Former sex slave wins 2009 Freedom Award

SEX slave-turned-activist Sina Vann received the Frederick Douglass Award at the 2009 Freedom Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Awarded to those who have survived a form of slavery and are actively helping the lives of others, the Frederick Douglass Award provides US$10,000 to help facilitate current work and another $10,000 as a personal reward.

Former Cambodian sex slave Sina Vann arrives for the 2009 Freedom Awards, where she received the Frederick Douglass Award in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

A native of Vietnam, Sina Vann, 25, was kidnapped at the age of 13 and brought to Cambodia to work as a sex slave at a brothel.

Raped by 20 to 30 men daily and beaten if she hesitated to serve customers, Sina Vann was finally freed at the age of 16 after a police raid...

After being rehabilitated at a rescue shelter, she has since been working for the Somaly Mam Foundation as the leader of the Voice for Change initiative, an outreach program for sex slaves.

“We are happy that people not only see people like Sina as a victim but as an activist. This award shows that people understand her [positive] role in society,” said Lin Sylor, a spokesperson for the Somaly Mam Foundation office in Cambodia. (Sited from Phnom Penh Post)

Read More

Hand in hand

A guide gets up close and personal with a rescued gibbon at Phnom Tamao Zoo and Wildlife Rescue Centre in Takeo province.

Read More

The view of Cambodia rice field

The view of Cambodia rice field

Read More

Ketsana keeps schools shut

Flooding caused by Typhoon Ketsana has put the studies of thousands of students on hold as schools throughout the Kingdom struggle to reopen, officials said Wednesday.

Chroeng Limsry, director of the Secondary Education Department at the Ministry of Education, said teachers were preparing to make up for lost time.

“We’re going to give our students extra class hours, but we’re still waiting for the water to subside before anyone can come back to school,” he said.

Kompong Cham province’s education department director Svay Phalla said the Mekong River flood following the typhoon initially closed 114 schools, but that the number was changing all the time. “I see some schools opening, but others continue to close,” he said.

Chea Cheat, Phnom Penh Education Department director, said 10 primary schools and three high schools in Phnom Penh remain closed, affecting 10,000 students.

Chea Sum Sothea, secretary of Trapaing Veng primary school in Stung Sen district, Kampong Thom province, said the water there was still knee-deep.

“Students are bored with the delay, and teachers are worried they cannot complete the year’s curriculum”, he said. Teachers are due to discuss ways to make the curriculum fit within the shortened term.

Keo Vy, communication officer at the National Committee for Disaster Management estimated that Typhoon Ketsana had cost Cambodia at least $29.3 million in damages and killed about 40 people, mostly in flooding caused by heavy rains. He said the committee would present its final evaluation of the typhoon’s impact at a meeting on Friday.

“We still need a clearer picture of the total damage caused by Ketsana. This assessment will help us set priorities for the ongoing relief effort,” Keo Vy said.

After tearing through the Philippines and Vietnam, Ketsana slammed into Cambodia on the night of September 29, pummeling the country with 185km/h winds and rain.(Sited from Phnom Penh Post Site)

Read More

A(H1N1), water festival could be bad mix without proper hygiene

To prevent the spread of the A(H1N1) influence virus, personal hygiene must remain a priority as millions gather in Phnom Penh for the annual Water Festival, officials from the Ministry of Heal and the World Health Organization said yesterday.

Der. Michel Theiren, deputy representative for the WHO in Cambodia, told reporter at a news conference that the festival will crate opportunities for the disease to spread but add that the so-called swine flue virus will not cause catastrophic effects and it easily averted.

“To say Water Festival plus H1N1 equals catastrophe is just wrong” he said. “It is a matter of concern, you just have to pay attention”...

He added that the spread of the disease is also not something to be alarmed about but rather is expected by health experts. He noted that serous concern should be paid if the disease starts affection one’s lungs, but otherwise, it would be treated like a normal bout of influenza.

To help calm fears and educate the public, 500,000 informational leaflete, produced by the ministry and Unicef, will be distributed in Phnom Penh shortly before and during the festival, Minister of Heal Dr Mam Bunheng announced at the news conference.

People should wash their hands as often as possible, cover their mouths and nose while coughing or sneezing, and avoid spitting on the ground, Dr Bunheng said.

He also downplayed virus fears, reiterating that only server cases that affect the lungs should be taken to the hospital . Other people with flu-like symptoms should be stay home and take paracetamol and drink a lot warm or room-temperature water.

“If you have flu-like symptoms stay at home [during the festival] or you will spread the disease to other people” he said.

