Women We Love: Sreypich Loch

Sreypich Loch’s childhood was so steeped in depravity, it must have been tempting for her to lock up the sordid memories and throw away the key. Raped at seven by her stepfather, and shortly afterwards by a stranger, by the age of 10, she was working a dark, spartan, Cambodian brothel, forced to have sex with several men day after day.

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Certainly, one could not imagine her wanting to talk about her experiences. Yet, four years after being rescued by Somaly Mam Foundation (named after its founder, a former sex slave), that is what she does five days a week to an audience of tens of thousands.

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Now 20, Sreypich hosts a radio show in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, interviewing former sex slaves, lawyers and law makers. As she told The Daily Beast, she believes the personal narratives of the girls make people stop and listen. When people “hear the voice of the survivor”, she told the news website, “we can help others.”