Human Trafficking & Debt
This blog was originally posted in 2017 but this story still happens in Cambodia today:
One of our young leaders, a recent high school graduate has started University. She is bright, hardworking and has now begun volunteering at one of the Flame centres teaching English to the young slum-living kids. She is pretty and full of energy with a genuine, kind heart.
So far the story looks good, right?
About 6 weeks ago, she basically decided to take up an amazing job in Japan. The package included the airfare and visa, the monthly salary was said to be US$1500, which is a truckload of money for a 19 year old!
This kind of scheme draws in those who are struggling, the brokers deliberately target rural areas where there are known debts.
Our young leader's mother is supporting the family on her own, as well as looking after their grandmother. Out of desperate need, the mum took a loan from her employer. Now she works full time in a paid job but receives NONE of her salary. It goes directly to her employer to pay the exorbitant interest on the loan, 10% per month.
With this kind of financial pressure hanging over her family- directly affecting her, with cultural pressures at play, the Japan job is SO tempting. Our young leader is willing to give up her own education and dreams of being an English professor at a university, to make quick cash, with the HOPE that she will be safe and that the job will be real.
The reality is that all of the associated costs of the trip could become a huge debt held against her, so instead of repaying a debt she creates another one. There is NO guarantee of a good income or safe working conditions, and once she has left her networks, language and everything familiar behind, she would be voiceless and completely at the mercy of a stranger.
This is THE standard human trafficking lure.
Poverty is a complex problem and we have learned that there are no easy solutions. We have shared previously that primary education immunises the community against traffickers, and because this young woman is in Flame, she had a safe place to come with her fears and questions about the job opportunity in Japan. This is a timely reminder of the need to practically equip and arm our young people against those who would exploit and take advantage of them.
What other ways can we help this family?
Why does this job offer worry us? Just last week seven Cambodian women were rescued from a restaurant in Japan where they were allegedly forced into sex work.
The women, who are in their 20s, were lured to work at the restaurant in central Honshu in November with promises of high wages by a Japanese owner who arranged visas and airfares for them. Here's the link to the article
Japan has long been a destination for women from Southeast Asia seeking higher wages. Some find themselves forced into sex work or indentured labor.
Last August the Philippines warned its citizens against illegally traveling to Japan in search of work, saying they often risked being trafficked for sex or forced labor.
Washington’s annual report on human trafficking says Japan remains a “destination, source and transit” country for human trafficking despite a recent increase in prosecutions.
Let's keep the ambulance running at the bottom of the cliff... but work hard to build fences at the top.
A Baby Is Born!
Flame recently celebrated the birth of a new baby: Thai Theraka! Thai and Chanthy are long time Flame mentors who give and give and love the Flame Leadership Academy young adults.
Thai has been a significant influence in the lives of many of our young guys, playing soccer regularly and meeting intentionally to share hearts, laughter and coffee! Chanthy has been deeply involved in mentoring the young women at the Flame Leadership Academy and is now a mother for the first time!
Please join us as we welcome their sweet, new baby :) An interesting twist is that the baby was delivered by Rithy!! We love the Flame Full Circle!!
The Flame young adults are the “top end of the Full Circle”... in university or vocational training, leading or participating in their initiatives in local slum communities. If you want to help young adults reach their potential, you can give easily using the donate button below.
Flame's impact on the young adults
These are quotes from some of our young leaders about life before Flame:-
"After [my father] died we only had my Mum -we had no one to help us find food. We all stopped studying and climbed palm trees to get the juice to sell. The rest of my family decided that I should go to school and they all went to Phnom Penh to find work. I stayed alone in Kampong Cham. I was only 6 years old. My parents died because there was no medical care, now I'm working on the Flame Mobile Medical Clinic once a week, giving free medical care to people living in the slums."
"I don’t ever remember my mother being nice to me. I desperately wanted to hear her say something nice to me but I never did. She loved my younger brother, but not me and I don’t know why. She would beat me and hit me and I never knew why she hit me. Now I am teaching little kids about photography in the exact slum where I grew up and I love it!"
This is why we love the work of Flame - we are giving these young people opportunities to study at university, to work towards a future they never dreamed possible. Please consider giving to Flame and be part of the story.
Graduation Celebration
Deth is one of our youngest at the Flame Guy's Leadership Academy. He is 20, and last week graduated from high school!! This was a huge achievement, and we were all waiting with baited breath for his exam results!! The photo above is him jumping for joy :) He's a really fun guy!
He is now deciding exactly what he would like to do, what he would like to study ... and has a broad, broad horizon of hope stretching out in front of him!
We are looking for a sponsor to walk with Deth, please let us know if you'd like to partner with us on this exciting journey!