The groups most at risk for infection are people with asthma, tuberculosis, kidney and liver diseases, hear condition, pregnant women and the obese, Dr Heng said.

“These people need to remain vigilant,” he said. (Sited from Cambodia Daily News)

Read More

Man arrested after wife say he rape teenager

A Kompong Speu province man was arrested Friday after his wife found him allegedly raping 15-year-old girl behind their house Thursday nigh, police chief Khoem Samoron said 45-year-old Kel Boub confessed to have sex on multiple occasions with the victim but claimed its was consensual.

“Even if the victim did agree with the suspect, the suspect still violated the law because the victim was underage” he said, adding that the suspect lured the victim with money, and because she was uneducated and impoverished she was likely unsure that the suspect’s actions were inappropriate. According to Ly Vantha, provincial anti-human trafficking police chief, the alleged rapist is still being questioned, and is expected to be sent to the court today...

“There are a lot of rape cases in this province” he said, adding that he did not remember exact figures but that “It is worse in the remote areas because there is a greater opportunity for rapist to commit crimes”. (Site from Cambodia Daily news)

Read More

2 anglers electrocuted to death in Sen Sok

Two men in two separated incidence were electrocuted to death over the weekend while attempting to take advantage of the fish-heavy floodwater of Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district, a police official said yesterday.

A garment factory worker, 27-year-old Yan Sarath, dies Friday after accidentally stepping on electrified fishing equipment he had been using in a pond near his Phnom Penh Thmei commune home, according to district police officer Chao Svann. He added that on Sunday, 40-year-old motorcycle taxi driver Chhay Porn dies under nearly identical circumstances.

“Recently the strong flood have caused the water to...

rise and the fish to increase, leading more people to fish suing electricity” said Mr Sovann. “Some case always occurs with people electrifying themselves, this one happened to occur her.”

Though illegal and risky, the practice of fishing with electricity remains poplar in Cambodia. Fisheries Administration Director Nao Thuok said he was unsure how many people dies from fishing with electrify but that he was aware of the problem and had been working on tallying the data. (Sited from Cambodia Daily)

Read More

S Korea seeks talks with North on deadly floods

South Korea proposed holding talk yesterday with the North on preventing flooding from a river lowing across their border that killed six South Koreas last month when the communist state released a surge of water without warning.

The proposal is part of a series of working-level contacts between the rivals, whose ties have remain chilled since President Lee Myung-back come to office in the South last year and ended a decade of free-flowing aid for its impoverished neighbor. The six were in the middle of the night in early September while camping on the banks of the Imjin River...

North Korea said it had no choice but to open flood gates at its dams because of rising water levels. South Korea has rejected that explanation of dangerous water level rises.

South Korea for years has worried about dams the North has built along river flowing across the border, fearing its communist neighbor could use flood water as a weapon. (Sited from Cambodia Daily)

Read More

17 drown as overloaded ferry capsizes

At least 17 people drowned Saturday night when and overloaded private ferry in Kratie province capsized as it was bringing revelers to a Kathin festival performance in Chhlong district, official said.

The wooden ferry overturned at about 8:15pm spilling some 30 people into a tributary of the Mekong River, said provincial police chief Choung Seang Hak, he added that the boat was about 40 meters from the shore when it overturned...

Police blamed overcrowding for the accident, nothing that the boat was carrying about double its maximum passenger capacity as well as about nine motorbikes.

“It was careless of the wooden ferry’s owner, who is running the business every day, because can take only 15 passengers across this arm of the river” Mr Seang Heak said by telephone.

Two police patrol boats scoured the area for survivors and the dead throughout the night Saturday and into Sunday morning but with no success, Mr Seang Hak said, Over the course of the night, police were only able to find 17 unique items of footwear floating in the river, leading them to believe that at least that many had drowned. On Sunday morning local villagers were hired to assist police in the search and by 10 am 17 bodies had been recovered from the river.

Mr Seang Hak said that 14 of the 17 dead recovered so far were women and that a four-to five-year old boy was also among the victims. He added that police believe there could be more victims and are continuing to search for bodies.

The dead appear to be locals from Kompong Damrie commune who were looking to attend a dramatic performance being hosted at a pagoda across the river in Chhong commune, police said. Interest in the performance was what drove so many to get the ferry at once, and the operators of the boat were negligent by not limiting access to their vessel, Mr Seang Hak said.

Police said a married couple own the ferry service and that the wife has alerdy been detained by police over the accident. Police are not searching for the woman’s husband who appears to have fled. Police declined to reveal the names or ages of the owners of the ferry service.(Cambodia Dialy News)

Read More