In 2016 there were 4,300 people trafficked as human slaves in Australia. Most of them entered the country by plane with a tourist or spousal visa against their will and were forced to work across the country in a variety of jobs including farming, as domestic servants, in the sex industry or were brought here for organ harvesting. Once in the country their passports were taken, they received no money, were fearful of police and other authorities, most spoke little English and many feared for the safety of family back home. Eighty per cent were women with the rest men and children. Noosa’s Salvation Army organisation Free to Shine has joined with Australian charity Project Futures to bring human rights activist, author, sex slave survivor and founder of AFESIP Cambodia Somaly Mam to Noosa in March to speak at an International Women’s Day event.
Project Futures CEO Clare Pearson said Somaly was the inspiration behind the charity which now works to assist people enslaved in Australia and provide financial support to AFESIP Cambodia.
For more than 20 years, Somaly has been a voice for the thousands of women and girls in Cambodia who have fallen victim to sexual violence, trafficking and slavery; her own story a testament to the brutality suffered at the hands of others for profit and pleasure. Sold and forced to work in a brothel for almost a decade from the age of 12, Somaly has dedicated her life’s work to supporting other victims through the service she founded in 1997.
An event will be held at South Pacific Resort, Noosa, on Saturday 3 March, where the key-note speaker Somaly Mam will share her powerful story. To find out more visit projectfutures.com