Young adults away together this weekend. Photo creds (selfie) by Yuhan Brang
Mobile Medical Expansion
At Flame, it's not just what we do, but who does it
Let me introduce you to Sothy... (Soh-tee) the current leader at our guy's leadership academy. He is dreaming of running a second mobile medical Tuktuk, bringing free medical care into the slums of Phnom Penh.
Would you consider helping him?
Sothy's Story
When I was a child, my dad suffered from mental illness, he wanted to kill us kids. He took his own life when I was a just little guy and I was the one who found him hanging. My siblings left school to help support the family after he died, climbing palm trees to get the fruit used for juice, but then it was decided that I should go to school. So, at 6 yrs old I was left alone in our family home, while everyone else went to Phnom Penh to find work. I couldn't cook or look after myself but I took care of the neighbour's animals, and in return they helped me. I was really scared of ghosts, I would hide under the covers at night. I was so alone.
My mum got sick and life took another turn. I remember looking at her sad face and feeling sad too, knowing I couldn't help her. I remember thinking to myself that if I knew about medicine, I could help her and could help other poor people too.
We had to sell our family home to pay for my mother's medicines. The money only lasted 3 weeks and 2 months after it ran out, my mother died. I was 7, and my little brothers were 2 and 3 years old.
I went back to living alone, and still had no idea how to cook for myself. I begged the neighbours "I will do anything for you, if you just give me something to eat!!" I stayed with them for one year until at 8, I was taken away with someone to live with a family. I remember staring out the window of the car as we drove away, trying to memorise the road because I was sure that I was being sold and would need to know how to get home again.
It turned out to be a foster home situation and my sister and brothers joined me there and lived with the family for 7 years. We knew that we weren't really their kids, they loved their own children more than us.
Now I am living at the Flame Leadership Academy and have just finished my 6th year of medical school. I have 2 more years of interning at local hospitals here in Phnom Penh before I can continue with my 4 year specialisation in paediatrics, which is my dream. I want to provide free medical care in rural Cambodia to children so that kids like I was are able to get medicines and the care they need.
A second Tuktuk and motorbike have already been donated, but Flame still needs ongoing costs of US$100 per week before we set this expansion in motion. Would you be able to help us?
Sothy has been working alongside Rithy for a year now, and will have our volunteer ER Nurse Alister accompanying him to the slums. We can't do this without your help.
Flame Heroes
Thai is a mentor at the Flame guy's Leadership Academy Home and spent some time talking with me last week. When he sees the young kids in our programs, he is reminded of himself as a grubby little boy. He believes that each of these kids, with the help of our supporters, can become adults like him who are able to be agents of positive change in their communities, to become leaders who know what's right and have the wisdom and strength to act.
The previous day a young man hurtled past Thai and Hounthy (our Sensok Activity Centre Leader) who were hanging out together. Hot on the man's heels was another guy, wielding a machete. The chase was on.
Without hesitation Hounthy took off after them -he wasn't going to sit back and watch a murder. This was no game, no rehearsal: someone was going to get seriously hurt.
The moment Hounthy ran off, Thai dropped everything and joined the chase, no way would he let Hounthy face the machete man alone.
Thai tackled the machete man from behind trapping his arms to his sides, and Hounthy grabbed the machete before any harm was done. Disaster was averted.
Were these Flame Leaders right to get involved? Hounthy's conscience would not allow him to be a passive bystander. Thai felt it was his responsibility to step in when the security guard simply watched.
How often do we know what's right but lack the courage to do what's right?
Flame promotes courage: to 'live boldly with the knowledge that God is with us.'
Honestly, it takes courage to invest in the lives of broken kids, not knowing what decisions they will make, where they will go, but we see the fruit of that investment in Thai and Hounthy today; street kids turned heroes.
You can invest in the lives of these kids too and become part of their story. It's easy to become a Flame partner, just click here
Where is Hope?
Warning: I found this hard to write, you may find it hard to read.
A Flame child has been raped. The perpetrator has been arrested, but the crime committed against this girl will follow her for life. Can anyone communicate this kind of thing without loosing hope?
We have been waiting for some closure or news before letting our supporters know, letting the dust settle around the publicity too. Her picture was published in the papers and she was ostracized and bullied for telling. When someone is arrested in the community, there is a sense of betrayal, and a communal acknowledgement of lost income, and she's to blame. Her journey is a long hard one, that's for sure.
The perpetrator was arrested the day after her grandmother went to the police with the support of the assistant village leader and reported the crime, but we are unsure of where it's been left. Often times the perp will pay off the police and give a gift to the family, a kind of out-of-court settlement.
We are glad to say that the girl has been removed from the community and placed into protective care. When she returns to her family she will need ongoing counselling and support.
