Protecting girls in Cambodia during COVID-19

One year ago we opened the Shine Centre.

We set out to address the massive gap in support for girls in Phnom Penh, which has caused an unacceptably high number of them to drop out of school and chase (often illegitimate) job offers, leading to different forms of exploitation or sex trafficking. You invested in a vision to prevent that abuse and the Shine Centre became a safe space for 411 girls to build their skills, pass their exams, get emotional support to navigate their struggles at home, manage their mental health and receive guidance from mentors who overcame some of the same challenges before them.

But the global pandemic did not make it easy.

There were many city-wide lockdowns and heavy restrictions that made life tough for girls and their families in Phnom Penh. Many times our doors had to close, sometimes for weeks at a time. Girls were begging for us to re-open. They recognised the value of what happened at the Shine Centre, but they also recognised the potential dangers they faced if they could not pass their exams, if their parents could not work, or if they were offered a job that they couldn’t refuse. Our social workers performed thousands of check-ins (four times more than planned) to make sure girls were safe and knew who and where to go for help. In the last three months alone 41 girls received tutoring sessions and 160 received specialist counselling and support.

We remain committed to preventing the lifelong trauma of exploitation caused by one bad decision, one job offer, one misinformed girl.  

Our staff are working hard to help girls develop the confidence to navigate this new environment in Cambodia. Acknowledging that the pandemic was not over and lockdowns and restrictions were a new normal, we rapidly adapted our activities to online platforms so girls had consistent access to all the same support no matter what. Today we are witnessing the resilience of girls and young women as they succeed despite it all, so with this new discovery, we will continue to develop hybrid (both online and in-person) ways of delivering what we promised.

In order to continue being faithful stewards of the resources that you have invested in this project, we will be temporarily moving out of the physical space of our current Shine Centre until we can fully utilise it again. All programming including tutoring, workshops, and girls clubs will be available virtually (larger events hosted in person at our office and a rental facility) and individual and family counselling will still happen in person because our social workers are fully mobile. We hope that this will actually increase access to our Shine Centre programs for new girls outside of our district in Phnom Penh, as we witnessed at a recent virtual workshop where over 1,000 participants logged on!

But we know in-person relationships are important; we are an organisation built on relationships because they are the key to prevention. It’s not the backpack full of school materials or the rice support that keeps a girl safe from trafficking -- it’s the relationships she has and the influence they have over her. We want to build on that positive influence. Performing our work in person and building on the trust that we have with the girls will always be part of what we do so in 2022 we will begin the search for a facility that better suits the growing needs of girls in Phnom Penh.

Our mission is clear: we must end trafficking before it begins. So this year we will be adapting to better understand the changing risks to girls so we can continue effectively preventing it. We welcome any questions, concerns or excitements you have because your perspective and support are vital to building on this work.

Thanks to you, we can continue to grow girls' abilities and limit opportunities for exploitation and trafficking to occur, empowering girls to take control of their futures. 

Onwards!