Stories from Cambodia: The reason why we're here: Love146

Before I get to showing pictures of our cats (which are adorable), telling you about the traffic in Phnom Penh (which is terrifying), and probably not telling you how it smells around the meat stalls at the Russian Market (you don't want to know - really), I thought I'd start by explaining the reason why Philipp and I decided to come to Cambodia in the first place: my job at Love146. I've included two videos along with pictures to give you a complete a picture as possible as to why this organization drew us from half-way around the world and what my work here actually looks like.

Love146

In 2002 the founders of the abolitionist organization Love146 visited a brothel in Southeast Asia in an undercover investigation into reports of children being sold for sex. There they saw a room filled with young girls, each with a number pinned on her back. They all had stunned, deadened expressions on their face, except for one girl, the girl with the number 146. She still had fight and life left in her, but when the investigators returned with the police a few days later, she was gone. They founded Love146 because of her and because the day must come when no child will have endure what she did. Their vision is simply “the abolition of child trafficking and exploitation. Nothing less.” (love146.org/mission-vision/) To achieve this goal Love146 has a four-fold approach: survivor care, prevention education, professional training, and empowering movement. The following video is a little bit more about what Love146 does and why they're doing it:

My Job at Love146

The area I am working in is the empowering movement as a part of the Asia Capacity Building Program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The program supports local abolitionist organizations and grassroot movements in several counties in South and Southeast Asia, including India, Thailand, and Cambodia. Love146 provides these local partners with training and weekend retreats for their staff, networking with other like-minded organizations, and research on child trafficking and exploitation. Research is done by interns who volunteer for a period of several months and work in teams planning, conducting, and summarizing the findings of their research. Coordinating and supervising these groups will be my job, including everything from welcoming them to Phnom Penh, to working together with the team leader in planning their research, and just generally being there for them and supporting them. In the video below Glenn Miles (my awesome boss) explains more about how "capacity building" works and what it actually means for those who are working together with us in this program: http://love146.org/videos/a-story-of-empowering-movement/ (the embedding didn't work for some reason)

The last two months have shown me/us just how good it was that we followed that pull to Cambodia. I love working with people who are passionate about the same things I am: bringing light into the dark corners of the world and humanity (just to be clear, I mean the issues of human trafficking and exploitation, not the country itself!) and being a voice for those, who will otherwise be unheard. This of course doesn't mean that every day is perfect, that nobody is ever frustrated or discouraged, or that we don't sometimes get on each other's nerves. People are people, regardless of what country we live in or how nice the weather is. I finally remembered to take my camera to work with me today, so I also have some pictures to share of the office, my workplace, colleagues, and an important part of every work day, a good lunch break. Enjoy!