Meet the Artist

Meet Toha

Toha was only 14 when she was sold into slavery…the first time.

Toha’s story is a difficult one.

Many families in Cambodia, including Toha’s, scrape by on less than $1 a day. Her parents struggled to make a living by selling small fish. The fish they sold were raised below their meager shack balanced over the water on stilts. Toha’s family had many mouths to feed, so when a storm caused them to lose their fish net, her parents acquired a loan to be able to feed the family. The loan was unfair and grew quickly because of high interest. Toha’s mother did not know how they could get free from the debt, so when a woman offered to give her money in exchange for her daughter spending a night with a man in his hotel room, she accepted it.

Toha was just 14 years old.

When Toha returned, she struggled with depression and contemplated suicide. The amount paid to her family was far less than promised - only $500. Not enough to pay the growing debt.

Toha was sold again. This time she stayed in the brothel. Desperate, she looked for a way out. One day she was able to use a cell phone and franticly call A.I.M. and ask them to help her. When her rescue came, she had been in the brothel for 22 days. (She later testified that she was raped 198 times.)

A.I.M. provided safe housing and supportive counseling for her and others like her. She found healing there and restoration. Through A.I.M. she learned job skills and her dignity was restored though a program that included the love of people and Christ. Toha now works with A.I.M. as an abolitionist - and activist for change in her country and freedom for trafficked children. She is a powerful advocate for those who are still being exploited.