In the outskirts of Cambodia’s capital Phnon Penh, there is a small village called Svay Pak. The village is known for one thing; young girls are openly sold in the streets to foreign men. At least until a few years ago. The CNN Freedom Project recently wrote an article about the village everyone should read. There are whorehouses in the little village specializing in pre-pubescent girls, that is girls under the age of 12.
CNN interviewed a girl who had been rescued from one of Svay Pak’s whorehouses only 3 years ago, now she is 18 years old. She told horrible stories of how she was raped for the first time when she was five years old, men approached her and said ”I want to have sex with you” and she didn’t know what they wanted but there were no one around to help her. The majority of girls in the village are raped at a very young age even if they aren’t sold to whorehouses. Men visit them at playground or something similar. Those who are sold to whorehouses live cramped in cells without windows and high fences around the building, they live in their own prison.
The girl who CNN interviews says that the men always acted nice and spoke softly but later they raped and beat her ruthlessly.
An American couple moved to the village a few years ago in order to stop the sex trade in Svay Pak. The couple works for Agpe International Mission, an organization similar to RealStars which focuses on stopping sex trade and trafficking from Cambodia. The couple says that things have become better in the village. The sex trade isn’t nearly as open and the pimps don’t rush to every foreign man visiting. But the atmosphere is still there and so is a lot of the sex trade. But it’s behind closed doors. The couple tells CNN that they saved a 5 year old girl from the same fate hundreds of others have.
We have to fight together to stop sex trade, trafficking and sex-tourism. Sign our campaign so that we can come closer to a better future!
Matilda Öhlin Knutsson for RealStars
p.s. check the video which is in the article to get a real image of how things are in Svay Pak.