I met Somaly Mam last week at a Midtown restaurant to hear a tale of
deprivation that seems unfathomable to American ears. Most of us would prefer
not to know.
But Somaly will tell her tale, over and over if necessary, because she just
started an American charity - the Somaly Mam Foundation. With a Web site,
somaly.org, it raises money to save girls.
And now, the story nobody wanted to hear is getting the Hollywood treatment. A
movie about the Southeast Asian slave trade, "Holly," opens Nov. 9.
Somaly figures she's now in her late 30s - a trim, gorgeous woman who looks
like she could have once been a model.
She was a street child, abandoned at birth. She was beaten and tortured.
Finally, an old man posing as her grandfather sold her to a brothel. She lost
the capacity to feel pain.
But she survived. At age 18 or 19, Somaly was deemed too old to be a prostitute
and allowed to leave the brothel. She has since married, moved to France and
had three children, though she is now divorced.
In the mid-'90s, she went back to Cambodia and opened her home to young girls.
She now runs three shelters, where girls learn skills like hair-cutting.
Somaly came to America with a girl of 15, Srey Pov.
Srey's childhood ended at age 7, when her mother sold her for $20. At age 10,
Somaly rescued her.
On Wednesday, Srey went trick-or-treating for the first time in her life.
Somaly will not quit. Not until every little girl gets a shot at childhood.
Not until every little girl gets a chance.
