I now know I am not rubbish.
IN HAGAR’S CAMBODIA NETWORK
IN MODERN SLAVERY WORLDWIDE
ALONGSIDE SURVIVORS
Hagar kept showing up anyway.
Aly was abandoned at birth in a rubbish bin in Cambodia. She grew up in an overcrowded shelter where she was malnourished, denied schooling, and exploited throughout childhood. At fourteen she was violated, expelled while pregnant, and left entirely alone. She survived on the streets until she found her way to Hagar.
She did not trust anyone. For two months she hid in her room and cried. Hagar’s team kept showing up. Not with quick fixes. Not with a short-term program. But with something far more powerful: a long, patient, dignified presence.
Hagar walked with Aly through her pregnancy. Helped her become a mother. Helped her build skills and find work. Helped her rebuild trust in others and in herself. When life became hard again, as it does, Hagar was still there.
And then something remarkable happened. Aly stepped forward.
50 million people are living in modern slavery worldwide. 29 million of them are in the Asia-Pacific. Hagar has learned something in over thirty years of this work: the most powerful force against exploitation does not come from the outside. It comes from within the communities where trafficking takes hold, carried by people who know the cost of it firsthand.
A healed survivor is the beginning of the end of human trafficking.
