Today was our first Shelter visit, we left early (as usual!) 7-am, we jumped into 4 very nice land cruisers to transport us through the bush/jungle/countryside to visit one of the 3 shelters set up by Somaly and AFESIP. it was a bumpy 3 hour ride into rural Cambodia! not too different from bouncing along potholed roads in Mozambique. In fact thee are so many socioeconomic comparisons to make with Mozambique generally and bits of Zim, which for me is interesting.
On arrival we met Somaly mam and met all the girls (aged between 3 and 16 or so), were taken for a tour around the shelter to see the various activities they do, they learn Weaving, do dance, have a children's library, attend the local school, some even have gone on to attend university. They put on a wonderful dance show for us, and then we all introduced ourselves, and some stood up and said a few heartfelt worst to us too, our visit was quite a highlight for them. it was a heartbreaking, emotional visit and my heart just broke leaving them all, you just want to take them all with you, but you can't. All of them have been molested, abused, raped, either sold for slavery (usually by people they know, not always their family) or given to brothels to pay off family debts. With some as young as 3 it's just too terrible to contemplate. Our fundraising (approx $96 000 so far from our group) is going straight into these 3 centres and we will still visit another of the shelters in 2 days time. Some of the young ones had only arrived a week ago. And yet all seemed so warm, friendly and loving towards us., holding our hands, giving us hugs all the time, they are craving genuine motherly affection and normal love so much, it was a very moving visit and I sobbed on the way home. It was heartbreaking and yet hopeful and happy at the same time, as these girls are the lucky ones, they have escaped that life, come to a shelte which will help them rehabilitate back into normal life in time. Some are not so lucky.
After our sad goodbyes we hopped back in the 4x4s and drove 1 hr into our next stop over town, kampong Cham, along the beautiful kampong river, we went to explore the local markets and walked across the most amazing bamboo bridge! which holds cars up to 1 tonne. It felt bouncy yet strong and motorbikes whiz zed past us on the bridge. Quite a feat as they take the bridge down in rainy season when it floods and rebuild it in low season!!!
