When Rithy came to Hagar in 1999, he was only 12 years old. He had been living on the streets of Phnom Penh, stealing to get by. Rithy had become an orphan, and was angry and alone when he first started living on the streets. Not long afterwards, he had become...
Sophea doesn’t remember much about life before she was sold as a slave, except that her mother was violent and her father was kind. Her mother would strike her when she did wrong, and her father would support her. That’s why, when he put her in a car with a stranger...
Reuniting a family. Bahawuddin was born into a big family. He has seven brothers and sisters, his father, his mother, and his father’s second wife. When Bahawuddin was very young, his mother ran away, and took his oldest sister and 11 year-old brother with her. He was...
Finding hope again. Hoa is 27 years old, she’s a bridal make-up specialist and a hairstylist in training. Hoa loves her family, and she’s great at her job. When Hoa was a teenager, both of her parents suffered debilitating health challenges that prevented them from...
Two sisters find justice. Makara and her big sister Sopheak live in a rural province in Cambodia with their grandmother, who they moved in with a couple of years ago when their parents moved away. In the months that followed their move and when they were both still...
As a child, Thach experienced domestic abuse and a low sense of self-esteem. Today, she uses her own experiences to connect with other children as a mentor for young girls at...
