“Nicholas D. Kristof interviews Somaly Mam, who was sold to the brothels as a young teenager and now runs shelters for rescued girls.”

View the video here

Mission

The mission of the Human Trafficking Awareness Conference (HTAC) is to partner and collaborate with local, national, and international organizations to raise community awareness, provide training for our local citizens and encourage engagement in the fight against human trafficking

Who are We and Why are We Doing This?

Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery and it’s happening in nearly every city around the world - and right here in Colorado. We are two local citizens, with the support of many other community members, who feel compelled to raise awareness and combat this gross violation of human rights. Please join us on Saturday, October 25, 2008 and learn more about human trafficking and what you can do to help.

OCTOBER 25, 2008
Greenwood Community Church
5600 E. Belleview Ave | Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Open to the public

For more information, visit the HTAC website

“Abandoned as a child in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge’s murderous reign, Somaly Mam has no memory of her family and doesn’t know her true age or name. But she recalls when she was sold to a brothel.She traces a dramatic and haunting journey from sex slave to crusader against forced prostitution in her newly released memoir, “The Road of Lost Innocence,” which reads like a Dickensian tale of triumph over adversity.

Remarkably, she does not see her path from a remote mountain region of Cambodia to an international campaigner as awe-inspiring.

“I never feel that way, I’m still Somaly. I used to work in the fields and now I help victims,” she told Reuters in an interview.”

Read the full article here.

The Evening of New Dreams fundraiser was a huge success. We’ve posted a slideshow of photos from the event. Check them out:

A recently published article in the Washington post discusses Somaly Mam’s efforts to lobby Congress for  stricter human trafficking laws, and recounts her harrowing childhood spent in a brothel:

“Along the way, somehow she learned not to be silent. That is the most extraordinary part of her shocking life’s journey, an achievement she still cannot fully explain. Her hard-earned ability to speak out has helped her rescue 4,000 girls and women from brothels in the last decade. It has helped her build one of the largest nongovernmental organizations in Cambodia, with 150 employees, sheltering 220 women and girls in that country, with more in shelters in Vietnam and Laos. And earlier this month it brought her to Capitol Hill to urge members of Congress to pass a law against human trafficking.

“What can we do to help you?” asked Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), receiving Mam in her office.

“Your pressure can help,” Mam replied, saying that the United States can be an example to Cambodia and other countries where trafficking is rampant.”

You can read the full article here.

A new op-ed in the New York Times by Nicholas D. Kristoff discusses Somaly Mam’s fight against human trafficking, her new book, and recounts her inspiring story:

“World leaders are parading through New York this week for a United Nations General Assembly reviewing their (lack of) progress in fighting global poverty. That’s urgent and necessary, but what they aren’t talking enough about is one of the grimmest of all manifestations of poverty — sex trafficking.

This is widely acknowledged to be the 21st-century version of slavery, but governments accept it partly because it seems to defy solution. Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession. It exists in all countries, and if some teenage girls are imprisoned in brothels until they die of AIDS, that is seen as tragic but inevitable. “

Read the full article here.

Somaly Mam foundation founders Nicholas Lumpp and Jared Greenberg were recently featured by Marie Claire:

“Some guys play Xbox and fantasy football in their spare time; Jared Greenberg and Nicholas Lumpp save young women from sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. The 25-year-old Air Force Academy graduates are the founders of the Somaly Mam Foundation, a new nonprofit group named after a woman who escaped the brothels of Cambodia and now rescues enslaved girls. (Her remarkable memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, hits bookstores this month.) We asked Greenberg, who works as a consultant by day, and Lumpp, who runs a personal-finance website, about their heroic side job.”

Read the full interview here.

Somaly mam was recently featured on MSNBC’s Hansen Files:

Check out more Somaly Mam Videos on our Video page.

(pictured: preparing for their Rainier summit bid; Jeff Bodem (L), Kate Gruber (C), Tony Monaco (R) in Colorado May 2008)

Three LexisNexis US based employees are taking their CEO’s lead and will aid in the effort to stop human trafficking by creating greater awareness while climbing Mount Rainier July 21-24. The practice of human trafficking is a $12 billion industry and the fastest growing organized criminal activity in the world. An estimated 2 to 4 million young women and children will be sold into prostitution in the next 12 months, and many of the children are sold into sexual slavery for as little as $10 and are as young as five.

