Healing for Victims of Assault and Trafficking

The following is a detailed January through March Consoling Through Counseling activity report. It includes the amounts and types of the clients served along with recent activities and an overview of reintegration's: 

The counselors have spent a total of 36 hours and 15 minutes providing 50 individual counseling sessions for 16 survivors who were staying in the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center safe shelter. Among the 16 survivors, 10 were victims of human trafficking and exploitation, 4 were victims of sexual abuse and 2 were victims of domestic violence.

• The counselor provided counseling sessions on 7 occasions to 13 survivors and 6 relatives at the CWCC's safe shelter. Among the 13 survivors, 8 were victims of human trafficking and exploitation, 4 were victims of sexual abuse and 1 was a victim of domestic violence. 6 hours and 40 minutes were spent in counseling sessions total.

• The counselor provided counseling sessions on 8 occasions to 15 survivors and 6 relatives at the CWCC's safe shelter. 8 hours were spent in total. Among the 15 survivors, 9 were victims of human trafficking, 4 were victims of sexual abuse and 2 were victims of domestic violence.

• 23 people – 10 survivors of human trafficking and 5 relatives, 2 survivors of domestic violence and 2 relatives, and 4 survivors of sexual abuse – participated in 8 weekly meetings in the shelter. 16 hours were spent in total.

• The (16) beneficiaries of the individual counseling sessions were victims of the following:

a)     Under 18: (14 in total)

-       Human Trafficking: 9

-       Sexual Abuse: 4

-       Domestic Violence: 1

b)    From 18 to 22: (0 in total)

-       Domestic violence: 0

-       Sexual Abuse: 0

-       Human Trafficking: 0

c)     Over 22: (2 in total)

-       Human Trafficking: 1

-       Domestic Violence: 1

-       Sexual Abuse: 0

• On March 04, 2018, the counselor met with the senior counselor of Bamboo Mental Clinic (former INDIGO) in Phnom Penh to report and discuss the general mental health of the clients. The discussion also focused on the challenges faced by the counselor, such as dealing with the poor mental health of clients and the difficulties involved in treating survivors of exploitation. The senior counselor instructed her to identify her own strengths and to understand that she is doing her best in this difficult task that is dealing with deeply traumatized clients.

• During this quarter, there were a total of 3 clients (DV=3 & HT=4) attending the sewing training in the shelter, all of them are survivors of trafficking and exploitation. In addition, 4 girls who were attending a beauty salon course outside the shelter the previous year have continued the course.

• During this first quarter of 2018, the monitoring and legal aid project received a total of 12 new cases – 6 domestic violence survivors, 5 sexual abuse survivors and 2 human trafficking survivors (1 case=2 survivors). The lawyer filed 4 new cases of sexual abuse to Banteay Meanchey’s first court of instance and 4 cases were tried at court which included 2 cases of domestic violence and 2 cases of sexual abuse.

Reintegration

• The reintegration officer interviewed 2 underage survivors of sexual abuse in order to develop case plans for reintegration. 

• The reintegration officer conducted one family and community assessment for one case of sexual abuse (underage) and conducted one family tracing for one case of human trafficking (underage). The family and community assessment went well, and the client is able to go back home anytime. The tracing was also successful. The reintegration officer met her family (the victim’s sister) in Battambang. Her mother was working as a laborer at the Cambodia-Thailand border in Battambang province.

• 2 survivors of human trafficking with 2 relatives, 1 survivor of domestic violence with 3 relatives and 1 survivor of sexual abuse were reintegrated to their home communities in Banteay Meanchey and Battambang. The four survivors received a life start-up support from the project to buy food commodities.

Thank you to all of the donors who have helped improve the lives of these strong survivors!