Can you imagine walking down a street and being told that it once was one of the biggest known areas for sex trafficking in Cambodia to buy and sell children. Not just young women, but children as young as five years old. Building after building being pointed out and identified as a previous known brothel. Brothels full of innocent children who were trafficked from other countries, kidnapped, and even sold by their own impoverished families in need of money to pay off gambling debts. We all “hear” about sex trafficking and our hearts break. To walk down a street that was known for putting these innocent souls through pure hell was another story.
The first of many buildings that we were guided into was the main attraction here in the Svay Pak community. Before it was raided a handful of years ago it consisted of a central walkway through the narrow room with 5 or so small rooms on each side. These rooms had nothing but a small bed in them and were locked by padlocks on the outside of the door. There once existed a back door to the building but was cemented closed by the traffickers, eliminating any opportunity for the girls to escape. Tears are flowing as I stand in the very spot where these walls once stood. Walls trapping these children who are forced to sell themselves sometimes up to 12 times a night. After the raid, the rooms were destroyed, leaving one in tact as a memory of a young girl they discovered whose life was ended far too soon, along with her innocence. We are then told that the small set of stairs above the entrance, lead to what is known as the Pink Room. This room was specifically used for young virgins who are sold and bought at a much higher price than the others.
This is real life and something so many people turn a blind eye to. Over one million children enter into the sex trade every year, hundreds of thousands of which are in Cambodia. Though still so prevalent, there is hope and a restorative future in sight for a lot of these victims. My team was given the opportunity to spend the afternoon with Agape International Missions, a Christian organization that has taken over the streets of Svay Pak. They have transformed these buildings that were once used for such darkness into a beautiful community full of love, hope, and a future.
The former brothel that so graciously was raided and shut down, is now a beautiful open room full of bunkbeds, known as a safe place for young girls to go who are at risk for being sold into sex slavery. A hotel designed for pimps to bring their purchased prostitutes to for the night, is now a school educating hundreds of young minds and opened up for kids day, welcoming up to 200 children each morning. A gym across the street was opened to reach out to the pimps, traffickers, and local pedophiles who too need guidance and the knowledge of the gospel to move forward. Buildings once used for such evil are now flooding with opportunities to women given a second chance. An independence is formed through jewelry making, employment in garment factories, daycares, and daily devotions.
Light is now flooding this community that once radiated so much evil, but I can tell you that my heart still breaks. My heart breaks for Cambodia. My heart breaks as I envision what this street used to look like, flooding with men going into these brothels without a second thought of the torture they are about to engage in. My heart breaks for these children who are stripped of their innocence, abandoned and sold by their families, the ones we are told love us the most. My heart breaks for these woman who refuse to talk about what they went through, fighting off the demons and darkness within. Yet through it all, my heart sings for the hope that awaits them. My heart rejoices as they come to know Jesus and feel a love they never knew was possible. My heart rejoices at the possibilities for hope and a future that Agape International Missions provides for these broken souls. My heart rejoices as I hear their staff give all the glory to God at the restoration that is taking place here in the Svay Pak area. My heart rejoices knowing that darkness floods this earth in so many ways, and through it all their is freedom and light in Jesus Christ.
The Pink Room is a documentary created to fully share the story of the darkness I just wrote about. Check out the trailer on youtube if nothing else – it will make it all that much more real!
