Reaching Out – Sopheap Thy
My name is Sopheap and I am a member of the Somaly Mam Foundation’s Voices for Change program. I also work with AFESIP Cambodia’s HIV Outreach Team. Every day I visit sex workers in brothels, karaoke bars, beer gardens, massage parlours and public gardens to give them condoms and information on how to stay safe in their work. I also tell them about AFESIP’s centers and training programs if they want to leave the sex industry.
My team tries to share some educational messages with the sex workers we meet, for example HIV prevention and treatment, dangers of drug abuse, human rights, how to protect themselves from violence in their work, how to leave the sex trade and receive training in another skill, and future planning.
All of these messages are very important for them because it can help the woman to take care of her health, to be aware of other opportunities for her future, and also how the law in Cambodia relates to issues of violence, rape and human trafficking.
There are some common issues experienced by women and girls encountered by Outreach Team such as violence from clients, some clients don’t pay for the service and leave the sex worker with no money, some women are forced by clients to use drugs, gang rape of sex workers is very common, and some clients refuse to use condoms or demand the women to perform demeaning acts. We try to help the women where we can with medical services and information to understand about their rights and options.
It is a challenging job to assist sex workers. Often the brothel owners will not cooperate with the Outreach Team so it can be hard to reach the women. There are also a lot of police raids of brothels so the sex workers are scared and sometimes separate from others in their group in order to hide. Some sex workers are too busy trying to earn money to have time to meet with us, and some are not allowed out of the brothel to come and receive medical treatment at our clinic.
But even with challenges we see many successes. There has been an increase in sex workers who are willing to come and get medical check ups and blood tests, and many women tell us that thanks to our demonstrations they now understand why it is important to always use condoms. And of course we are able to help some women successfully enter AFESIP’s training program to learn new skills. A recent example was a 16-year old girl who was raped. My team was informed about this case by the Department of Women’s Affairs, so we collaborated with them to provide assistance to this girl. Now she is studying sewing at AFESIP’s Tom Dy Center.
AFESIP’s Outreach Program is one of numerous services offered by AFESIP Cambodia to women and girls who have experienced sexual exploitation. This team carries out essential work through building trust with women in the sex trade to identify trafficking victims and underage children, and providing assistance to those in need. More information is available on AFESIP’s website: http://afesip.org/what-we-do/outreach