Tinara*, an 18-year old girl whose mother is presently an entertainment worker at Phnom Penh’s Toul Kork district one day visited AFESIP Clinic and counseled by a counselor. After a full concentration and being inspired on good services provided by AFESIP Cambodia center, Tinara wanted to visit the center in Phnom Penh to see how she can adapt the environment with her own eyes. Our outreach staff took her and other entertainment women to visit the center. She was warmly welcomed by center staff. After a tour around the center, showing all activities implemented by different units, she finally told our staff: “I love to stay here” and she further said she loved hairdressing skill as it is a good choice for her future. Her mother is happy with her daughter’s decision and thanks AFESIP Cambodia for its great work.
We want to go back a bit to learn about her family story, how was their life time spent in the society ? What was happened to this poor family ? And how did a young girl like Tinara manage her destiny ? It goes as follows:
Tinara lives in a poor family, in a small thatched cottage in Prey Veng Province. Her father was a motor-taxi driver and mother a housewife. When the third child was 2 months old, her father had a girlfriend. Since then, her father always found fault with her mother and beat her almost every day, after coming from motor taxi driving business. Suffered from such rude behavior of her husband, her mother decided to divorce him…… After hours of arguing each other regarding the children’s care, her husband decided to take the eldest son and youngest daughter under his care and Tinara under his wife’s.
No job, no money, life has gone worse when her husband was away from her. How could they survive ? She managed to put herself under local hireling service such as hire for harvesting, farming, collecting whatever villagers needed.
However, their life was so tough and complicate. To live from hand to mouth, after 2-month divorce, her mother managed to leave native village and directed to live in Phnom Penh’s Touk Kork district, the area full of drug users. The only choice to sustain living condition and bring life to light was to enter sex business. Such business has gone on for a few years in the sharp eyes of her grown-up daughter. Strange pictures of her mother’s deeds and words have always run by into her memory… Tinara is fully hopeless in her life and seemed to live in a lurch. Many young boys and men hanged around to woo her. More or less her fate prevails, she has gone through the nightmare as her mother has life experience.
Anyway, AFESIP Cambodia has applauded and welcomed her decision to stay at the center and accepted our service for behavior and life change.
*(We use the fake name in this text and no intention to identify any people)
