The real face of child exploitation is not organised rings of crime syndicates, selling human flesh, but it is simple families trying to make a living in slums. Making a few bucks in Cambodia is not easy. Unless you have a gun and access to capital, its who you know that counts. Cambodians who live in slum areas, live a hand-to-mouth existence making whatever living they can, in whatever way they can!

Through twitter I came into contact with Cathleen Angelo who on her travels had come to know a young street seller called Chanty. Cathleen had built a relationship with Chanty and been trying to support her to go to school... I was pleased to hear that. Cathleen then let me know that she had lost contact with Chanty and asked me to go find her! No mean task among the 2 million people who live in Phnom Penh! Cambodian’s have a saying “your mouth is the road” (meaning the best way to find something is by asking). I have always fancied myself a private eye, so this was a good challenge.

I set off to find Chanty, my son Luke came along too, he loves being out around the street and finding out what is gong on... I went up to the area where Cathleen had told me Chanty lived, I went around asking looking and hoping. No-one knew or had heard of Chanty. After an hour or so I was pretty hot and tired, Luke was too (temp was around 40C with 100% humidity and no cover!) Luke was also was bored of the “Ooo look at the French baby!” by now. So we cycled on-down to a near-by petrol station. I bought a bottle of water and surfed on my phone looking for clues on the pictures that Cathleen had posted. There were a few kids begging around the petrol station and they kept knocking on the window asking for a biscuit/cookie. These kids can be cute and endearing when you are on a 2 week holiday, but it gets up your nose when you have lived here for 8 years!

After about 15 mins I had cooled down, refreshed myself but was not any more hopeful. I walked out of sanctuary of the petrol station and the beggar kids were on me like flies. Then it dawned on me... “If anyone is going to know Chanty these kids will”. So I started a conversation with them, which is not easy when they keep asking “give me money!” I persisted, finally after a long discussion they said, “she lives down there, go right, go left and then ask people they will tell you where she is!” I thanked them and gave them what was left of the cookies I had brought for Luke to snack on. They were really pleased about this and had eaten them before I had cycled out of the petrol station!

After I had followed the kids directions I started asking around... The big problems in asking for help is that people see a white face and assume you are speaking in English. So, they smile and try to avoid you as they do not want to have an embarrassing conversation with a foreigner! Then they catch on that you are speaking in Khmer and they ask the usual questions when they know they can communicate with you. “How many children do you have”, “Wow! you speak really clearly how long have you lived here”, “Do you have a Cambodian wife”, “What do you do?” etc...  After a few of these conversations I had a result, I showed a guy a picture of Chanty on my phone and he said “I know her I will take you to her house”. We dodged through a few street and then he said, “Go down there!”.

There ahead of me was a long wooden walkway... I carefully negotiated down the walkway fearful the bike and Luke would be lost down one of the cracks in the walkway. Finally, there was Chanty, I could see her round face in the darkened room. Her face was covered with grease from her lunch. I asked her did she know any foreigners who had helped her before. Yes she said “Khas-leen”,who? Oh, yes of course Cathleen! So I had found the right girl. I helped Luke off the bike and asked about their situation, I met her mother and father, and her grandfather. Chanty is still selling books to raise money for her family... She goes to school when she can. I took some pictures and Lukie had a great time playing with the local kids, he just sat right in there making stickle houses with them. I asked Chanty to write a note to Cathleen... Then I hung out for a while, and let Lukie play. In her note Chanty wrote:

“Hello Cathleen, do you think about me? I really miss you! Everyday I miss you a lot! I will try hard to study well. May you be blessed with good health and many years, Good-bye from Chanty!”

I took the note and said good-bye, I told them would be in contact with Cathleen and give them news when I had it.

It is easy to make child exploitation or even trafficking look like a battle with the forces of evil, battling with some rich Trafficking Czar, but mostly it is not like that. Mostly for the poor around the world it is simple stories like Chanty’s, either work or starve. Are the people in this story evil... No more than the average family around the world! Why are these people are poor, why does Chanty not go to school, why does she wander around the streets trying to sell books, there are no easy answers?

Is her father too lazy to provide for the family, probably no more than you or I... What if you had to work in 35C heat, 100% humidity and be paid $2.5 for a days work (that is a good wage - how much did you pay for your last coffee?). If he does have a job he was lucky to find it in the first place! So even if Chanty’s father has a number of jobs he would not be able to provide enough for the whole family. So the whole family has to work and that includes Chanty. Their family live in a wooden shack on top of water, so no hope to growing vegetables, or keeping animals to make a sustainable living. To look for causes of poverty I need not go on to access to education, health services, social services etc...

Does Chanty have rights... ‘yes’ and ‘no’, yes according to the UN declaration, she does, but what use is that declaration if it is does not make an impact on her life. Rights comes from the word righteousness, to do right action, rights in a real sense are not taken, but given! Chanty is not given the rights she deserves, and this is the lottery of life... So we just live with it? I hope not!

The solutions, are not easy either! I only have admiration for what Cathleen is doing, it will not change the whole slum, but it will make a difference to Chanty’s life, and that is good enough; that is the reason I spent my morning cycling round the worst parts of Phnom Penh. These are the kind of people I and Hosea wants to support, restoring one-life at a time, one-day at a time. Would I like to do a programme for the whole slum oh yes! But we need an army of Cathleens to provide the resources needed to bring restoration. It is not just about food in stomachs but lasting change giving Chanty and her family the skills and resources they need to free themselves from the chains of poverty. What if we do nothing, well children like Chanty will eventually be drawn into or caught up by worse forms of exploitation and sometimes into trafficking. Chanty lives a high risk lifestyle in a high risk environment...

How will you respond?