Mira Sorvino Helps Raise Awareness About Human Trafficking In Cambodia

Mira Sorvino is doing her part to raise awareness about human trafficking in Cambodia.

The Academy Award-winning actress and Replacement Killers star recently joined forces with CNN International for the documentary Freedom Project: Everyday in Cambodia. The film tells the story of several young girls who were once sold into slavery.

Although the film previously made the rounds outside the US, it recently had its Stateside debut at Bayside Church in Sacremento, California. Mira Sorvino was reportedly in attendance to discuss Everyday in Cambodia and her experiences in the country.

“You look at these kids and you know what they are suffering at the hands of adults who know very clearly what they are doing. Hopefully people watching this documentary will be woken up the same way my eyes were the first time I spoke to a survivor,” the actress recently explained to FOX40.

The Mighty Aphrodite star added, “I am all about not just activism that raises awareness but it has to create some kind of action because otherwise it is just our voices lost in the wilderness.”

Mira Sorvino told The Jakarta Post last month that virgin girls are in high demand among both “sex tourists” and Cambodian men. She said that some families encourage daughters to sell their virginity to the highest bidder to help make ends meet.

“[I saw] how it destroys them inside. How they’re just so heartbroken and devastated. It’s very hard to see that and to really take it in and understand that this is happening, as we say in the title, Every Day in Cambodia. Every day, girls are being exploited by men, and there is a high demand for it.”

The actress continued:

“The documentary is very powerful. It focuses on the story of three young girls, who all share frighteningly similar experiences of having been sold by their mothers to brokers, to be basically deflowered by men in hotel rooms after having been checked out by hospitals and given certificates of virginity.”

Former pastor Don Brewster moved to Svay Pak, the so-called “epicenter” of child trafficking in Southeast Asia, after visiting the region with his wife. He told CNN that this neighborhood is known by pedophiles around the globe as the best place to find kids.

Brewster explained:

“I can’t imagine what it feels like to have your mother sell you, to have your mother waiting in the car while she gets money for you to be raped. It’s not that she was stolen from her mother — her mother gave the keys to the people to rape her.”

Read more about Mira Sorvino and her trip to Cambodia for the filming of Freedom Project: Everyday in Cambodia over at CNN.