I choked on my chicken curry when she told me she
was 12.

She looked 6.

Unlike the US where nowadays, your average 12 year old looks
more like she’s 16, the reverse was the norm in Cambodia. Yet these girls had
been forced to grow up so quickly and experience things children aren’t
supposed to.

The better part of the morning had been spent with the 21
girls at the assessment center, singing, dancing, and working on some arts and
crafts. They ranged from 5 to 16 years in age.

Over a very simple yet hearty lunch, we were getting to know
them personally.

The high security assessment center acts as a refuge for
girls who have been raped, kidnapped, or sold as sex slaves and prostitutes.
They stay here until their initial legal battles are over, and then they are
either transferred to a shelter or returned back home if their families are
deemed safe enough to protect them. The center provides short term care such as
medical checkups, mental evaluations, and family assessments for the first 2
months after they are rescued before transfers to other more permanent shelters.

We were fortunate to get behind those secured gates.

There are roughly 14 million, out of which 1 million are
ethnic Vietnamese – 8% of the population.  Half of the girls that are rescued annually
are Vietnamese.

Their screams of excitement at the sight of our flip flop
project quickly reminded us that they were just little girls. The rest of the
afternoon was spent decorating flip flops with colorful ribbons and jewels as
well as making bracelets and painting faces. Even though it seemed a mundane
project to others, it allowed them to be kids once again. One of the girls was
deaf and mute, and we wondered if she was born that way, or was so severely traumatized
that not talking was a defense mechanism – a way to cope with her ordeal. As
they played, I observed a few of them. Some of the most gorgeous children you
could ever meet, and I constantly had to remind myself of what they had been
through within those brothels.

A couple days later, I visited one of those permanent
shelters in the province of Kampong Cham, which is close to the border of
Vietnam. Thousands of girls [estimates say 800,000] are trafficked through this
province every single year. “It takes a certain type of person to be a private
investigator,” expressed Sam*, an undercover investigator who has surveillance
teams all over the country.  One has to
go into brothels, act like customers, and put themselves in awkward and morally
challenging positions to rescue a girl.

Organizations such as UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision,
Chab Dai, World Hope, and the International Justice Mission (IJM) are just a few actively fighting the issue of
trafficking. There are no shortages of NGOs based in Phnom Penh that fan out
into the most remote regions of the country to help educate villagers and fund
community development projects as alternatives to selling their children for
income.

Just reading about sex trafficking elicits feelings of
unbelief and disgust, but staring into the dark eyes of a 6 year old victim evokes
feelings on a whole 'nother level.

* Name changed