I know a young adult who has incredible trauma in her past, her childhood was a series of nightmares... but today, she is a confident leader in her community, she is bright, vivacious, and determined that her past will not limit her future. She is a student at university, and her dream is to help women to be safe when they travel as migrant labourers.
I think about the little girl and I am so deeply disturbed, but when I look at what she has the potential to become, I feel I can breathe again.
If you want to help kids like this to become strong nation changers, please donate.
Kids colouring at one of our centers
Flame Expansion: Steung Meanchey -one of the darkest slums of Phnom Penh
Flame recently adopted the Hope for Life Activity Centre in the heart of Steung Meanchay, which has been running for many years.
This is the kind of established slum where centres get broken into, things get stolen, and drug and alcohol related crimes are rampant. It's the underbelly of Phnom Penh where criminals run to when there's a police chase.
Sue's perspective of Steung Meanchey -
" It's not just slums and smells you can taste. The slum felt like another level down, more hardcore. We met a grandma today who is 50. I stood in her -not-even-house, with no door, just a corner of a walkway, my feet straddled the sewerage that was coming through from under the bed. I felt a heaviness of the deal she's been dealt in life, her son is a drug addict, her daughter in law has run away and her own husband recently died and she is left with her 10 yr old grandson.
I know that Flame can't take all that pain away, but we can do something to bring joy into her life. For this woman to see her grandson thrive, that he's in school and has such a different future from his own parents gives her hope. Her future is pretty much set, but she can see a brighter future for her grandson.
This lady is so happy that her grandson is in school!
Strangely, I don't feel hopeless when I see the slum. It's really well established, renown for drug and alcohol related crime and is a hiding place for criminals. But I do feel sad that Flame wasn't here 20 years ago. If we were involved in this community they would now have some young adults who would be doctors, lawyers and teachers who would be shining lights in that place.
That would be incredibly inspirational to the people we met there today. Maybe that would be the impetus they need to do the hard work required to get them out of that lifestyle and culture and rut.
There's an African proverb that says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today. So even though Flame wasn't there 20 years ago, we are there today. And that's what matters.
St Paul's Collegiate comes to Flame
A group of 19 students from St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton volunteered at Flame over the last week, doing painting projects and teaching English and ukulele. It has been a brilliant time and our Activity Centre at Sensok looks amazing! Thank you guys!
Flame are thankful for the generosity of this awesome kiwi school, they have funded the Book TukTuk, Flame's latest project, bringing books into the slums to reinforce learning, as well as identify kids who are not in school! This was the brainchild of Poeurn, our case worker extraordinaire, who recognized that kids in school often don't have books at home, and that there are still so many kids in the slums who aren't enrolled in school.
Bringing books to the slums
Streetkid becomes Leader
How Houn Thy went from a street kid to a leader at Flame
My name is Houn Thy, and I am the Flame Activity Centre Leader at Sensok.
When I was a little kid I was obsessed with food... let me tell you why.
My father died when I was little, I don’t remember when, and my mother looked after me and my four brothers as best she could. She worked in the jungle cooking for soldiers and would visit us about once a month. I became an orphan when I was quite little, I suppose I was about six. My mum was cutting long grass and a landmine exploded and killed her. I was devastated. Our eldest brother became the head of the home and took charge of us, venting his anger on us, ruling over us with an iron fist. He was downright mean and violent, and hit us and threw things at us. I was scared of him, so after a while I just took off.
I ran away and lived near the market where I would scavenge for food or beg from the stall owners. I slept wherever I could, sometimes in front of peoples shops under the eaves. Some people were quite kind and gave me edible bits and pieces. I remember being woken up with a bucket of water, being shooed away like a stray dog. A gang of big boys found me and threatened to burn me with cigarette butts or punch me if I didn’t find money for them, so I had to up my game and get smart, or get hurt. I figured out how to steal car insignia and sold them so I would have money to give the gang.
I still have scars where they burned me when I didn’t manage to find the money.
When I was living on the street, I made friends with another boy and we became like brothers, we would beg and find food together. He told me about a modern place in Phnom Penh where they gave food away to street kids, there was a place to live and it was safe, but I was too scared to actually go. My life was pretty bad, but at least I knew where I was! Later he suggested again that we go to the big city together on the train, tempting me with stories of limitless food and a comfy bed. Although I was scared at the idea of leaving everything familiar to me, I was so hungry all the time, I decided to risk it and go.
We went on the train together, and split up to beg and look for food on the long overnight journey. I totally panicked when the train finally pulled into the station at Phnom Penh and I was still separated from my friend. I got off the train with my heart beating loudly in my little chest, an ocean of people pouring onto the platform before me. I was totally lost and afraid.
