I was around 15-years-old
I agreed to do this for my family's sake
because my mother asked me to
At first, I said I didn't want to,
but she convinced me by saying:
'You're the only one who can help our family,
we're completely dependent on you.'
In my heart,
I've never been upset with her
It's a tough situation...
I never felt anger towards her
I still love and respect her,
despite what she asked me to do
I obey her
I sold her
to a Cambodian
for around $400 or $500
I want to finish school and get a good job
But I want you to
work and study at the same time
I'm too tired to do both at once
Then you should stop studying
You have to because we
won't be able to pay the rent
Why don't you help,
so I won't have to work alone
How can I?
I've already done my best
I'm not as strong as a man
The last time I worked there,
men wanted to do bad things to me
And what if I get drunk?
How would I get back home?
I might even get raped
If you don't, there'll be no rent and no studies
We'll be poor forever, living on the streets
I'm in the 10th grade at Indira Devi High School
I want to become an accountant after I graduate
My Mum wants me to quit school and get a job,
but I don't want to
I'd like to go on to university too,
but I wouldn't be able to pay for it
To avoid pressure from my Mum,
I help her with her laundry work
Sometimes, if there aren't any orders,
I borrow money from friends to give to her
If I can't borrow,
I work as a waitress to give her the tips
My salary's only $90,
so I need to earn more money
If I don't manage to,
my family will have problems
One day I met a guy and told him
it was my daughter's first time
I explained that I couldn't pay the rent
and we were very poor
He asked my daughter
to sit next to him and said he wanted her
He asked me how much,
but I didn't know what to ask for
I wanted to ask $500,
but hadn't discussed it with anyone
I thought that might be too cheap
I thought that $1000 would be too expensive,
but I asked anyway
and he said OK
Is it true? She really sold you?
Yes, it's true...
She made me do that
We argue whenever this topic comes up
I love her, but I hate her too...
for what she did
I used the money
to start a lottery ticket business
It's provided enough to survive,
but now there's too much competition
and sales are down
I don't have enough for the rent
I want her to work in the sex industry again,
but she says she's sick of it
She just wants to study
and refuses to do it again
I'd have to beat her to make her,
I see no other way, what can I do?
At the karaoke club,
the patrons asked us to do more
They invited us to sit with them
They'd make us drink with them all evening
For tips, we had to act easy
and let them touch us,
or they'd complain to the boss
Sometimes they tipped us $10 or $20,
but if we agreed to sleep with them,
it was a lot more
My classmates look down on me
for being a prostitute
They spurn me
and won't socialise with me,
for fear that others will think
they're prostitutes like me
This really affects me
It's very hard
to study in an atmosphere
where they won't even talk to me
What are your chances
of continuing your studies?
I think...
only 50% if Mum forces me to do that again,
but if she needs a lot of money,
I'll have no choice
I don't want to leave school
When I'm older,
I don't want to be scorned
If I stop studying,
I think I'll always remain poor
I'd do laundry for other people
and always be tired...
without a penny to my name
She was extremely traumatized from the rapes
When we brought the child to the hospital,
the doctor said we were right
to bring her there for treatment
I decided to take the child
from her mother in Pnomh Pen
and send her to her grandmother
in Kampong Ton
I had the mother sign a contract.
She can't take her back
We try to talk to her
We've asked her grandmother
and the younger children
to spend more time playing with her,
to comfort her,
to take her to school and encourage her
to make friends with classmates
By going to school and developing friendships,
she's gradually begun
to forget her city life as a beggar
We've tried to help her adapt to her new life
She's begun to feel happy and enjoy school
Her studies are improving and now
she's among the top 10 in a class of 30
My father was run over by a ploughing machine
while he was working in the paddy fields
It had some kind of mechanical problem,
I don't know
My aunt told me; it was before I was born
- And your mother?
