The Hackman-Cohanpour School  

The American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC) Rural Schools Project is a unique program that builds co-ed secondary schools in rural Cambodia by matching a $13000 donation with equivalent sums from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. This program particularly motivates girls by paying a stipend to their families, to ensure that they attend school every day. In the poorest areas of Cambodia, a secondary education for girls will provide them with vocational skills that will, in turn, protect them against the constant threat of sex-trafficking. Over 800,000 girls are trafficked yearly across international borders, and more, still, are trafficked domestically. The treatment they receive inside the brothels in which they are forced to work is devastating. If girls are not tortured to death for disobedience, they will often contract AIDS and die before turning 30. By building a school, we will directly hinder the paths of sex-traffickers by saving our students one-by-one. Any size donation will help us draw closer to reaching our goal.

All donations will be directly applied to the $13000 sum needed in order to build the Hackman-Cohanpour School for Girls. We will update this site periodically with our progress, as well as news about events we plan to hold.

For more information or to find out how you can help, contact us, or visit AAfC's website, CambodiaSchools.com.

Quote from Huffington Post:

We're told that the government has cleaned up the sex industry quite a bit, that Cambodia no longer deserves its' reputation as the "pervert's paradise" – the prime stop for pedophiles in South East Asia. While that may be so, the stories we heard from Mu Suchoa, and the other Cambodian women activists we met, indicated that a lot of human rights’ work remains to be done. This is a rigidly patriarchical society, where women are viewed as second-class citizens, at best. Although this reality permeates the culture, it is particularly evident in the appalling statistics for rape, spousal abuse, and sex trafficking...Each year, throughout the world about 800,000 women are either sold or abducted into sexual slavery. Many of these girls – they range in age from 6 years up – come from South East Asia, with a disproportionate number from Cambodia; at any give time, about 100,000 women and children are being trafficked here. Although prostitution is illegal, the Cambodia government looks the other way while travel agents lead sex tours throughout the country.

             -Bob Burnett, 2005

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