Give Trafficked Girls a New Future in Cambodia

This summer has been a very busy time for the girls and staff at Transitions Global.

Recently, there have been a lot of changes, which are helping girls to heal from the atrocity of sex trafficking. Transitions Global has hired a Director of Operations, Sorida Sbong, who has really taken charge of the facilities and efficiencies in our service delivery. One of her first initiatives was getting the girls new furniture. In early August, we did our own “Extreme Room Makeover”, purchasing the girls new armoires, new bedding, new pillows, and a ton of new room accessories to make life a little more pleasant.

The girls were thrilled, which involved a lot of jumping up and down, screaming, and laughing. Now that things have settled down a bit, the girls are more organized and love their new rooms. Over the next months, we will be continuing to improve the girl’s rooms with artwork and other additions to make their living arrangements more personal.

Transitions Global continues to pioneer the field of aftercare. As an organization, we are constantly looking for new ways to help survivors heal and to restore girls’ dreams. We have hired a number of new staff members, who have enormous administrative, social work, and therapy skills and are helping our organization grow.

This summer, we had a number of long-term interns completing their fellowships with Transitions Global. We have had legal interns, and activities coordinator, and a number of visiting groups come for the summer. After completing their time in Cambodia with Transitions Global, it was a time for celebration. We had a number of parties with the girls, including a group game night, which was a huge success. Twister, Jenga, Uno, and a series of Cambodian games that the girls enjoy. Everyone had a great time and laughed a lot.

The Transitions Global STAR House program has continued to evolve and is becoming a highly successful model for helping girls to have an additional transitional step in becoming independent young women. We currently have four graduates of the TLC participating in this program. In August, we moved the girls into a new STAR House apartment, closer to their work, so they can begin making the adjustments to independence.

This fall, our focus will be on program development in our TLC and STAR House projects. We will be training staff, improving our facilities, and looking for some new ways to address the needs of survivors.