By Marianne Clyde

I find it incredulous that the more suffering I see around the world, the less the world seems to notice.

We go to Disneyland and sing “It’s a small world after all” and go on the rides and “experience” the rest of the world and go home to our comfortable home and our familiar problems and issues. Somehow, even the most caring of us remain isolated and uninformed about what everyday people, just like you and me, are enduring the world over.

In Cambodia recently, I looked into the eyes of teen age girls who had been used as sex slaves or prostitutes. Too embarrassed to tell their stories, they sat by while I listened with grief to some of those who have worked with them tell of the pain and humiliation and hopelessness.

They are rescued and trained in skills like sewing or cooking or hairdressing. They are taught the basics of human dignity and worth. They are loved and treasured. They leave the safety of the rescue centers with hope and promise, only to return to a life of prostitution and slavery.

The question screams, “WHY???” How could they not succeed? How could they return to that humiliating lifestyle? The answers are not easy and the work is long and hard. It begins with the history of a war torn nation, generations of war, and torture and senseless abuses. Drilled ruthlessly into the depths of the woman’s soul is that she is nothing. “A man is gold; a woman is cloth.” This proverb exemplifies how a man is always incredibly valuable, no matter what he does; a woman, on the other hand, is easily stained and impossible to clean.

The children, most of which do not have access to education, remain frighteningly vulnerable to abduction or sale by their parents, who are desperately poor, often starving. Trafficking is a huge issue in Cambodia. Children find themselves victims to the greed and lusts of corrupt politicians and despicable businesses.

Schools are needed to get the children off the streets and educated to their true value and the options that lay before them. They must be given knowledge and resources and faith. They must find hope and possibilities in a world that has appeared so futile for so long. The earlier the children can begin to learn, the less vulnerable they will be to the fate of the older children who already find themselves steeped in hopelessness and despair.

We often find ourselves wondering, what can one person do? The problems and needs are so enormous; the opposition so well funded and strong. We have to know that with every thought, every article, every person made aware, each time someone moves in compassion and gives money or writes letters or becomes involved with groups already helping, the opposition is weakened; the vulnerable and hopeless increase their chances at freedom.

We must become involved. We must care. The suffering ones are no different that you and me. Without knowledge and action and faith, and prevention, evil will flourish. Where will it rear its ugly head next? If we put our head in the sand, we become part of the problem. With each tiny positive step, we become part of the solution. There is no neutral place. There are no neutral people.

For more information on suffering around the world, visit www.worldhope.org .

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