Nga's story

Nga is a sweet, shy 17-year-old Cambodian girl who grew up in a bamboo shack in a post-war resettlement slum. It's understandable that her mother would send her to Thailand for a good job selling cosmetics … but that promised job opportunity landed Nga in a busy brothel in Bangkok.

A teenager in a strange land with no family, no friends or resources, Nga made a remarkable bid for freedom at her first opportunity - when permitted to leave with a client she jumped off his moving motorbike into the river. The villagers fished her out, the police were contacted and the traffickers arrested. 

Nga spent 6 months with the re-integration team at the facility run by the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre, where Lotus Outreach provides counsellors and vocational training for sexually abused girls. Though she is looked down upon in her community, Nga is fortunate to be free of HIV/AIDS and now works at a Thai market near her home.

The road ahead is not easy, but with her innate fortitude and the crisis treatment received at the CWCC, Nga has the best possible chance of not just surviving, but also prospering.