The Best School in Cambodia

Our vision for the school in Svay Pak is to prevent children from being trafficked while providing the best education available in Cambodia.  Immediate protection is provided as families with kids attending the school get weekly social worker visits.  These visits combined with the leverage our SWAT Team brings with the ability to arrest those who abuse or exploit children brings immediate protection.  Long term protection is provided by a high quality education which can end the cycle of poverty in families.  See below to find out how close God is to fulfilling the school’s vision.

Svay Pak, Cambodia

AIM Rahab’s House School, Svay Pak - June 2015

The Best of Cambodia’s Schools, The Brightest of Cambodia’s Students

In April 2015, Prudential Company and Kids City launched Cambodia’s first inter-school STEM competition—an educational program aimed at improving Cambodia’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Initially Kids City put out the word to the best schools from across the country to participate in the challenge, including such highly re- garded schools as Northbridge International School and the International School of Ph- nom Penh. These schools are noted as having annual tuitions of $15,000 to $21,000.

AIM’s Rahab’s House School, Svay Pak, with an annual tuition of $16, was overlooked. This was certainly understandable considering Svay Pak’s identity as an epicenter for the sex trafficking of children. And while the school is recognized as a strong resource in preventing child sex trafficking, it is not yet known for the quality of its academic pro- grams. The school staff, however, confident in their program and students, asked to be included in the competition and Kids City graciously welcomed them.

The competition began with 24 teams of 5 fourth and fifth graders representing 24 schools. That is, with the exception of AIM’s Rahab’s House School, which was made up entirely of third graders. Each challenge was designed to test students’ abilities to work in a team, think critically, solve puzzles, and apply scientific knowledge. Following 3 days of competition, the results were announced... In second place, ahead of both Northbridge and Phnom Penh International Schools, was AIM’s Rahab’s House School’s team of third graders.

In presenting the award to the kids from Svay Pak, the competition director said that the Svay Pak students not only completed the challenges with academic excellence but also demonstrated good attitudes, good communication, creativity, and solid problem solving skills.
Bringing this full circle for AIM is the inclusion of sex trafficking survivors as part of our teaching staff. These young women are graduates of AIM’s restoration program and have elected to continue to fight trafficking through preventative efforts.

Factories That Bring Freedom, Love and Empowerment

Girls rescued from the horrors of child sex trafficking find healing and value through holistic aftercare.  However, when reintegrated into their communities most people will believe the cultural lie that these girls are trash, less than worthless.  There is one way to overcome the stigma of being abused...It’s having a good job where a young woman can support herself and help support her family.  AIM’s new Agape Training Center provides that and much more.  The following video gives you a look at an average day at ATC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHpd0f1i9TI&feature=plcp

Coming August 15th the 3Strands brand produced at the ATC.  Details coming next week.

AIM Expands into USA Aftercare

With God's help, great partners, and outstanding staff we at AIM seek to take the lessons of aftercare in Cambodia and apply them in the US.  Below you'll find an overview of what's happening and a little insight into the godly women chosen to lead our expansion.


Agape International Missions (AIM) announces it’s official expansion into the United States with aftercare program development and training.

AIM has fought sex trafficking with projects in Cambodia since 2006. Now, licensed psychologist, Dr. Becca Johnson, has stepped in as Director of US Aftercare, a new position within the international organization. Dr. Johnson will be ushering AIM into a new phase of US aftercare with the first US project in Sacramento, California. This project will be a collaboration between City of Refuge/Rahab’s House Sacramento, Koinonia Foster Homes/Safe Families, Agape International Missions (AIM), and the local church to provide sustainable aftercare for victims.

Over the last three years, law enforcement has rescued over two hundred minor victims of in the Sacramento area. This need cannot be met with the group home model alone with the expensive operating costs. The collaboration’s goal is to provide quality aftercare for rescued victims of sex trafficking. This will be achieved through a partnership whereby church families will be recruited to open their homes to a rescued victim. The families will be screened by Koinonia/Safe Families, the identification and stabilization of victims by City of Refuge, and the training and equipping of receiving families as well as assessment measures and treatment planning of victims will be provided by Agape International Mission’s Dr. Becca Johnson. All three organizations will be involved in providing ongoing support for the families and victims.

