Students in 11th grade just read an article about Somaly Mam and her valiant efforts to diminish sex trafficking in her native country of Cambodia. Somaly herself was sold into a brothel as a young child, escaped to France, and has since returned to lead the efforts to prevent and educate about the extensive sexual abuse of young girls that exists in Cambodia.
Cambodia has a horrific record on sex trafficking. This is partially due to the vacuum left after the murderous Pol Pot ruled in Cambodia, with his Khmer Rouge regime, from 1975 to 1979. The country was left shattered, while generations of elders were slaughtered by youngsters with machine guns.
Pot turned the Cambodian clock back to year zero, forced the people out of the cities onto collective farms, and then taught the young to murder and commit mayhem. The terror diminished only when the North Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and forced Pol Pot to flee.
