The Journey Home
There’s usually a sense of anticipation before my return to Cambodia – a mix of excitement and expectation to see what God would have us work on and accomplish. But inevitably, amidst all the work, I miss home and family. Christmas reminds me that being home for holidays is an opportunity that many Cambodians will not have this year.
Many young Cambodian women agree to travel far away from their small villages with dreams of working in big cities. Their hearts are hopeful that they can finally pull their families out of poverty. They have no idea they are being trafficked. Brokers promise them high salaries and good jobs, spreading rumours of success to neighbours and family members. But the reality can be horrifyingly bleak. Often sold as foreign brides, some of these women are starved, tortured and raped.
The numbers are staggering. It’s estimated that by 2020, China will have 30 million bachelor men without any prospects of marriage. Desperate for wives and cheap domestic labour, a growing number are turning to traffickers who are trading in the lives of Cambodian women for profit. And we have the privilege of demonstrating love to these young women who have experienced only betrayal, deception and abuse since leaving home.
The journey home for each young woman is challenging in itself. Take, for example, a young woman who has escaped a forced marriage in rural China. Program staff members must collaborate with the Embassy, government officials and local authorities to re-establish her identity and start the necessary legal process for her to return to Cambodia. This is a difficult undertaking when her passport and papers have been confiscated and destroyed by traffickers. Often without such identity papers she is subjected to further fines, fees and extortion.
After an arduous legal process, she can finally return home. The first faces she will see upon arriving in Cambodia are those of our staff members, welcoming her with loving compassion. What an opportunity to be a blessing! We provide her with the opportunity to receive a range of services, from counselling and care packages to support through medical check-ups. But our initial care for her is designed to be short before we facilitate her return to the people she misses most – her family. We pray that in these encounters, ranging from just hours to a few days, each young woman would experience God’s deep love through our care and concern for her.
Often it’s hard to know if our compassion is reaching through the trauma. But sometimes it’s obvious, and it brings joy to our staff members when they see the difference they’ve made! Recently, when one of the young women left the RAP Community Home to return to see her family, she wept tears of gratitude because of the comfort and care she had received from Ratanak.
You might think that after such a difficult ordeal, her return to her family would be easy. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. When we escort a young woman back to her parents we expect excitement and relief as she runs into their arms. But sadly, instead of joy, frequently she is met with anger. Why is she home? Where is her salary? Where was the money she had promised to bring back?
It’s a crushing homecoming and another hurdle she must overcome in the long journey of reintegration. Often without an understanding of the trauma endured – which can include sexual abuse, domestic violence, or even torture – she is stigmatized and pushed to the margins of her community. But our social workers maintain contact with each young woman to ensure she has support. Our hope is that they will return to us, not for short-term financial rescue, but to develop skills that can equip them to support their families in the future. Over the past year, we have provided a range of repatriation services to 42 trafficked young women. Over half were sex-trafficking survivors and victims of forced marriage in other countries. This was possible because of people like you, who stand with these young women through the challenges they face, praying and advocating for them.
It astounds me how God has positioned us, through your support, to have impact on both a grassroots and government level. Many years ago we prayed that we would be allowed to assist in the process of rebuilding the shattered country of Cambodia. As we look back now we realize how much these prayers have been answered. We expected to be doing the ‘hands-on’ work with individual lives. We did not, however, expect to participate in the building of vital legal and governmental structures required for a country to protect its own vulnerable population from sex trafficking. Ratanak is active in this process of transformation in Cambodia and by doing so is a affecting change in other countries too!
Our staff members have been working hard to prevent future trafficking by working with UN-ACT (United Nations Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons) and other NGOs. These discussions culminated recently with Ratanak staff being included in a Cambodian government delegation to China. We are thrilled to see the proactive position taken by both the Cambodian and Chinese governments. It was an amazing opportunity to advocate on behalf of Cambodian survivors, and to support policies that bless, safeguard and return trafficking victims to Cambodia…back home, to a place where we can start the healing journey with them. So often decisions are made in these fairly abstract policy meetings that, to put it simply, save lives. It can be much less emotionally satisfying than helping victims face to face, but in the long run the results are just as dramatic.
One of my favourite Bible passages is from Zephaniah: “I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals, which is a burden and reproach for you. At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honour in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home.”
We seek to live out the truth of this passage – to gather and bring home the displaced. This Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, I’m reminded of His love – a love that is strong enough to break every chain, a love that calls out for us to come home to Him. He offers all of us, and all the Cambodians we serve, eternal joy and hope. As we seek to bring Cambodian trafficking victims back to their own country, we ask that you keep us in your prayers. Please pray for wisdom and strength for our staff members as they face the huge challenges of repatriating survivors and continue showing them the love of Christ.