- She died giving birth to me
I met my boyfriend in Pnomh Penh,
he asked me to live with him after a while
He set up a business,
but didn't have enough capital,
so he made me sleep with a client to help him
He owed a lot of money,
so I slept with the client for $30
to help him out with the capital
But the next day,
he wanted me to sleep with
a client for money again
After living with him for quite some time,
I realised he was only with me for the money
She said:
'Pich, I don't have any money,
I'm not opening the shop today
I'm poor and I owe everyone a lot of money,
so you need to help me
Take on a couple of clients
I really need the money,
you know how badly in debt I am
You see how my family's
standard of living is falling
It's much worse than it once was'
I knew it was wrong,
but I was living with her,
so I had to
If I'd thought too much about it,
I wouldn't have earned anything
And so, that's how I started...
selling myself again
I had nowhere to  sleep,
so I came here to the
gas station to sit every night
It was late at night,
around 1 or 2 am, very quiet
I wanted to sit in front of the pagoda,
but then I met a man in the middle of the street
I wasn't sure if he was drunk or not
He came up to me from behind
and asked where I was going
I didn't reply
I just kept walking faster and faster,
but he hit me and knocked me out
When I opened my eyes
I saw I was naked,
but there was no sign of him
I thought to myself:
'Who was he?
Why did he rape me?'
It's really hard to talk about this
I think life is very hard without parents
I'd like to have parents
and a normal job like other people
I don't want to do what I'm doing
All the men I know personally are bad
In general, the men I meet are all bad
I've never met a good one
They treat me like a sex toy, a pleasure girl
to satisfy their desires.
Then they throw me away
I do it because I want to stop doing it
Right now I have no money,
but, in the future,
I want to open my own beauty salon
I need money to buy nails,
nail polish, and makeup
I used to work as an apprentice beautician
We negotiated price and time...
whether he wanted her for a week or a month
Where did he take her?
They went sightseeing
But where did he take Ty?
I don't remember exactly,
they just went round Pnomh Penh
He said they wouldn't go far because
he was afraid I'd worry about my daughter
What did he do? Was he young or old?
He was about 30,
maybe a businessman,
but I'm not really sure
I just knew he had money,
so I decided to sell her to him
Was Ty a virgin at the time?
Yes, she was, she was only 15
He arrived on a motorcycle,
it was a very modern one
He brought food and some cans of beer
He told us where he was staying
and said he'd wait for me there
I went to his place and we drank and talked
I already knew I was going
to give him my virginity
I'd never drunk before,
so two cans were enough to knock me out
I lay down on the bed and passed out
Exactly what he did with me,
I don't know
I only knew what had happened
when I woke up and saw blood on the sheets
I had no choice
because we were very poor
It's very painful for a mother
to push her daughter into that
The pain is indescribable
I didn't know what to do,
not even my family would help
What could I do?
It was wrong, but didn't know what else to do
We were living in squalid conditions,
I had no husband to provide for me
I did what I could: I made my daughter do...
what I couldn't
My mother owes a lot...
We're poor, so we borrow from others
Sometimes people don't remind
us about the debt too often,
but some days they come
and ask us to pay them back
and insult us like dogs if we can't
I don't know what to do
My father's very old
and he lives far away
We rarely hear from him
because he lives with his second wife
He can't help us
I have to provide for myself
I'm not a little girl anymore
I'm already an adult
When I got home I spoke to my mother
She suggested I start working,
as I'd already lost my virginity
and the family sorely needed the money
I asked her:
'And what would you have me do?'
She said I should go into prostitution
I said I didn't want to,
but she begged, saying
'My darling, only for our family's sake, please!
We all depend on you!'
She's my mother
I must help her because she's helped me,
my sacrifices don't compare to her care
She's also slept with men for money to feed us
Of course, deep in my heart,
I didn't want to do it... I didn't at all
When a customer comes into the shop,
I ask him what he wants to drink
If he says coffee, I bring him some and ask:
'Mister, do you want sex?'
If he says yes,
he goes to a room in the back and I follow
After we're done, I get paid
I only see 4 or 5 clients a day
I can't take more...
even for the money
After 4 or 5 I feel weak and faint
because I'm young
I don't have that much strength
and I'm often sick
I've tried to find other work,
but it's hard for a girl with my past
People just don't accept me
Now, with all the problems we're facing,
I feel like I've lost my soul
I don't want to go home
because I just feel depressed there
I just want to be away
in a silent place where I can think
I always cry alone
I only have two friends
They support me and tell me
not to do anything terrible
Even when I feel there's no way out,
suicide is not an option
I'm not angry... This is just my life
I need to bear it and be patient
no matter how much I'm scorned
I feel sorry for my mother and little sisters
They never feel loved
Whenever they see a father
sitting and laughing with his family,
they cry
I want to help, but I don't know how
