OneVOICE Babble

Mission to Stop Child Sex Trafficking in Cambodia

As my spring 2013 college tour to “break the silence on sexual abuse and trafficking” has come to an end, my heart turns back to thoughts of Cambodia and a mission to reach and educate those vulnerable of being trafficked and to rescue and restore those who are currently in chains. I am confident that if we are going to see an end to modern day slavery then every single one of us must do what we can to be a solution to this evil.

I took this picture while meeting with girls in brothels.

This is a lock on the OUTSIDE of a room where a tiny young girl I interviewed had been beaten, tortured, drugged, raped, starved and forced to service 8-10 men/night. You can hear the story of this child sex slave, mothers who were tricked, and many others I met during the Rescue Life Mission to Cambodia on this episode of the Life Today TV Show.

I am honored by the incredible support I have received as I continue on this mission to break the chains on sexual abuse and trafficking around the world. Many have asked how they can get more involved or help support the anti-trafficking work we are doing. I wanted to take time to share with you my heart, my vision and the projects that Iʼm currently working on; I invite you to partner with me in prayerfully and financially funding some of the work ahead:

A. TRANSLATE my book HUSH into the language of KHMER.

I am so grateful to Moody Publishers for granting me special permission to privately TRANSLATE and PUBLISH my book HUSH into the Cambodian language of Khmer. Your support so far has covered the costs of employing a precious missionary couple in Cambodia to do the translation! They began at the end of March and I just received word that they have now completed it! I should receive the soft copy by the end of this week. This is the first step…Next we need money to publish and print them (keep reading)!

B. PRINT 5,000 COPIES of HUSH to distribute to villages of Cambodia.

$15,000 or approximately $3/book. We will be able to pass out over 5,000 copies of the Khmer version of HUSH while doing our anti-trafficking educational programming in villages and locations all over Cambodia. My team and I will speak to 300 Cambodians at a time and reach approximately 5,000 people. We need to cover printing costs so that we can pass out free copies of this book plus other anti-trafficking/abuse information. Please help raise money for the printing costs to make this possible — we will print as many as we are able to pay for!

C. FUND a team of OneVOICE ABOLITIONISTS to travel to Cambodia and present anti-trafficking programs.

Approximately $10,000 will help us cover the travel costs for our team to go into the countryside of Cambodia and share an anti-trafficking message PLUS present the Gospel to the people within untouched villages who are also at very high-risk of being approached by traffickers.

These traffickers disguise themselves as job agencies, promising health, happiness, education, great working conditions, opportunities and fortune to families in extremely poor Cambodian villages, in exchange for 2 years of their childrensʼ lives. Uneducated and unaware, families believe these evildoers and send their young girls away with the hope of a life they could never give to their daughters… most of them never return. The young girls who do return alive are so brain-damaged and emotionally-destroyed from the intense torture and trauma they experience that they will never be the same again. Meeting these girls and their grief-stricken mothers a couple of months ago has completely broken me. We MUST reach and educate these parents and communities before another girl is sold into slavery.

D. BUILD A SCHOOL BUILDING for CAMBODIAN CHILDREN who will become NATION-CHANGERS.

$10,000 will build a new school building in the empty field adjacent to the current school building at the LIFE Center in Cambodia and give room for 70 more children per year to attend school! The kids at the LIFE Center in Cambodia are truly becoming nation-changers. I have personally visited this beautiful facility; it is a beacon of hope and light in the midst of a dark land and they are doing a phenomenal job of educating and loving on Cambodian orphans and school kids. The LIFE Center provides one of the highest quality schools in the nation, teaching not only the necessary education, but also English and the Gospel; Life Center children also learn how to be self- sufficient, raising crops, fish farms and livestock on the school property.These kids are being equipped in every way to change the face and future of their nation. Letʼs expand their reach!

Breakdown of the building costs: $7,000 (the building) + $2,000 (the foundation) + $800 (tile the floors) + $200 (electrical/ painting) = $10,000

So, there you go.

I may be dreaming…but I believe God has broken my heart and is empowering me to partner with you, that we might see these visions and dreams come to LIFE and, thus, that we may all be used to change the world.

YOU CAN BE A SOLUTION! You can help educate at-risk communities and families about sex trafficking, protecting more children from becoming enslaved and empowering others to raise their voice against this evil that has taken over their nation.

I pray you would join me and be a hero in this hurting world.

Click here to DONATE online.

Or email us for instructions on sending a check. (Nicole@iamonevoice.org)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNT!

With Love,

Nicole Bromley

photos: (c) Nicole Bromley

Nicole to appear on LIFE Today, Feb 11, 2013

YOU ARE INVITED! to be in the studio audience for the appearance of Nicole Bromley on the LIFE Today show with James & Betty Robison, Monday, February 11 @ 7 p.m.

