The Cambodian girls sold for sex by their mothers - CNN.com
- 7 years ago
Svay Pak, Cambodia (CNN)Sephak was aged just 13 years old when she was sold for sex by her mother.
She was taken to a hospital, issued a certificate confirming her virginity, and then taken to a hotel room where a she was raped for days. She was returned home after three nights.
Sephak grew up in Svay Pak, a poor fishing village on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. It's a community that has become notorious as a place to buy child sex.
Her mother, Ann, said her family had fallen on hard times and that they took out a loan that eventually spiraled to about $6,000 in debt. With money-lenders threatening her, Ann took up an offer from a woman who approached her promising big money for her daughter's virginity.
Sephak said her mother was paid $800. But after Sephak's return, her mother began pressuring her to work in a brothel.
Ann said she regrets her decision and that if she had known then what she knows now, she would never have sold her daughter.
She was taken to a hospital, issued a certificate confirming her virginity, and then taken to a hotel room where a she was raped for days. She was returned home after three nights.
Sephak grew up in Svay Pak, a poor fishing village on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. It's a community that has become notorious as a place to buy child sex.
Her mother, Ann, said her family had fallen on hard times and that they took out a loan that eventually spiraled to about $6,000 in debt. With money-lenders threatening her, Ann took up an offer from a woman who approached her promising big money for her daughter's virginity.
Sephak said her mother was paid $800. But after Sephak's return, her mother began pressuring her to work in a brothel.
Ann said she regrets her decision and that if she had known then what she knows now, she would never have sold her daughter.