Today we met with the director of KANHNHA. It is an NGO that works with men who have sex with men (MSM), lesbians, and transgender men. He would like me to review his programs and see if there is some way I could help the organization. He was very soft spoken and his English was difficult to understand to I think I lost a bit in translation. I know the NGO does HIV outreach work and testing. He will email us information and then I will be able to get a better grasp on where I might be of assistance. Teaching his staff to be trainers and helping to review proposals are things I may work on with this NGO. We will also schedule a time for me go to visit their organization which is about 45 minutes outside of Phnom Penh. The director was saying maybe I could go out and work there a few times a month. We will see!
Later in the evening Molly and I went to the Meta House. Kate had her English tutoring class so she couldn't join us. Meta House is the German Cambodian Cultural Center. They were showing two documentaries on the sex trade of Cambodia. The first film was called "The Virginity Trade." It was about how a girl's virginity is of great value in Khmer culture. If a girl loses her virginity before marriage she it considered useless to her family and cannot be married off. She basically has no value to her family if she is not a virgin at the time of marriage. There is a belief among Asian men that having sex with a virgin girl will bring them luck, good health, great skin, and many other health benefits. Therefore, men will pay a high price to have sex with a virgin- in some cases up to $1000. Poverty is so rampant here in Cambodia that parents will sell their female children into the sex trade for money to help the family survive. A virgin is guaranteed to make the family a lot of money. Because of this, girls are bought and sold like a commodity. And the ages of the girls when they are first sold can be very young- 12 years old to even younger to ensure the girl is a virgin. Several girls featured in the film sold their virginity to help their family survive; to send younger siblings to school; to help pay for sick or dying parents. The man who buys the virgin pays the $1000 and then he takes her and has sex with her for up to one week. If the girl refuses, she is often beaten and horribly abused. Sex before marriage for a girl brings shame to her family. So once a girl is "tainted" she has no worth in Khmer culture and pretty much is stuck in the sex trade as a prostitute. After a girl is sold for her virginity, the price charged to have sex with her goes down significantly. Soon it can be she only makes $1-$2 per customer. The girl acquires a debt once she is sold and it is hard for her to ever make enough money to pay off the debt, make money for her family, and also survive. It is a vicious cycle with what seems like no way out. One girl had been raped at 16 years old and then forced to work as prostitute. In one year she had been forced to have sex with at least 700 men! 700! Unbelievable!
I learned that there are approximately over 200,000 sex workers in Cambodia- half of which have HIV/AIDS! Cambodia has one of the highest rates of HIV in Asia! The sex trade is a huge reason why the HIV rates are so high. Western men only account for about 30% of the people that utilize sex workers so mostly it is local men. In Khmer culture it is accepted (and almost expected) that a man will have many partners before marriage and continue to have other sex partners once married, including prostitutes.
There were interviews with men who have sex with prostitutes. It was sickening to hear them talk about having sex with really young girls, even gang raping girls- beating them when they refused to do something the men wanted. These men were so nonchalant about what they were doing. It is obvious they do not feel bad for what they do nor think it is wrong to treat another human being as a commodity. These girls and women are literally things to be bought, sold, and thrown away. Inhumane to say the least.
The second film was called "The Girls Of Phnom Penh." This film featured three young girls ages 16 and 17 who work as prostitutes in the city. Two of the girls sold their virginity to get money to help their mothers who were very sick and dying of cancer. They wanted to help pay for their mothers' medications and their virginity was the only thing they had of value to sell. Two girls had babies and one became pregnant again during filming. It showed their struggles to make money to help pay their "debt" to the person who sold their virginity, pay rent, send money home to the family, and then money to eat which often times they went for days without food because they had no money. A local NGO comes out every 3 months to test the girls for HIV. The girls seemed very aware of HIV and knew that they needed to use condoms with customers to protect themselves. Still they had babies so obviously condom use was not consistent. The girl who got pregnant during filming decided to abort because she couldn't afford the baby she already has. That was hard to watch. The girls had dreams of getting out of the sex trade and becoming hairdressers and finding men who would love them and marry them despite their past. At the end of the film (in the credits) it said the film crew fund raised enough money to get all 3 girls into beauty school, thus saving them from the sex trade! Upon release of this documentary in 2008 (under pressure from the US) Cambodia implemented anti-trafficking and prostitution laws. Unfortunately this back fired, making the sex trade go further underground. Also these laws made it unlikely that sex workers carry condoms because if caught with one a prostitute can face high fines and jail. This is of great concern when it comes to the spread of HIV since half of all sex workers here are infected and usually die of AIDS before age 30.
A lot to take in, but essential to know especially when it comes to HIV in Cambodia. These are great documentaries! If you have the chance I would highly recommend them.
Molly and I came home, had some wine with Kate and called it a night. I called my dad from Skype and filled him in on my adventures thus far. It's been a full first 2 weeks (well almost 2 weeks).
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