Nicole would enjoy having you be a part of this special taping event where she will sharing about her experiences in Cambodia to combat child sex trafficking.

To reserve your free tickets email audience@lifetoday.org or call 817-354-3655. 

The studios are located at 1801 West Euless Boulevard, Euless, Texas 76040.

Weeping with Child Sex Slaves

I was kept in the dark about much of what I would see and do here in Cambodia…and I understand why. (Click for original post about the mission). I would tend to believe I know a lot about sex trafficking; I network with many people in the field of awareness and advocacy; I even meet with and hear the heartbreaking stories of many survivors. However, nothing compares or could have prepared me for today. 

I wish I could share their stories with you now; I wish I could share more pictures…I wish I could tell you everything, but unfortunately I cannot. You will have to wait to see and hear that in a couple of months. And this courageous film crew will have something worth waiting for, believe me. They are the real deal.

And these trafficked girls and their stories are the most real thing I have ever heard, seen or experienced. 

What they are living through is more than you would even want to try to wrap your mind around. I can’t yet put into words what was going on within me as I took long secret walks into frightening brothel rooms to meet 1 on 1 with the brave little girls who work in them. 

Girls who are still enslaved. 

Sitting together on the floor of her room that resembled more of a prison cell, holding her in my arms and weeping with her as she gave details of being sold and what her life now consists of…it was more than I could’ve prepared for or ever imagined. So much fear. Hope lost. Innocence taken. A little life completely stolen. It is more than any human could bear. It is sick. It is evil. It must be stopped.

Photos (c) Nicole Bromley

That is why I am so honored to be a part of this mission to bring hope, help and to change the course of humanity. To have shared time with these girls, to speak hope and purpose into their hearts, to love them and to have even lead one of them to Christ…we must believe God is at work.

I cried hard today; but I still have hope.

Jesus and Life Outreach International are helping me keep hope alive as they do an incredible job of not only reaching these girls, but rescuing them and, most importantly, restoring them. 

I am obviously not able to share as much with you as I would like, but I do hope you would continue to pray for the days ahead (and we have many): Continued protection and safety, for God to speak through and use me and the crew with every life encountered, for a successful process of the rescue of the precious ones I met today, and of course give God praise for what He has already done here! :)

Arrival in Phnom Penh

After traveling for the past 36 hrs, I have finally arrived in Phnom Penh. I thank you for your prayers for traveling safety. I am having problems with my phone but other than that I am happy to report we are safe in our hotel and have completed that long first step. I have met my team: the producer, video guys and our fun still photographer lady. They are a great crew!
It is almost 2am here; time to get some sleep. I anxiously await our first assignment tomorrow. Thanks again for your prayers for me as I step out on this mission to help reach, rescue and restore children enslaved in sex trafficking here in Cambodia. Pray for our team and the work ahead of us, for safety, protection…and also for my gang back home. I miss them very much.
With Love,
Nicole

Nicole Bromley to address Child Sex Trafficking in Cambodia

Dear Friends,

Sex trafficking is becoming a hot topic in the world today as more and more people are gaining awareness and understanding the impact of this evil reality around our world and in our own communities. Next month (December 2012), I pause from my “Break The Silence” tour, speaking out about sexual abuse at U.S. Colleges & Universities, and I will instead take my VOICE overseas to Cambodia to address the issue of child sex trafficking in the most direct way. 

Cambodia is known to have one of the highest rates of child sex trafficking in the world. 

I will arrive with a small film crew to tell the story of child sex trafficking in the nation of Cambodia. We will seek to shed light into a very dark part of our world with the purpose of rescue and restoration for these precious lives. I will spend 10 days there, going into the very brothels where human traffickers are operating, gathering stories and uncovering the evil that is being done to these little ones who are enslaved, being sold for sex.

Trafficking is nothing short of modern day slavery.

A child’s tragic journey into sex slavery often begins within a family struggling to survive — the average Cambodian lives on $360 USD a year — and some children are sold by their own parents. Other kids are lured by what they are lead to believe will be a legitimate job like waitressing, but once they are taken, they are held captive, beaten, starved and forced into servicing 10, 20, 50 men a day for all kinds of sex acts…many of these customers are wealthy American tourists.

Something must be done. 

Luke 4:18 describes some of my mission: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free…”

I am asking you as my network of support to cover me in prayer as I travel to Cambodia in the month of December. Pray for safety and protection. Pray that the work I do will help reach, rescue and restore the young girls who are being enslaved there. Please pray for my family, as I will have a hard time leaving them for the duration of this mission. Pray for the film crew from Rescue Life (Dallas, TX); and pray especially for all of the little ones I will encounter in Cambodia. May God’s Kingdom break into this place, may hope be unveiled, freedom be made known, restoration be made possible, and may we all be changed.

