Born in an impoverished village in northeast Thailand, Nuu didn’t attend school; she was required to work the fields and care for her six siblings.
Rather than enjoying the love and nurture every child longs for and needs to thrive, Nuu was subjected to her stepfather’s verbal abuse from early childhood. She was raped by her older brother when she was 14.
Afraid of the stigma she would endure if anyone found out, this traumatized, terrified young girl fled her village for Bangkok. In Bangkok, she lived for several years with a man who took her hard-earned wages, lost it in gambling and then beat her until she could stay no longer.
Nuu’s experience – little education, few job skills and family abuse, including incest – is the tragic legacy shared by many of the thousands of young women enmeshed in Thailand’s booming sex trade. They leave their homes for the rapidly developing nation’s alluring cities, believing they will find opportunity, hope – a new beginning.
What they experience is another reality. Nuu is in a safe place now, but she has constant nightmares. And the scars on her head from the many beatings she endured on her journey will always be with her.
“Where were you when I was young?” Nuu’s question, her anguished plea, is a call to intervene on behalf of marginalized girls, vulnerable to the Thailand sex trade nightmare.
World Concern is equipped to provide just what they need – life, opportunity and hope.