2011/03/01
By Nancy Liu
Taipei, Mar. 1 (CNA) A Taiwanese group dedicated to fighting human trafficking and sexual abuse has established a women’s shelter in Cambodia, a country known for commercial sex exploitation, one of the organization’s executives said at the launch ceremony Tuesday.
The Pleroma Home for Girls in Phnom Penh will serve as both a shelter and school for girls under 18 and offer sex trafficking victims counseling and career training, said Lily Lee, the project manager and a board member of the Taipei-based Garden of Hope Foundation’s branch in New York.
Citing a study done in 2007, Lee said an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 women — 80 percent of whom are under 18 — are involved in the sex trafficking trade in Cambodia, a problem that required attention.
“Most girls are involved in the sex business because of poverty, and statistics show that 31 percent of the girls are illiterate, ” the project manager said, highlighting education as an important means to finding a solution.
“The situation in Cambodia is like that in Taiwan 20 years ago when women’s rights were trampled on and overlooked, ” said Chi Hui-jung, the foundation’s chief executive officer.
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