To read the rest of Houn Thy's story click here
Mobile Medical on Steroids!
8 nursing students from Edith Cowan University in Perth come to help Flame
The students and Flame volunteers did medical checks, ear and eye checks, lice treatments, fingernail clipping and tutorials on brushing teeth with 450 slum dwelling children.
Hundreds of kids in the Cemetery
The nurses also conducted first aid training for the Flame Young Adults. It was such a full weekend!
The students were able to see the entire Full Circle: the slum living kids, the kids in our programs, and the young adults who volunteer now as leaders. The nursing students were stunned and teary eyed at the impact of the Flame leaders who knew poverty and are now university students and graduates who work among the poor.
"this has renewed my faith in humanity"
Hounthy doing eye checks
Greg's Blog part 2
The Flame Young Leaders are so devoted to the cause, inspired by the regular training and mentoring they have received, they step into their own initiatives and serve in slum communities, inspiring hope and change in the lives of others ... This is what Flame calls the full circle
The hard backgrounds these guys come from haven't deterred them one bit. This is a long journey and at times a tough one. Let me tell you about Esther.
Esther is the Flame Photographer
Previously she was so very shy, she was the kid that just didn't speak. Now she's the one behind the camera as the Flame Photographer and is bubbly and friendly and confident. She can talk with foreigners without any fear. She is teaching photography and has completely come out of her shell. She was mentored, and now she is the mentor!
Kids at Sensok photo creds to Esther
Flame has embarked on an incredible journey, from about 14 months ago til now, and the input from these young leaders makes a huge addition to the lives of the kids around them.
You can see the light coming from their eyes and the smiles on their faces- they know they are loved.
Longdy's Commissioning
Longdy has been a part of Flame since its inception, and if we had founding members, he would be one of them. Amazing news: one of Cambodia'a leading counselling organizations have signed him on to be a counsellor for boys. He is finishing his Psychology and English degrees and is working part time. This means he is leaving Flame, his heart for seeing Cambodia's children whole and happy drives him to pursue opportunities to build his capacity. We are so proud of him and excited that he is able to get such high quality supervision and training. He will always have a special place in our hearts, and as he is living with the Winthrops, we still see him everyday!
Greg's Story -part 1
Greg Stocker is a veterinarian based in Hamilton who works for AssureQuality. He has been to Cambodia three times but this time it was different. This is his story.
First Visit to Sen Sok
The first time I went to SenSok on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, it struck me how obviously malnourished and unhealthy the kids were. I saw how they lived, the extreme poverty.
Second VISIT TO SEN SOK
The second time, I saw the very first medical clinic, kids covered in sores, quite badly malnourished, lice in their hair, pneumonia, diarrhoea, ear infections. It was just the beginning. They looked ragged, like you would imagine.
A couple of months later, Flame was born and things changed big time.
12 Months later at Sen Sok
Now, Flame Young Adults run the Sen Sok kids club and there are programs morning and afternoon and even a soccer team! Kiwis have donated books and interactive toys for the activity centre to help the little kids development.
The difference was almost a shock. I knew they were the same children, but I couldn't believe it! Bright eyes, clean faces, with footwear, no sores or skin diseases... they look so healthy. They are getting some proper nutrition, they can focus and learn. Just about every kid was locked onto the teacher and completely engaged with their learning. Every kid in the room knows the maths, and they are being taught to read and write - and are motivated to learn and learn more.
The kids are fully on the way to being integrated into what most people would consider a normal upbringing - food, education and good health. They are being taught they have value, that there's a God who loves them, and that is being demonstrated by the service of the Flame Young Adults.
I walked in and thought wow, like night and day. They still live a slum, but they have hope in their faces now, it's written all over them.
Kids playing in the shoe rack. @SoEsther
Welcome to the World!
We celebrate the arrival of a new baby and the beginning of a new generation at Flame today! Last night Houn Thy and Lili became the proud parents of Lysearng, a beautiful boy! Congrats guys.
Houn Thy leads the activity centre at SenSok and embodies the full circle. He comes from a very difficult background, and is now investing his life back into the lives of the kids in our project. Well done Thy! You and Lili will be great parents!
Cute baby, just a few hours after his arrival
I love my job!
My name is Choryee and I live in one of the Flame Leadership Academies in Phnom Penh. Every Wednesday I work as an interpreter for a slum community, as well as run the Flame Guesthouse. I am a full time student studying International Relations at the Royal University of Law and Economics. Yeah, I'm busy!
I love interpreting and sharing about God
I am excited about Flame because we meet the needs of people who really need help. We understand them. I love sharing the truth with my people because God has done so much for me, and it's real, and it's true. This is serious. Their situation is the same as mine was when I was a kid.