As all of you that are customers and fans of Buy The Change are aware, we are very inspired by the work of Sheryl WuDunn and Nicolas Kristof. They are the authors of the book Half The Sky which was a major inspiration in starting our company. We are always on the lookout for like minded individuals and recently discovered a blog called Spillerina. The blog is not only about international issues concerning women and girls (it's about a lot of other fun things too) but the auther is very much a like minded person who has traveled and experienced these issues first hand. Below is a post from the Spillerena blog detailing the authors experiences volunteering in an orphanage in Cambodia in 2007:
I have been a huge fan of Nicolas Kristof for years. He has lead the charge on many human rights and social justice issues such as human trafficking, and has single handedly spread awareness on huge humanitarian issues that have been ignored by the mainstream media for decades. Many of the issues presented in Half the Sky are near and dear to my heart, as I have witnessed firsthand just how horrific and unfair the conditions are for women in some parts of the world. I’ll be writing a lot about human rights issues in the coming weeks, but today I thought I’d start with my personal experience.
In the summer of 2007 I volunteered an orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I’d been traveling around Southeast Asia for a couple months, having the time of my life, and I thought it would be nice to do something to “give back.” I emailed a few NGOs that worked with orphanages in Cambodia, and the response I received was overwhelming: they needed help and would take as much of at is they could get. After a few back and forth emails, I became a volunteer for Children of Cambodia’s Orphanage Development Project.
I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.
The orphanage I ended up volunteering at was one of the poorest in the city. Almost all of the children at the orphanage were either mentally and/or physically disabled, and the older kids that appeared to be healthy were all HIV positive. On my first day, I didn’t know if I could last six days let alone six weeks. The conditions were horrible, it was stifling hot, and the place smelled disgusting.
It is amazing how quickly I got used to this........
The NGO that I volunteered through also had a shelter for girls that were victims of the sex slave trade. I was told that the day the shelter opened, over 50 girls showed up. I can’t even imagine how much these girls had to risk just to get there, but at that time the shelter could only accommodate 25. So, they took the youngest. All of the girls in the shelter were between the ages of 7 and 13.
Cambodia is a beautiful but very corrupt country, and the sex slave trade is rampant. Many families can’t afford to have any extra mouths to feed, so instead of giving up their unwanted babies to an orphanage like the one I worked at, they sell them to a brothel.
If the kid appeared disabled or sick in some way, they would usually drop them off at an orphanage. It wasn’t uncommon for babies to be left in front of the orphanage gates.
The time I spent in Cambodia changed me in ways I can’t even begin to describe, and these experiences are deeply engrained in the soul of my existence. I’ll carry them with me until the day I die.
Thanks so much to Serena at Sillerena for letting us share a piece of her experience. Please read the entire post at: http://www.spillerena.com/2012/08/01/half-the-sky/
Click here to see the Half The Sky Movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JbWA-6GDn4&feature=player_embedded
Click here to join the Half The Sky Movement: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/
Click here to purchase the Half The Sky book. It really is a must read:
http://www.amazon.com/Half-Sky-Oppression-Opportunity-Worldwide/dp/0307387097/ref=la_B001H6MMHA_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343857553&sr=1-1
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