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Local Woman Battles Sex Slavery in Cambodia PDF Print E-mail
Written by Anna Godby   
Thursday, 21 June 2012 00:00
Did you know there are more slaves in the world today than there were during the transatlantic slave trade?
Hometown woman Kristen Paulick knows. She currently lives and works in a safe house in Cambodia helping with the recovery and protection of child victims of sex trafficking. There are an estimated 27 million human trafficking victims across the globe, including hundreds of thousands in the United States.
Paulick spent most of her childhood in the Enon area. After graduating from Southeastern High School in 2002, she went on to graduate with a Bachelors degree in Nursing from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn.
Paulick first learned about human trafficking while living in Nicaragua during the summer of 2008. “I read the book Terrify No More by Gary Haugen, and it was very eye opening,” Paulick said. “I had been living in a city that I didn’t know was actually a hub for child prostitution.”
In 2010, Paulick went on a trip through Adventures in Missions called The World Race, where she visited 11 countries in 11 months. She said she spent a month in each country working and volunteering. When she came to Cambodia for the first time, her assignment was to work in a safe house for girls who had been rescued out of brothels. For Paulick, working directly with victims of human trafficking made the statistics come alive. “I was looking at a girl’s face with a name that I knew, and it really hit home a lot harder, so I think after that I just knew that this was going to be my life call to minister to these girls,” she said.
As a long-term missionary through Adventures in Missions, Paulick lives and works in Cambodia with an organization called Global Renewal International. “Right now I am focusing on prevention,” Paulick said. A child being sold into sex slavery by neighbors or family members, or being kidnapped and then sold is very common in Cambodia.
“All of these kids have been raped or abused, so their parents give them to us to educate and help them heal from that experience of being violated,” Paulick said. “They are all at high risk of being trafficked because they have been raped, sometimes repeatedly, in the past.”
Paulick said her group is going through the licensing process to become a full-fledged safe house with increased security and a guard at the gate around the clock. This would enable her to work with girls who have already been trafficked. “We will be able to take in girls that have indeed been sold and trafficked and most likely rescued out of a bondage situation like a brothel, but that has not yet gone through to completion,” she said. Paulick currently lives with two Khmer [Cambodian] women care-takers and six children ranging from 4 to 13 years old. “There are also two other Khmer women that come during working hours Monday through Friday,” she said.
Paulick’s mother, Kathy Paulick, said that Kristen has always been a caring person and that she also hopes to use her nursing degree in her work in Cambodia. “Her heart and ministry is in sharing the hope of Jesus and her desire to love and serve the least of these,” Kathy Paulick said.
Kathy Paulick said that as a mother it is often difficult to see Kristen travel out of the United States so much, but that their faith in God and staying in contact through technology like Skype, helps. “So we let go and let God have His way,” she said.
Kristen Paulick said she does not plan to return to the U.S. anytime soon. She and her mom both agree that the number one thing that can be done to fight human trafficking is to raise awareness of the issue. “Human trafficking is not just occurring in foreign countries; it is happening right here under our noses in Ohio and in many states in the U.S.,” Kathy Paulick said. “There’s a wonderful organization called Women at Risk that is heavily involved both here and abroad and is a great educational resource.”
To learn more about Kristen Paulick’s work or to donate to her mission, visit her blog at www.kristenpaulick.theworldrace.org. To learn more about human trafficking, visit the Women at Risk website at www.warinternational.org or contact the Polaris Project at 1-888-373-7888.
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