Thai so - Communication & Lamp officer

Refugee to slum living kid to trafficked child to family man and tour leader:

A boy was born in a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border in 1990. He has a Thai father and a Cambodian mother and one older sister. His parents had a family dispute that led his father to return to Thailand and his mother brought the two children back to Phnom Penh to live with her mother in 1991. After returning to Phnom Penh, his mother often left them with their grandmother, as she was struggling with severe mental health issues due to the family break up. His mother left the family to work far away and for long periods of time, only visiting her children once or twice a year.

A few years later, his mother took him and his sister from their grandmother to live with another family that they had never met before, and then his mother left, leaving them to be domestic helpers for the family. About a year later, the grandmother found out that her two grandchildren had been sold by her mother to live and serve an unrelated family, so she went and took them back. This scenario happened multiple times; his mother sold him and his sister and then his grandmother came to find them and take them back. During the time that this boy and his sister were with the families who bought them, they were beaten, violated, and had no chance go to school.

It was in 2000 that their mother died, so they had to live permanently with their elderly grandmother, who could not afford to raise them, so she asked for help from an orphanage in Phnom Penh. After living for many years under the care of the centre and both children receiving an education, this boy has now graduated and is serving in the community, he is married and has a loving, God-fearing wife from a family who accepts and values him. He also has a daughter that he loves so much.

This is a real life story from 33 years ago and that boy is me.