Hagar Design, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
www.shopinlight.com
Hagar Design, trains and employs several hundred survivors and high risk youth in self-sufficiency programs including handicrafts, a café, and a soy milk factory. Hagar
also operates an orphanage – the House of Smiles – for the youngest survivors. Sadly,
in Cambodia, these can be preschool age children.
The Hagar social work team, comprised of sex trafficking survivors, goes daily into the
red light district to gain the trust of the people there and to offer them the opportunity to leave the flesh trade and come to Hagar. Many of the prostitutes have become so demoralized and habituated to their situation, that they cannot see a way out, even if they are no longer literally imprisoned. It takes months or even years to convince these older girls to walk away – they fear reprisals from their captors and also the stigma they will face in Cambodian society. Sometimes, adult women in the district give the social workers information about very young girls being held captive as sex slaves, so that a rescue raid can be organized.
In 1995, Hagar Design began employing highly disadvantaged Cambodian women to produce high-quality home fashion and women's accessory products. Hagar Design's mission is to foster hope for vulnerable women and children through holistic, transformational development and creative initiatives. Hagar produces high-end items in hand-loomed silk, such as silk purses and scarves.