Mother Teresa once said: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters that makes many ripples.” 

Thank you, again and again, for playing part of the ripple effect of this great work. I cannot imagine doing any of it without you. Thank you for the sweet support over the years, for your prayers for this organization and all the lives it reaches; and thank you for joining me in spirit as I embark on this important mission in a couple of weeks. I plan to write again prior to my departure, and I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook for updates throughout this mission to Cambodia.

With Love,

Nicole Bromley

www.iamonevoice.org

Protecting Kids from Sexual Abuse: Educate Yourself

1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused by their 18th birthdays.

This means that in every classroom, church, club or neighborhood, there are a number of children who are carrying the silent pain of sexual abuse. These kids need someone like you to be knowledgeable enough about the issue to look beneath the surface, to possibly save or protect an innocent child, and bring their abuser to justice.

So, EDUCATE yourself on the definition and the warning signs of childhood sexual abuse. 

Stats

Myths & Facts

Common Signs & Symptoms:

Physical Indicators: 

Complaints of bruises, sores, itching or irritation in private areas or mouth

Physical symptoms such as: sexually transmitted diseases; pregnancy, urinary tract infections

Chronic ailments, stomach aches, headaches, vomiting, tired, sleeping problems

Eating disorders, weight changes

Emotional Indicators 

Sleep disturbances 

Low Self-Esteem

Anxiety

Phobias:  Reluctance to go to a particular place (home); fear of being with a particular person; fear of being alone; fear of dark 

Age-inappropriate understanding of sexual behavior 

Academic problems or over-achievement 

Extreme curiosity and creativity or lack of spontaneity 

Inability to concentrate, “zoning out” 

Show Signs of Depression: (Talk about feeling empty, hopeless, guilty, worthless Difficulty in thinking clearly, making decisions, and completing homework)

Behavioral Indicators: 

Obsession with genitals: Fondling self, Talking about private parts, Unusually modest or sensitive to normal touching 

Aggressive behavior 

Sexual acting out 

Lack of or overly affectionate behavior 

Poor peer relationships 

Lying 

Delinquency: running away, prostitution, alcohol or drug use 

Secretiveness

Withdrawal from family, peers, or activities

Nightmares

Loss of concentration/poor school performance 

Age Inappropriate Behavior:

Consistent thumb sucking

Bed wetting

Sexually active

Use of sexual language/materials

Sexually aggressive

Seductive act or dress

Extreme Behavior Patterns:

Either overly affectionate or rejecting affection

Fearful of relationships or overly compliant

Withdrawn & isolated or over-active, aggressive, hyper

Withdrawal of affection or overly affectionate

Unusually and consistently irritable or detached and disengaged

Noticeable and Sudden Changes:

Personal Interests 

Behavior Patterns

Discipline needs

Friendships

Diet

Study Habits…grades 

Change of attitude

Lack of interest in activities

Lack of attendance in class

Decline of academic or athletic performance

Distance and distracted

Lack of concentration

Depression

For older students…no clear memory of childhood

Fear of spending time at home during long breaks

Overall, there are many possible signs and symptoms of the possibility of abuse; it is important to simply be aware of any strange behavior or sudden swings…anything that seems like red flags to you as a parent, teacher, coach, etc., deserves your attention. With the number of stories out there and the reality of statistics on this issue, we need to be sensitive and respond to these characteristics all the time!

Stay tuned for more tips from us on “Protecting Kids from Sexual Abuse”

Sandusky Verdict Inspires Thousands (via RAINN)

(from our friends at RAINN)

Last week, in a case that shocked the nation and brought great awareness to the sexual abuse of children, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 of 48 charges of sexually abusing children. During the trial, usage of the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline rose by 33%; this followed a 50% increase when the scandal first broke last November.

RAINN’s hotline director, Jennifer Marsh, said, “We’re seeing an outpouring of people reaching out for help — women and men, boys and girls — many of whom have been encouraged to get help for the first time as a result of this tragedy.”

Leading up to and during the trial, RAINN’s staff worked closely with national media to educate them about child sexual abuse and ensure that media coverage accurately portrayed the nature of the crime and its effect on victims.

Praising the jury’s verdict and the courage of the survivors who came forward to report Sandusky’s crimes, RAINN’s president and founder Scott Berkowitz told Reuters: “Today is a landmark day for survivors of sexual violence across the nation. This verdict shows the country that when allegations of such abuse are brought to light, they will be taken seriously and that a just outcome is possible. If something positive can come out of this, it is that the strength of the survivors who testified has already encouraged thousands of survivors nationwide to take the first steps towards recovery through the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE & online.rainn.org), creating record demand for the hotline’s services. We are hopeful that this case will continue to motivate other survivors to come forward and will encourage more prosecutors to vigorously pursue cases of sexual violence.”