Voices For Change
Survivors of trafficking are not weak and helpless. They are strong, resilient, and have demonstrated incredible courage in overcoming their tortured past and building a promising future for themselves. The Somaly Mam Foundation is there to lend a hand and provide them with a platform from which their voices can be heard around the world. Voices for Change is that platform.
Co-directed by Sina Vann, a survivor of sex slavery in Cambodia, and modeled after Mam’s life example, VFC is designed to give survivors an opportunity to help themselves by helping others, to have their voices heard in the courts of law and public perception, and to have influence and impact on effectuating change. From those who have struggled through the pain of slavery, a new generation of leaders who stand for justice and free will will arise. Those who have undergone rescue, recovery, education, and reintegration are survivors who can choose to join the Voices for Change initiative and help in the survivor services program area by speaking to new victims brought to the centers, completing intake forms, teaching classes, and sharing life skills training.
Program participants join legal training seminars and courageously share their stories with magistrates, judges, and other members of the legal community brought together to better understand sex slavery. The survivors’ first-hand accounts of the horrors of life as a slave in the sex trade serve as dramatic wake-up calls to those in the legal profession who have pledged themselves to the cause of justice. Participating survivors host public service announcements in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. They also accompany Mam to certain fundraising and awareness events to share their experiences, educate the public, and show that this is happening to real people — not just nameless, faceless masses. Each one of these women has lived through horrific conditions and has emerged as a young leader.
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Famous quotes containing the words voices and/or change:
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And berries in the hedge
Through all the nights of rain have come to the full,
And death seems like long hills, a range
We ride each day towards, and never reach.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
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—Rebecca West (1892–1983)