I wish that I could talk to her, but I can’t.
I wish that I could know what she’s thinking, but she can’t tell me.
I wish that I could guarantee her protection, but I’m not sure how.
Three wishes. These are three wishes that come to my mind every time I interact with Vurn. She lives on a former MineField in Cambodia and we’ve shared bits of her story before. A mother of four, wife of a husband who is crippled, Vurn was desperate for help. And if disparity wasn’t enough, she was terribly vulnerable.
I wonder what it was like for Vurn when she said goodbye to her little ones to walk across the border, willing to endure abuse, hoping she would return….but never having that certainty? She didn’t have the luxury of wondering why life was this hard or why she had to endure such suffering. She had to feed her children. She had to stay focused. She had no other option.
Poverty is the most significant cause of sex trafficking in Cambodia. Vurn didn’t know those mornings she would leave her family for months at a time to work in a different country, that she risked becoming one of the 27 million enslaved people on the earth today. Or did she? And even if she did….what choice did she have but to cross one of the most heavily trafficked borders in the world because if she didn’t, her children wouldn’t eat? No one in the world should have to make those choices.
We had to do something. Those three wishes that seemed impossible to change, to prevent me from making a difference began to change…
I wish that I could talk to her, so I’ll keep trying.
I wish I could know what she’s thinking, so I’ll keep asking her.
I wish that I could guarantee her protection, so I’ll get up and do something.
Vurn entered the LandMine Design Program, a cure to the problem of human trafficking through prevention, over two years ago. Today she earns a consistent income from the safety of her own home. Because of this income, she's able to feed her family and she’s full of joy.
Ever wish you could make a difference?
The reality of donating to LandMine Design gives us the opportunity to employ more women like Vurn, to educate her, and hopefully keep her from the dangers of human trafficking. One woman at a time. One story at a time. Together we begin to affect change in a community, regions, a nation and the world. Simultaneously, the 27 million become less and less…