THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE!
Retained Lives is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a Christ centered ministry that helps children and their families living in poverty and are vulnerable to human sex trafficking in Cambodia. We achieve this by taking a proactive approach of focusing our efforts on providing programs and services in three categories: poverty alleviation, education, and prevention to individuals and families in rural Cambodia.
God’s Word says in Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good”. That is what Retained Lives is doing, overcoming evil with good. In our fight against human sex slavery, we take a proactive approach in keeping our Cambodian daughters from being thrown away as human trash, scarred for life, raped repeatedly for years, beaten, tortured and often, they are killed or die of disease.
Our Mission & Vision
Retained Lives mission is to protect children from going down the road of loss innocence by helping them retain their innocence, virtues, and family values. Retained Live’s vision is committed in seeing a world free of human sex trafficking and families lifted out of poverty by investing in the lives of children and their families in Cambodia.
As we invest in the lives of these young girls through education, job training, self-confidence and other tools to succeed in life, they are released from abject poverty, which breaks the vicious cycle of despair and protects their daughters from sex slavery.
Pastor Pat and Penny, along with the volunteers, mothers and daughters of Retained Lives want to thank you for your compassionate support and partnering with us to save these precious lives. Join us in overcoming evil with good by donating today!
CAUSES, EFFECTS & SOLUTION
There are many causes of human sex trafficking in Cambodia. The U.N. Inter Agency Project on human trafficking states, “Human trafficking in Cambodia has increased because of the number of factors, including poverty, social-economic imbalance between rural and urban areas, increased tourism, lack of employment, education and safe migration, poverty being the most significant cause of human sex trafficking.”
Walk through a village in a third world country and see with your own eyes the appalling and shocking conditions impoverished people live in. Often, the very basic elements that sustain life, such as clean drinking water, nourishing food, adequate housing and health care are in short supply or do not exist at all.
Human sex trafficking is one of the most tragic effects of extreme poverty. Can you imagine being so desperate to meet the basic needs of your family that your only option for survival was to sell your daughter?
In Cambodia, girls as young as four years old are sold as sex slaves. These girls will have a life of torture and indescribable suffering with little or no hope of rescue. they are often beaten into submission by their owners and johns, chained to beds, burnt with cigarettes, raped repeatedly and in some cases, killed. Most will die of incurable diseases by the age of thirty.
Because of the age of the girls being sold in Cambodia, it has become a destination for pedophiles. The country has a significant child sex tourism problem.
The good news is that there is a positive and permanent solution to the sex slavery crisis in Cambodia.
Lifting families out of poverty is precisely what Retained Lives is doing. We are combating human sex trafficking on a multi-levl basis. First, Retained Lives is eliminating poverty in homes, by providing sustainable jobs for mothers. Next, we are investing in the lives of their daughters with education, job skills, self confidence building and more. By doing this, we are creating an economically-stable environment that protects their future daughters from the ravages and hopelessness of extreme poverty.
