Monthly Archives: July 2012

My First Week in Cambodia

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My first seven days in Cambodia have been memorable. It’s been a while since I’ve been in South Asia–about twelve years since I last visited Thailand. This is my first trip to Cambodia and there is a smorgasbord of thoughts and feelings I’ve experienced over the past week.

At the Royal Palace

On the bright side, I’m impressed with the vitality and dynamism of the city. Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is an energetic city with never a dull moment. Locals zip in and out the busy streets on their motorbikes. The city awakens very early every day. Construction is everywhere. The nation is on the move to develop quickly. Cambodia has a lot of catching up with neighboring Thailand and Vietnam, and is making up for lost time.

The nation is flooded with hundreds, if not thousands, of non-government organizations (NGOs), the vast majority of which are here to help the country come out of poverty and embrace a more prosperous future. That’s partially why I’m here volunteering with Chab Dai, which seeks to join local NGOs in the fight against human trafficking and modern day slavery.

In some ways, it can feel like the wild west here. Motorists hardly obey traffic laws. The rich and ruling elite can do anything they want. I’ve even begun to hear stories about how the rich can literally get away with murder, with enough in bribes to pay off the authorities.

Although the nation is fighting its way out of poverty, there is still so much work to do.

Human Trafficking in Cambodia

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With Long Heng from Chab Dai

 

I just arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to spend three weeks working with the anti-human trafficking organization Chab Dai. Meaning “joining hands” in the Khmer language, Chab Dai is among a myriad of non-governmental organizations in Cambodia that are dedicated to ending modern day slavery. To say the least, it’s an honor and a privilege to partner with an NGO like Chab Dai. The director of the program, Helen Sworn, is a remarkable woman who has devoted her life toward ending slavery in Cambodia.

I first met Helen at the 2011 Human Trafficking Conference in Lincoln Nebraska. This conference is unique in that it invites a broad array of professionals in the field, including NGOs (both faith-based and secular), policy practitioners (local and domestic) and academics such as myself. I approached Helen after she made an excellent presentation and asked if I could be of assistance. Flash forward nearly one year later and I’m in Cambodia. I’ll be helping with a research program called The Butterfly Project, which is a ten year longitudinal study of survivors of human trafficking. To the best of my knowledge, very few NGOs that combat modern day slavery are working on such research topics. (A notable exception is Free the Slaves and their work on The Freedom Dividend, of which I am a part.)

The goal of The Butterfly Project is to assess how much, and in what ways, survivors of human trafficking are growing over time. The research team of the Butterfly Project, led by Siobhan Miles and Glenn Miles, has collected an impressive amount of survey data over the past two years. This fall, at the 2012 Human Trafficking Conference in Nebraska, we’ll present some preliminary descriptive statistics. Next year we’re planning on presenting an academic paper on the subject, which we plan to submit for publication with a peer-reviewed journal in the social sciences.