Contact Admin. Six months prior to winning the award, and sharing that podium with, among others, Emma Bonino, a former European Commissioner for humanitarian aid, and Olayinka Koso-Thomas, a Nigerian-born doctor who had campaigned for decades against the circumcision of women, Ms. Mam had been virtually unknown.
Six months earlier, in January , Ms. The documentary opens with the camera focused on Ms. Ratha, who was then a chubby teenager of about years-old from Takeo province. I was born in the province of Takeo and I have seven brothers and sisters.
My family is very poor. My father has disappeared. One year ago my mother fell seriously ill. I was completely distraught. Ratha says to the camera. She then cries and receives a comforting squeeze of support from Ms. The documentary goes on to explain how the young girl had been promised a job as a waitress in Phnom Penh, but wound up a captive in a brothel. Later, she is filmed playing musical chairs, skipping rope, singing alongside other girls being cared for inside the Afesip center and helping Ms.
Sixteen years since the documentary was televised, Ms. Rathaβnow 32 years old and marriedβsaid her testimony for the France 2 channel was fabricated and scripted for her by Ms. Mam as a means of drumming up support for the organization.
Ratha said in an interview last month. Ratha, who was simultaneously anxious and determined to let people know the truth, said that she did not want to cause trouble for Ms.