Becca has provided counseling and evaluation services as a licensed psychologist for over 20 years. Her training and consulting in the area of human trafficking, trauma and trauma restoration has taken her all over the world including India, Kenya, Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Korea, Australia and, most notably for AIM, Cambodia. Becca also provides trauma and trauma counseling training related to sexual abuse and exploitation for various domestic anti-sex trafficking organizations in the USA.
Her relationship with AIM began in 2006 when Dr. Johnson gave a seminar in Cambodia. She was approached by Agape International Missions to help develop the counseling program for Agape Restoration Center (ARC), an aftercare facility for young girls rescued from sex trafficking. Her training for AIM’s counseling staff has shaped their successful, existing counseling program. Becca will continue to provide supervision to AIM’s counselors in Cambodia.

“I have worked with and been exposed to various anti-trafficking organizations in the US and around the world. I consider AIM to be one of the best,” says Dr. Johnson. “They seek to meet the holistic needs of everyone they touch. They demonstrate genuine, unconditional love and acceptance. They are making a difference and not limiting God.”

Becca and her husband of 25 years, Lloyd, served as missionaries in Chile and New Zealand. They and their four children currently reside in Washington state. Dr. Johnson says, “My goal is to ‘Help the Hurting Heal with God’s Hope’, yet in recent year’s, God has been using me to also ‘Help the Helper’s Help’. I consider it an honor to serve Him and to be part of the AIM team.”

July 24, 2012

AIM’s PROJECT EXPANSION TO THE UNITED STATES WITH NEW DIRECTOR

God continues blessing AIM in great ways by providing outstanding people to serve  with us.  Laura Linner is the latest example.  The following formal announcement gives you some of the details, but sadly cannot reveal her heart for Christ and the girls she serves.  Please join me in welcoming Laura and praying for her as she prepares to take on this new challenge.

Agape International Missions (AIM) welcomes Laura Linner as the new Director of Rahab’s House Community Center in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Agape International Missions has fought sex trafficking with projects in Cambodia since 2006. Their first Community Center project, Rahab’s House Svay Pak (RHSP), began in 2007 by building relationships and meeting needs within the community of Svay Pak which had been ravaged by child sex trafficking in brothels. The result was an unprecedented transformation of the community.
Successful expansion into the city of Siem Reap with a new Rahab’s House community center began in late 2011 by AIM volunteer American staff, Steve and Lygia Gherebean. Instead of children held in brothels, sex trafficking in Siem Reap is perpetuated in the Karaoke Bars where young women are chosen and then taken off the premises. In many ways, this method is more psychologically traumatic because the bondage is more difficult for the women to see and escape.
According to Ms. Linner, “Rahab’s House Siem Reap aims to create an environment where victims can be saturated with the presence of Jesus that can bring healing and hope.”
Laura has a degree in social work from Bethel University in her home state, Minnesota. She spent the last year working in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, teaching English and doing outreach at Rahab’s House Svay Pak.
“My heart truly connected with the children and young women coming out of this horrific situation when I held the hand of a traumatized girl and realized I could have been her,” she said. “We are not intrinsically different. Yes, we have had different experiences but we are both daughters of the King, created to know Him and know who we are in Him.”
She will be overseeing staff for counseling, education and outreach at Rahab’s House Siem Reap.

Question From a Rescued Victim of Child Sex Traficking

This week has been a great one as weeks go, that is when it comes to rescuing victims of child sex trafficking in Svay Pak, Cambodia.  Two from a brothel, one from a karaoke club, and one from a virgin sale.  We thank God for the success He gave us.  One of the rescued victims had a question for me…"What is the vision for your ministry in Cambodia?  All the foreign men we know come to hurt Cambodian girls, not help them."

Her question and statement reflect the intelligence, courage, and resilience of these horribly abused girls.  And sadly they are a reflection on we men.  Foreign men in Cambodia, men around the world, it's time for us to choose whom we will serve. To quote Bob Dylan…

You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks


But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

Please pray for the restoration of these girls, that the actions of foreign men in Cambodia will change girls'  perception of us, and for me that in the hundreds of choices I make each day I choose to serve the Lord.

IMAGINE...

Imagine self-sustaining employment that brings hope and removes the stigma from survivors of sex trafficking in Cambodia.  

Today’s garment factory workers in Cambodia work ten hours a day, six or seven days a week, earning about $60 a month.  Not enough to support themselves, let alone meet their cultural responsibility to help support aging parents and younger siblings.  

Imagine a factory where the girls work five, eight hour days a week.  And of those eight hours, one and a half are spent in academic studies.  A factory where every worker receives health insurance.  A factory where workers earn between $150 and $200 a month.  

Imagine no more, it’s a coming reality.  Check out the video below and see how it’s happening...