warning: The following is a true story of a survivor of human trafficking. This story includes sensitive language surrounding sexual assault. Please consider this before reading further.
A* is a 14-year-old from Cambodia. A21 first encountered her when she was 9-years-old and living on the streets of Cambodia, begging and servicing foreigners who came over the border to exploit street children. She was a part of a pedophile ring that operated by giving the children drugs, so they could maintain a constant cycle of begging during the day, and being forced to have sex with foreign pedophiles at night.
A had never been to school and was extremely malnourished in addition to the abuse she experienced.
When A’s parents passed away, she was trafficked in to Thailand with her siblings. Her brothers were sold to a fishing boat. Her primary job was to look after her younger sister, and service fisherman who were coming back to her house to buy drugs and sex.
After being rescued, A was put under the protection of an A21 partner shelter. She had never been to school and for the first time in her life she has the chance to attend school. She is learning Thai and thriving in the home and school. She is learning to cook and learning to dance traditional Thai dancing.
*A’s name has been changed
We’re proud to have A21 as one of our international grant partners. We continue to partner with them year after year to support their mission to end slavery everywhere - forever. Your advocacy with Dressember 2018 will ensure that more young girls like A have the chance to be little girls as long as possible.
