Survivor stories
Unshackled from Fear to Embrace Hope
It’s hard to imagine that Kalianne, a confident young mother of three with her own grocery store, was once a slave.
She was married off at 16 to a much older man who abused her and made her do gruelling work to earn money for the family. In 2018, her sister-in-law suggested that she seek better paying work in Thailand, and her husband agreed. It was only later she realised they had sold her to traffickers who smuggled her into China.
“Brokers threatened to kill us if we report to the police or try to escape. We did not have enough food to eat, and constantly feared for our lives.”
There, a Chinese man bought her, and life as his slave was hell. Kalianne did all the backbreaking work on the vegetable farm and the household chores. The family fed her food scraps after they finished eating, and the man – her alleged husband – often demanded brutal and painful sex. Even when pregnant, she did not stop working in the fields.
Despite multiple failed attempts at escape, Kalianne was determined. In March 2022, she made it to a police station, where they kept her in a detention centre for 4 months. Upon repatriation to Cambodia, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth (MoSVY) referred her to HAGAR.
A professional foster mother cared for her at HAGAR’s “Home of Love” emergency shelter. Kalianne was distrustful and fearful of being re-trafficked, but slowly, through counselling and other services, she began to heal. HAGAR also working closely with MoSVY and local authorities to reunite Kalianne with her sister and children.
To enable her independence and self-sufficiency, HAGAR gave her business planning training and helped her open a small grocery store. She now provides for her children with the income from her store, and even sends them to school.
"No words can describe how I feel about what HAGAR has done for me. I have more hope now than ever before. I can even dream about a future for my children.
