Prayer for the Trauma Recovery Center in Phnom Penh
Our Passion:
In the picture above, the survivors of trafficking and exploitation release balloons in Cambodia as a sign of the healing process they are experiencing at one of nine projected Trauma Recovery Centers that World Vision (WV) is funding as part of a five year project. Our Chapter has chosen to help support this Project as a result of our heart for advocacy against human trafficking. We are passionate about making a difference in the lives of exploited women and children and pray that many children in Cambodia will be protected and restored at these WV centers. Our prayer is that the children once hopeless willl find hope just as the children in the picture above, and that they too will write their experiences of the past on balloons and then let them go, leaving behind some of the pain from their past. What follows is a snapshot about the Project and our prayer. Project details here.
General Information:
The Trauma Recovery Project, which provides aftercare to sexually exploited and abused girls—who come from many provinces in Cambodia—through a shelter in Phnom Penh WV will be engaged in two types of partnerships for the Child Protection Program in Cambodia. The first involves governments, United
Nations bodies, and international and local NGO providers, with which they collaborate to ensure appropriate, timely, and relevant policies and responses to the needs of children and communities.
The other type of partnership is with community-based or grass roots organizations, such as parents groups, Child Protection Networks, and various interest groups, including those by which communities plan and act on protection issues. Through these partnerships, WV works to mobilize communities, build their capacity, and expand participation in planning and programming. For example, Hagar Cambodia, is an international Christian organization with which WV works to provide restorative care for sexually abused and trafficked children.
WV—through their own Trauma Recovery Center in Phnom Penh—and partner NGOs will provide child victims of sexual exploitation and abuse with therapeutic residential shelter that meets or exceeds established care standards. Children will be assessed upon admission, and individual case plans will be developed. Care will include nutritious meals, clothing, vocational education, life-skills training, formal or nonformal education, counseling, and healthcare. The ultimate aim is to promote restoration of the child, improved functioning and resilience, and increased hope.
Analysis of the Problem in Cambodia:
Girls in their teens or even younger are sold into prostitution in Cambodia, forced to perform sexual services over weeks, months, and even years. Such abuse causes the girls to become angry and physically and emotionally traumatized—an impact that lingers well beyond their removal from brothels. Before returning to family life or their communities, these children need intensive counseling and highquality restorative care in residential facilities—a level of service that is in limited supply in Phnom Penh and across the country. This is one part of the challenge. Another is to ensure that survivors are spared from experiencing additional trauma during the police investigation and legal proceedings. WV also seeks to keep children from becoming further victimized in their communities. The risk is quite real. Girls who have lost their virginity are considered damaged or disreputable. Such attitudes make them highly vulnerable to repeated abuse and in danger of becoming trapped in a cycle of exploitation. Protection also is needed for young girls and women who are targeted and sought out because they are virgins. Perhaps the most far-reaching task—one with potential for long-term impact—is to help change both the environment (where children can be exploited easily) and systems (which are inadequately equipped to respond to cases of abuse).Prevention. Protection. Restoration. As the gaps in these areas are filled, significant progress can be made in building a safer world for Cambodia’s children.
World Vision's Response:
World Vision has more than 30 years of experience working in Cambodia. Over five years, with funding of about $7.1 million, this program will provide protection and restoration services to nearly 5,500 beneficiaries, including shelter care for 445 girls and protection support, such as assistance with the legal process, for 500 children and 250 families. About 70,000 community members, including 28,700 children, will benefit from strengthening of local and government systems that protect children and respond to instances of abuse. We at the South Puget Sound Chapter of Women of Vision in conjunction withWorld Vision would be privileged to have you join with us in building a safer world for children in Cambodia.
Our Part:
Our partnership with WV will advance the cause of child protection, helping to restore children who have been hurt, protect children who are vulnerable to abuse, and make communities safer for girls and boys in Cambodia. Mindful that child protection issues are difficult, WV is nonetheless hopeful that they can reflect God’s love into the lives of children at risk and help them find paths to a brighter future—a future in which they will feel valued and empowered to achieve their potential. Our Chapter along with WV would be privileged to have you participate in this work. With WV's long-term presence in Cambodia, their experience in trafficking and exploitation issues, and strong programs, we have before us a remarkable opportunity to reach hurting and vulnerable children and impact their lives in enduringly positive ways. Please join us in making a difference for these children.
Our Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
We come before you in the Name of Jesus and ask that your merciful Hand would extend to these girls and boys in Cambodia to bring them protection and restoration. Lord, this heinous crime of human trafficking and sexual exploitation is beyond what we can imagine, yet we know that You are able to undertake for these children in ways that we cannot even think or ask. For the ones who have arrived at the Trauma Recovery Center in Phnom Penh today, bring them peace and comfort and take away their fears. For the ones who have been at the Center already we ask that they would be successful in their program and that they would continue to be renewed and recreated in You. Thank you for bringing these children newness of life and life in all it's fullness.
We pray for the counselors and the staff working with these children that You would encourage their hearts today as they work in this heartbreaking reality. Give them strength and patience as they work to be Your Hands extended to these children. Work a miracle in relationships and let there be a triple cord bond between each child, their counselor and You. bless them for the sacrificies that they make daily to be available to these children. Provide for their spiritual, emotional and financial needs.
We pray for the Nation of Cambodia that there would be changes in their government so that children are protected. We pray for the ones exploiting these children. We lift them before You and pray for their salvation. We pray that the demand for these children would stop as a result of these men and women who offer these girls wrongfully seeing their wrong and walking away from this corrupt practice. We believe that it is possible to end human trafficking in our world becasue we know that nothing is impossible with You!
For our part, Lord, please give us favor in our fundraising. Give us new and fresh ideas so that we can share our passion for advocacy and ignite that passion in others. Open doors for us that only You can open as we plan our largest fund raiser through the Sheryl WuDunn Event. Give us each creative ideas about how we can raise funds that will directly support this Center in Cambodia. Lord our dollars make such a huge difference in what can be done for these children. Show us Lord who to ask and when to ask to our events. Help us to convey to others the need for vigilence and determination in this fight against human trafficking in our world. Lord our motives are that You would be blessed as we obey Your call to help the poor, that children would be rescued, restored and renewed and that our world would see You through all of our efforts.
We praise You, Lord for You are worthy of our praise. We worship and bow down before You for we know that we can do nothing without You. We dream big, Lord, because we know that we serve a BIG God who hears us and answers us. We are excited about how You will use us to make a difference in the lives of these children in Cambodia. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen
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