Free To Shine aims to increase the safety of 48 girls from Siem Reap, Cambodia who are at risk of sex trafficking by mitigating immediate risks and working with their family to build understanding of human rights, sex trafficking and exploitation, child labour, early marriage and family violence. Short term emergency financial support to assist families pay for housing, food or medical care will also be provided.
Requested Amount: $30,300 from a total project cost of $37,875
100 Women funds have been requested to cover salary and equipment for a Social Worker, an emergency brokerage fund, monitoring and evaluation and family education resources.
Who is the organisation and what is their mission?
Free To Shine is a child protection organisation that prevents school-aged girls being trafficked into the commercial sex industry in Cambodia.
Since 2010, Free To Shine has provided long term case management to 763 school-aged girls who were identified as at risk of trafficking and exploitation. A team of Khmer professionals conduct monthly safety visits and social work interventions, focusing on strengthening family and community systems to prioritise the safety and education of their children.
Through this family-based model of care, which recognises that children are most likely to succeed within a supportive family environment, Free To Shine has successfully secured the safety of these girls and supported them to stay in school, and for many to complete Year 12, and for some to move on to university.
What is the project that the 100 Women grant will support?
Through this two-year pilot project, Free To Shine will increase the immediate safety of 48 girls aged 13-17 at high risk of sex trafficking, not engaged with education and facing extreme financial poverty.
Over the course of two years, a Social Worker will mitigate immediate risks and foster positive educational and social outcomes by:
- Conducting comprehensive child safety assessments, needs assessment and planning.
- Providing education and capacity building to the girls and their families on topics including human rights, human trafficking, child labour, exploitation, gender-based violence, child development and child protection.
- Addressing immediate health, safety and wellbeing needs through flexible funding with psycho-social support (including food, water, health care, safe accommodation, phone and phone credit).
- Forging partnerships with village leaders and the commune women’s council to assist families address barriers to safety.
- Developing and disseminating community resources on key human rights and child protection issues.
After the short term intervention of this project, where girls are safe they will be exited, where they require further support they will be referred to Free To Shine’s education program to finish school, or referred to the social work program if further interventions are necessary to secure their safety.
Who is the project for? Who else will benefit?
The 48 girls in rural Siem Reap engaged with the project will benefit from increased safety and security, increased understanding of their rights and a decreased risk of trafficking. A total of 192 siblings will benefit from their family’s increased knowledge of human rights, health and opportunities for economic security.
Why is the project needed?
Barriers such as poverty, cultural and gender norms affect girls in Cambodia disproportionately. This is exacerbated by geographic remoteness.
Many girls are not engaged in education, and their risk of trafficking, exploitation, child labour, early marriage and gender-based violence are high, and there is a scarcity of formal support in Cambodia. Girls in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to trafficking; only 1 in 3 girls finish school, 1 in 4 are married before age 18, and 1 in 2 experience physical violence.
There is a cohort of girls who are disengaged from school and require urgent short term social work interventions and financial support to mitigate the risks that accompany extreme poverty, overwhelming debt, migration, neglect, family violence, parental illness or death that leave them highly vulnerable to being targeted by traffickers.
This pilot project has been designed to address concerns raised by local leaders focused on the welfare of women and children and feedback from former beneficiaries of unresolved urgent financial challenges.
What are the planned outcomes for the project?
The three broad outcomes for the project are:
- Girls’ safety and security is increased;
- Girls’ have increased understanding of their rights; and
- Girls’ risk of trafficking is decreased.
Success will be measured through baseline and endline surveys to measure changes in knowledge and behaviour, case studies and success stories to illustrate program impact, data collection from program assessment and stakeholder interviews.
