Healing for Victims of Assault and Trafficking

Your impact is immense and allows this multifaceted program to serve these valiant survivors by providing counseling and reintegration services. For this report we are providing you an in depth look at all the components that make up this successful program. This is a standard quarterly update which explores details about the program such as individual, small and big group counseling and how many hours were spent with girls and women from the categories of trafficked, sexually abused and domestic violence.

Individual counseling is of course extremely important, the benefits are self- evident. Counseling time in small groups of clients with similar experiences makes it easier for girls and women to share deeply traumatic experiences. Victims have conflicting emotions, pain and anger along with guilt and shame. Small group counseling helps them to deal with these emotions in a safe environment.

Victims are categorized as children (under 18), between 18 and 22 (young adults) and 23 and older. They are further categorized as victims. ‘Survivors’ is a term used by governments and development agencies with a view to discourage the psychological trap of becoming a ‘victim’ which is a weaker position than the strength associated with being a survivor.

These groupings allow us to make comparative analysis within and over many years and see for instance, what if any changes have occurred over time in terms of incidence and between the categories. One very interesting and encouraging outcome over time is a big change of the better in terms of perpetrators being charged and convicted for their crimes, especially in cases of rape and sexual abuse and which are mostly children. Survivors of sexual abuse are now more easily able to reintegrate back into their communities while the perpetrators serve long jail sentences. This makes a huge difference to Cambodian society where not so long ago, rapists were able to destroy the lives of women and children with impunity.

We hope that supporters of the CTC and Reintegration program and readers in general benefit from reading this otherwise, rather formal report.

Consoling through Counseling Component:

• The counselor has spent 61 hours and 35 minutes to provide 82 individual counseling sessions for 21 survivors and 7 relatives who were staying in the safe shelter. Among the 21 survivors, 5 were victims of human trafficking and exploitation, 6 were victims of sexual abuse and 10 were victims of domestic violence.

• The counselor has spent 8 hours and 10 minutes to provide 8 small group counseling sessions to 15 survivors at the safe shelter. Among the 15 survivors, 4 were victims of human trafficking and exploitation, 10 were victims of sexual abuse and 1 was victim of domestic violence.

• The counselor provided counseling sessions for 9 times to 21 survivors and 3 relatives at the safe shelter. 10 hours and 30 minutes were spent in total. Among the 21 survivors, 5 were victims of human trafficking and exploitation, 10 were victims of sexual abuse and 6 were victims of domestic violence. 

• 30 people – 5 survivors of human trafficking and 5 relatives, 10 survivors of sexual abuse and 3 relatives and 6 survivors of 1 relative – participated in 9 weekly meetings in the shelter. 18 hours were spent in total.

In addition to this sewing class inside the shelter, three existing clients have been continued to attend hair-dressing and beauty salon course at a private beauty salon shop outside of the shelter. Of three, two were the clients who have attended class since last year 2017 and one was just started class in May 2018. Furthermore, there was another one client starting this course in this quarter, July 2018. All in all, there were four clients continuing their course in this third quarter of the year. The project is still looking to recruit another client to offer support to attend this hair-dressing and beauty salon course due to budget available.

During this third quarter of 2018, the monitoring and legal aid project received a total of 19 new cases consisting of 8 domestic violence survivors and 11 sexual abuse survivors. The lawyer filed 9 new cases including 4 cases of domestic violence and 5 cases of sexual abuse to Banteay Meanchey’s first court of instance. In addition, 4 cases were tried at court, including 2 of domestic violence and 2 of sexual abuse.

The (21) beneficiaries of the individual counseling sessions were victims of the following:

a)     Under 18: (15 in total)

-       Human Trafficking & Exploitation: 4

-       Sexual Abuse: 10

-       Domestic Violence: 1

b)    From 18 to 22: (0 in total)

-       Human Trafficking & Exploitation: 0

-       Sexual Abuse: 0

-       Domestic violence: 0

c)     Over 22: (6 in total)

-       Human Trafficking & Exploitation: 1

-       Domestic Violence: 5

-       Sexual Abuse: 0

During this quarter, there were a total of 11 clients (DV=2, SA=5 & HT=4) attending the sewing training in the shelter. Of 11 clients, 8 were existing sewing trainees and 3 were new trainees (SA=2 & HT=1) who has just started class in this quarter. The existing trainees, in this quarter, had produced 10 trousers and 10 pants. The new trainees were trained on how to use sewing machine, sewing techniques, cutting fabrics and connecting pieces of fabric to be a complete trouser or pant. The sewing trainer also took sometimes to create pleasant activities in class by teaching the clients on how to produce souvenirs in order to release their stress as well.

Reintegration Component:

• The reintegration officer interviewed four survivors of which one is the survivor of domestic violence, two are the survivors of sexual abuse and one is the survivor of labor trafficking in order to develop case plans for reintegration.

• The reintegration officer conducted four family and community assessments for two cases of domestic violence and other two cases of sexual abuse. The assessments were all conducted in Banteay Meanchey. As result, three out of the four could got back homes whenever they are ready to do so. However, one case of domestic violence won’t be able to go back home at the near future. She does not have a close family and she does not have her own home. The family who she used to stay with is not her extended family or relative. In this regard, the reintegration officer will further work with her to re-plan for her reintegration.

• One survivor of domestic violence with one relative (her son) and one survivor of sexual abuse were reintegrated back to their homes while another survivor of human trafficking with 5 relatives (her sons and daughter) was facilitated to stay at a rented room based on her request. The reason behind her request to stay at a rented room along with her children is to live on her own life as she had stayed at the safe shelter for a long period of time. She also needs to run her own business as well. All of the reintegrated survivors are in Banteay Meanchey and were jointly facilitated by Social Affairs officials. Besides reintegrating them back homes or a chosen place, they were all given a package of support to start-up their lives. The package of support included food commodities, rice and kitchen utensils.

• The reintegration officer conducted follow-up visit to six reintegrated survivors including 3 survivors of domestic violence, 2 survivors of sexual abuse and one survivor of human trafficking. They were all met during the follow-up visit. The reintegration officer found that they were all living happily at home in good health, both physical and emotional. Nothing should be worried about. However, the reintegration officer will continue to follow up them in order to see their further progress and to provide ongoing support and counseling if necessary.

• Two cases of human trafficking were closed by the reintegration officer. Through follow-up visit and observation found that they have been living happily with their family in Battambang and Pursat provinces respectively. They are also in good health. One of them, the 13-year-old survivor who lives in Battambang province, is now attending school nearby her house. Her family is taking a good care of her.

We hope this report gave you insight into how any lives you have empowered. Without your help, this underserved community would not be given hope. Thank you for your support.