LexisNexis, a leading global provider of business information solutions with over 13,000 employees worldwide, is committed to helping eradicate this practice by providing monetary support and legal and technical advice to organizations such as the Somaly Mam Foundation which work at the grass-roots level to rescue victims and offer them shelter, safety, counseling, education, vocational skills, and assistance transitioning back into society. Somaly Mam is a former victim of Cambodian slave trade and one of the most prolific activists in the fight against human trafficking today. She has rescued and successfully rehabilitated over 4,000 young women and children.

“Where human trafficking exists, the Rule of Law cannot exist.” said Andy Prozes, CEO, LexisNexis Group. The absence of Rule of Law, the basic principle that no one is above the law, provides a breeding ground for human rights atrocities such as human trafficking. Jeff Bodem, Kate Gruber and Tony Monaco, all part of the same business unit for LexisNexis U.S. Legal Market, will attempt to climb Rainier and unfurl the Somaly Mam Foundation banner from the summit. “In addition to raising awareness, we hope to inspire others to take action by writing their legislators to protest human trafficking and ensure the presence of the Rule of Law. If we pressure governments to enact new or more severe legislation against the practice and ensure allocation of adequate resources toward enforcement of those laws, we can wipe out industry demand” said Gruber, an Orlando, FL resident and Client Manager for LexisNexis.

Bodem, Gruber and Monaco have spent the past 12 months preparing for their summit attempt of Mount Rainier, the highest peak in the Cascade Range, at 14,410 feet. Rainier is the most extensively glaciated volcanic peak in the contiguous United States. Most climbers require two to three days to reach the summit and about half of the attempts are successful, with weather and conditioning being the most common reasons for failure. About three to five mountaineering deaths occur each year due to rock and ice fall, avalanche, and hypothermia associated with severe weather. Mount Rainer experienced its first 2008 season casualty in June of this year.

“Somaly Mam and LexisNexis’ efforts have inspired us, and we have an opportunity to create additional awareness to a cause we all agreed was worth the risk. As a father of three young daughters, I struggle with teaching them how one person can make a difference. I now realize there is no better way to teach our children and inspire others than through action”, said Bodem a Fort Mill, SC resident and Regional Client Manager for LexisNexis. “It’s been both challenging and rewarding pushing yourself to your physical limits in dangerous places where help is not around the corner” said Tony Monaco a Charlotte, NC resident and Practice Management Specialist for LexisNexis. The trio’s preparation has included training climbs in the North Carolina Appalachian range, Arizona and most recently Colorado. Monaco went on to say “we have sacrificed a lot of personal time preparing, but It makes it all that much more rewarding to take this opportunity to create greater awareness for this cause.”

The summit team departs for Mount Rainier on July 20th for their two day climb. “We want to inspire our families, children, co-workers and others that they can make a difference. It’s easy to get self-absorbed today, to tighten your wallet, to turn away from everything going on in the world. We just want to do our small part along with LexisNexis to raise awareness and to help others in need. If one person reads this and acts, we have accomplished more than summiting a mountain”, said Bodem.

Pre-orders for Somaly Mam’s new book, The Road of Lost Innocence, are now being accepted in our <a href=”https://www.somaly.org/store”>store</a>.

Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. Trapped in this dangerous and desperate world, she suffered the brutality and horrors of human trafficking - rape, torture, and deprivation - until she managed to escape with the help of a French aid worker. Emboldened by her newfound freedom, education, and security, Somaly blossomed but remained haunted by the girls in the brothels she
left behind.

Written in exquisite, spare, unflinching prose, The Road of Lost Innocence recounts the experiences of her early life and tells the story of her awakening as an activist and her harrowing and brave fight against the powerful and corrupt forces that steal the lives of these girls. She has orchestrated raids on brothels and rescued sex workers, some as young as five and six; she has built shelters, started schools, and founded an organization that has so far saved more than four thousand women and children in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. Her memoir will leave you awestruck by her tenacity and courage and will renew your faith in the power of an individual to bring about change.

You can pre-order the book for only $19.99 at our store. The Road to Lost Innocence releases on September 12, 2008.