Khouch’s Story

Khouch, who is 29 yrs old, was born into a poor family and had 11 siblings. When her parents divorced, her mother could not find enough income to support all of her children. Khouch’s grandparents suggested that the young children go to live in a care centre in their village where they could have a good life and future, but Khouch decided that she wanted to look for a job and help support the family.

She left her home and province, and travelled to Phnom Penh to look for work. Due to her limited skills, the only job available to her was as a garment worker which paid a low wage. One day, Khouch received a call from a woman that she had never met. This woman told Khouch that if she travelled to China and married a Chinese man, she would be able to get a good job, with high pay, and send good amounts of money home to her mother and siblings. Khouch was also promised that $250 would be sent to her mother after she got married. Khouch told the broker that she would go.

In January 2020, Khouch was taken over the Chinese border. Once she arrived, she was moved around regularly to escape the Chinese polie, while she waited to marry a Chinese man and be taken to his house. Khouch described what happened next to a Hagar worker:

“…I saw a Chinese man gave money to a broker. I don’t know how much. However, on the next day, I was arrested by the police and they sent me to prison as an illegal immigrant while the broker was escaped. I was scared because I did not know where I was being taken. I was sent to a detention center for about three weeks and was sent to prison for about eight months….with very bad condition and did not have enough food to eat… before they sent me back to Cambodia by the Cambodia Embassy.”  

Khouch was sent back to Cambodia in May 2021. In close collaboration with Ministry of Social Affairs Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), she was referred to Hagar and admitted as a client. Hagar staff said that when they first started working with Khouch, she was distrustful and terrified and deeply impacted by everything she had been through.

In recent months, Hagar has provided the following for Khouch:

• Emergency accommodation with a loving foster mother while Hagar looked for her family (whom she had lost all communication with)
• Clothing and other essential items as she only had the clothes she was wearing
• Help repairing her identity card and reconnecting her with her mother
• Assessing her family and helping her reintegrate back into family life on 29^th May 2021
• Counselling and case management
• Monthly food support

In addition to all of the above, Hagar also did career counselling with Khouch  and conducted a business analysis in her community. As a result, the Hagar Cambodia team supported her in setting up a small business selling soft drink and sugar juice. Within a short period of time, and with the demand from the community, she has now also expanded her business to include selling groceries. 

“I am very happy to see and get my daughter back home safety and also HC has provided supports to her including our family, especially a decent business for my daughter. I believe that with all what she has learned from Hagar team, she will be able to manage and expand her business even after Hagar stop supporting her. I really could not find any word to say better than Thank You Hagar. Poor people like us, if we are relying on my income, even for a whole of my life, we will not be able to capitalized for my children to run a business like this as our daily income is used for a daily household consumption only and there is nothing left to be a capita for business set up,” her mother said. 

Hagar will continue to walk the recovery journey with Khouch into the future but are so excited to see the healing and transformation that has already taken place in her life. Khouch said:

“I am deeply grateful to Hagar for helping me gain my strength and hope for a better future. Your support and encouragement not only helps me but my whole family…I can now live with my mother and my siblings and take care of them. Now I have a clear goal and believe in myself that I will have a better future with the business that Hagar supporting and trained me on how to run…I will tell my friends about my bitterness situation, because I do not want to see other young women become victims like me,” she said.