Tribune Photo/JIM RIDER
Heather Blanch, 24, shares her experiences doing service work in Cambodia. She returned to the United States last week, but plans to return again in August.
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24-year-old commits herself to service in Cambodia.
By MARY KATE MALONE
Tribune Staff Writer
The young girl was just 12. Sullen, unkempt and small.
She arrived at the rescue shelter in Phnom Penh with little else but the clothes on her back, and a sad but common story in Cambodia.
It was late November 2009.
Years earlier, the girl had somehow slipped into the country's burgeoning sex trade, or been raped, or nearly raped in her community.
She had been rescued by another organization and sent to She Rescue Home, a shelter for girls, in Cambodia's largest city.
Twenty-four-year-old Heather Blanch, an American who had just begun a six-month volunteer position at the shelter, shuddered at the sight.
"She was so skittish," Blanch recalled. "At the sound of anything loud — a car horn, loud music, a door slamming — she would curl up in a ball and cry."
Such are the side effects of a childhood of sexual exploitation.
And such are the stories Blanch encountered as a volunteer at the shelter.
Blanch, an Argos native and Ball State University graduate, was the only American volunteer at She Rescue Home in Phnom Penh.
She worked beside Australian volunteers and dozens of natives. She counseled, did paperwork, taught English and did whatever else was needed.
The shelter had 24 girls living there, all victims or at-risk of sexual exploitation and violence.
The youngest was 5, the oldest 17.
But what brought Blanch to Asia, to chip away, for no pay, at a massive global problem?
It was something within, she said, something intuitive.
"There are plenty of people who can stay here (in the U.S.) but there’s a very small minority willing to go overseas (for service),” she said. “But it’s natural for me to go overseas.”
“There is so much work to be done. … So many problems that are being ignored,” she said.
Blanch plans to return to Cambodia in August and stay for at least 18 months.
She receives no money for her work, relying on her savings and support from friends and family.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, she will speak about her experiences at Argos United Methodist Church, 570 N. Michigan St.
Cambodia is considered a destination for women and children trafficked from Vietnam and China for sexual exploitation, according to humantrafficking.org.
Blanch said she was struck by the resiliency of the girls in the shelter.
She avoids calling them “victims.”
“They are survivors,” she said. “They forgive and move on and are excited about the future.”
Among the survivors is the quiet 12-year-old, who no longer cringes at loud noises.
When the girl arrived at the She Rescue Home, she gave little thought to her appearance, hiding in ordinary clothes, and refusing a fashion staple in Cambodia: earrings.
When Blanch left six months later, the girl had her smile back, and plastic blue studs fastened on her ear lobes.
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