Bicycles and Sewing Machines

Imagine that you don't live in some comfortable suburb or city in America.

Imagine that you were born in a country with extreme poverty.

Imagine that your house looks like this:



Imagine that you are a young girl born into a family of 9 other children.

Imagine that your father has TB and your mother has no method of feeding the family today.



Now imagine you are the mother and you have no idea how you are going to feed your children TODAY, much less tomorrow or next week.

You are desperate. What would you do? How far would you go to be able to simply feed your family?

Then imagine that there is a way for your family to eat. There is quick cash to be had, enough to feed your family a long time.

Someone offers to buy something from you. The only valuable asset you own.

Your daughter.

Sitting in my lazy boy, watching TV, keeping out of the heat by running the air conditioning, it is SO incredibly easy to judge.

No way in hell, right?

But.....I know I have enough food in my house to eat for weeks if I had to. I don't have an entire family wondering how I will feed them.

I'd really like to judge a mother who would make that choice, but God knows I have absolutely no right to judge anyone. Well, EXCEPT for the evil one who wants to buy the girl and the even more evil pedophiles who will travel halfway around the world to have sex with a little girl.

My family's interest in Cambodia began just a few years ago when my nephew and some of his international friends decided to visit Thailand and Cambodia on vacation.

While the group was there, they pooled their money together and bought several supplies and toys and delivered them to a children's hospital. The Administrator was from Rhode Island and was extremely grateful for the badly needed supplies.

The next year I received a snail mail letter from a very good friend of mine who said she was going to Cambodia on a mission trip to visit a place called Rapha House.

Rapha House provides shelter for young girls who have been rescued from the perverted sex trade industry that is prevalent throughout Cambodia.

We, as a family, decided we would pull together some "loose change" to send along with Debbie and the group. I delivered $300 in cash to her just a couple days before she was leaving. She asked me what my family wanted her to do with it.

I told her that we were not putting any restrictions on the money. We trusted that God would direct her in how it should be spent. And that He did.

While there she was talking with Stephanie Freed, the Director of Rapha House along with the staff. They told her that education was difficult in Cambodia. Most young girls do not go on to the 8th grade. Not having been told that Debbie had some uncommitted cash along, Stephanie told Debbie that they teachers had been going through training about how to incent the young girls to continue their education.

Apparently having a bicycle is not only a means of transportation, but a status symbol. The training had discussed how using incentives could persuade some girls to continue on to the 8th grade. Rapha House had decided that they would promise the girls at the end of 7th grade they would be provided bicycles if they continued their education. Stephanie explained they didn't yet know how they would afford the bicycles, but that was the plan.

Debbie asked how many they needed. Five. Then she asked how much they cost. $50. Debbie looks over at her daughter who had accompanied on her trip. She thought, "Five bicycles and one to sit in the hall of Rapha House as a reminder for the next year's class."

It was then that she told Stephanie about the $300 in cash.

And so began what our family calls The Cambodia Bicycle Club.

After Debbie returned and told us about what became of our small contribution, we decided that we, as a family could easily support this on a continuing basis. So, whenever we get together, we have a small bag with a brass bicycle ornament where anyone can toss in some extra dollars throughout the year. The amounts really are very small and yet can make a big difference in the lives of a few girls each year.

Fast forward to a few months ago.

Debbie's husband, who swore he would never go on a mission trip felt called to go this year.

Again, we pooled our money together, separate from the Bicycle Club and sent Clint on his way with an extra $300 in cash.

There he met the mother I referred to above. It's a family at risk of feeling forced to sell their young daughter into the sex trade industry so the rest of the family could simply have food.

The host family he was staying with explained you cannot simply hand the family money. The real problem is the lack of ability to be able to support themselves.

As they say, "....Teach a man to fish..."

They explained that if the mother had access to a sewing machine, she could make a living and support her family.


Sewing machine. $250.
Supplies. $ 50.

So Clint knew exactly where the $300 was to go.

They bought the sewing machine, putting it in the host's family's house to keep it from being sold or stolen.

Here is the mother from the story above.

$300. That's all it was. $20 here and there out of our spare change while we sit in our comfortable houses.

We don't even notice the little bit of cash each of us contributed.

But someone in Cambodia does. One woman will be able to feed her family.

And at least one little girl won't be sold to the sex trade industry.

Cambodia's Shame

The savage sex-trade industry in the country not only claims the lives of these young women, but thousand more starting at the ages that are shocking. Seven, eight, it doesn't matter to the evil people who kidnapped these girls. Sometimes their own parents sell them into the industry.

I received the article below in the mail today from Rapha House.

Four Girls Perish In Karaoke Bar Fire In Northwest Cambodia

Fire raged through a karaoke bar consuming the lives of four young women trapped inside. In this part of the world, karaoke bars are often fronts for brothels.

These four young women were prisoners behind a chained door preventing their escape or rescue. Now the charred ruins of this back alley nightclub starkly testify to the horror that took place there. Four lives were lost needlessly early Sunday morning, May 3, 2009.

Probably no western newspaper will pick up the story of the deaths of Hou Leak, 15; Srey Touch, 17; Srey Mao, 19; and Sambath. 22. Their passing is but a footnote to the endless parade of human suffering throughout the world. Things like this happen all the time.

We, however, shouldn’t let their story pass without further reflection. There’s the suggestion of something more sinister in this incident.

It’s not the cause of the fire that’s suspect. According to police sources, faulty electrical wiring is to blame. Nobody is suggesting that foul play contributed to the cause of the fire. But something about this case is troublesome.

The door to the girls’ room was chained. That chained door is troublesome. Certainly, the chance of the girls’ survival would have been improved had the door not been chained. And no one disputes the fact that the door was chained. Even the newspaper reports that the families might seek compensation from the club owner for his carelessness after they finish burying the remains of their daughters.

Now the club owner might plea his case by saying that he was only doing his part in keeping the girls safe by chaining the door. He might argue that the chains kept intruders out. But the chains did more than keep intruders out. They kept the girls in, and that’s why these four young women perished.

Four girls are dead because they couldn’t escape. In effect, they were prisoners. And word on the street says that’s exactly what they were. There’s a persistent rumor going around that they were part of a sex trafficking ring working out of Phnom Penh. That’s why these girls were held behind a chained door. They couldn’t escape even if they wanted to.

This tragedy is difficult for us at Rapha House. What makes this tragedy difficult for us is that we have a safehouse within a couple miles from where these girls perished. Help was that close. We would have gladly taken them in. We would have cared for them. We would have given them an opportunity for a better life. We would have done everything within our power to help them. But we didn’t know about these four girls.

It’s horrifying to think what the last moments of life was like for these four girls. We don’t want to imagine something as awful as that. But had the night passed without incident, what would life had been like for these four girls if they were part of a sex trafficking ring?

All over the world, young girls are kept behind chained doors only to greet another day of bondage. Help us to reach more girls before its too late for them.

Rapha House, P.O. Box 1569, Joplin, MO 64802-1569 • http://www.freedomforgirls.org/.