International Women's Day

8th of March is the International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the social, economical, cultural and political achievements of women around the globe. In Bloombo, we want to celebrate this very special date, honouring the women working with us, giving them visibility and a voice to share their experiences, struggles and successes.

We want to start this series of stories with some of the women we work with in Cambodia. These women and this project have a very special place in my heart, they are the reason why I am here today, why Bloombo came to life and they are my inspiration. These women deserve to have the chance to share with us their stories, to help us to understand not only their lives, but also the importance of our role, of each of us, as conscious consumers and the impact of our choices.

We are proud to start with the story of Kam (fictitious name). She is the first woman I knew when I arrive to Cambodia in 2003. At that time, she had just arrived to the workshop that we were running in Tloc Tchereu, a small village along the Mekong River. She was a quiet, young woman, learning very fast, but also clearly scared of being noticed. Only later on I got to know that she has just escaped from horror, that she managed to run away after being trapped in a network of rapes, prostitution and abuses.

Kam was the 2^nd daughter of a big family with12 children. Her parents were farmers in a small village far from the capital and they hardly managed to provide food for their children. Kam and her siblings never went to the school, instead, since a very young age, she helped her parents at the farm and went to the local market with her mother to sell vegetables when they had some surplus. But there was never enough to keep the big family going. One day her father got very sick and they were forced to take a loan to pay for doctors and medicines. The situation got very difficult and Kam decided to move to Phnom Penh and find a job to help her family. She found a job as a waitress in a large restaurant, but soon the owner started to abuse her and forced her to prostitute with clients of the restaurant. She was young, she did not know anyone in the city, her family was far away and the owner threatened her to keep her mouth shut. He has good contacts with the police and the local government. By this time, her family was already very dependent on the weekly money she was sending home. Another reason to stay there.

Kam lived in this nightmare for months, till one day she could not resist it anymore and run away. She was lucky to meet the outreach team of a local organisation helping women in prostitution and victims of abuses and through them she came, after some time on a training scheme, to work for our partner in Cambodia. The beginning was not easy, she felt stigmatised, depressed, insecure and very distressed, but slowly she came to accept her past and made the most of the new chances opening in front of her. She learned very fast and proofed a passion for sewing and designing beautiful pieces. Very soon she became an important figure in the workshop and took the responsibility to train the new women coming to work at the project.

3 years later, Kam married and has now 2 children. Thanks to the child care program, which runs a kinder garden at the workshop facilities, Kam has been able to continue working and earning a very important income for her family, at the same time that she is taking care of her children. Nowadays she is proud of what she has achieved, not only she is good at what she does at work, but also she and her husband manage to take care of their family. Her oldest child is already in 4^th grade, wears an impeccable uniform to the school, can speak English and wants to be a doctor. Her youngest son is starting school this year and cannot wait to wear also his uniform and learn to read and write. Kam looks at them with a smile in her face and deep inside she knows that she made it, that the day she gathered all her strength and run away she was opening the door to her second chance, for her and her family. She is now an example for the young women arriving to the workshop; she is an example for her younger sisters and brothers and in fact for each of us. An example of strength, accomplishment and optimism.