Celebrate With Us!

Because of your partnership, Rapha House was able to purchase the land for our second safe house! Please continue to pray with us as we embark on the next phase of this project. We will continue to keep you updated.

Thank you for partnering with us to show the Rapha girls that they are greatly loved.

8-year-old Burn Victim Gets Surgery

By Stephanie Freed

Please pray for little eight year old Sokpong. She is the little sister of one of our Rapha girls.

During a social work visit with her family, it was discovered that Sokpong had been horribly burned a few years ago; and instead of seeking medical help, her arm was wrapped to her torso by her mother. Subsequently, her arm actually grew to her torso and she has been unable to move her shoulder and arm for years. This little girl has lived a life of great pain.

When presented with this information from our native staff, a US staff member made it her mission to find medical help for little Sokpong to have the necessary surgery to separate her shoulder from her torso. Finally, after a long period of tireless knocking on doors, a wonderful foreign doctor did the operation in Cambodia.

Sokpong will endure more surgery and a long period of recovery. Please pray for her as she is in excruciating pain in the native hospital where the operation was done. We will update you as we receive updates. We are thankful to have the opportunity to reach out to the families of our girls, and be a part of their healing and hope as well.

Feliz Navidad Cambodian Style

Now that's something that I never expected to hear—the song Feliz Navidad sung in Khmer (Cambodian).

Just before Christmas, my wife and I talked via Skype to some of our girls in our program. Our translator said that they wanted to sing us a song. We agreed. And that's when it happened. The girls broke out into their rendition of Feliz Navidad. Amazing.

What else was amazing is the gratitude that the girls expressed for the small Christmas gifts they received. Many of them said that this was their first time ever to receive a Christmas gift. That's humbling.

It's nearing the end of the year, and we're asking you to consider making more small miracles like this to come true.

You can help us purchase the land for our second safehouse in Cambodia. All it takes is $7 per square meter to purchase a piece of freedom for a girl who has been rescued from trafficking.

For the past few years, we have been renting facilities for our second safe house. This rented facility cannot fully meet the needs of our children. So we are turning to you for help.

Recently, God opened a door of possibility for us in this location. Land prices in this high tourist destination are extremely high. And we knew that without a miracle we would never be able to afford property there. But it looks like we have our miracle. Another Christian organization that loves our work has offered to sell us a parcel of their land at a reduced price. The cost is $70,000. So for $7 per square meter, you can help us purchase this 100m x 100m piece of property. Purchase a piece of freedom. Invest in the lives of our Rapha girls. They’re worth it!

1 square meter = $7
5 square meters = $35
10 square meters = $70
100 square meters = $100

We need to raise enough money to purchase all 10,000 square meters. And with your help, we can!

We offer you two secure ways to give using our website or our Mogiv page.

Feliz Navidad. Prospero año y felicidad!

Two Monkeys

We received this cryptic message from our Cambodian Director the other day: “The little monkey is now at the safehouse with the big monkey; they are very happy.”

Insiders know what he’s talking about. Let me explain.

“Monkey” is the nickname of the girl that’s featured in our prison visit video. Perhaps you saw it at http://www.vimeo.com/15407704.

In that video, you see Monkey’s little sister. She was living at the prison where her mother is incarcerated for human trafficking of children.

It took the intervention of a human rights organization. But the “little monkey” has now been set free and is reunited with her big sister.

Currently, we are looking for a foster family in Cambodia to raise this precious little girl. Pray that we’ll be successful.

With the holiday season upon us, consider giving the gift of freedom. We are purchasing a $70,000 parcel of land for a permanent home for our second safehouse in Cambodia. We need $200,000 for land for our Thailand operations. And $180,000 is needed to start construction of the Cambodian facility. Every dollar you give to these projects is a long-term investment in freedom. And few gifts are more precious to give.

Flood Disaster

Special Message from Stephanie Freed, Executive Director


Hello friends—I am here in Cambodia with the Rapha House Kid’s Club Program Manager, Chris Wheeler. You will be hearing more about this prevention outreach project in the near future. In an effort to combat the selling of children into slavery, we have targeted an area of the capital city where children are highly trafficked. The slums of this district of the city are hard to describe. Thousands of people live in situations of extreme poverty and desperation. 
 
Yesterday morning, it began raining. This is not uncommon this time of year. It is the end of monsoon season here, and we often experience hard tropical downpours. The strange thing about this rain is that it did not stop. The storm lingered all morning, and we found it difficult to see while driving through the city on our way to the prevention project area. Before we knew it, we were driving through deep water. We noticed a current running through the water and realizing that the situation was growing dangerous, we pulled our small car off the street onto the higher ground of a gas station. Unable to sit in the car in the stifling heat, we exited to stand on the higher ground alongside hundreds of other people who were already mid calf deep in water. Just a few feet from us, down in the street, it had become a river where people were walking waist deep in water—evacuating with their belongings carried on their heads. This surreal scene escalated as we watched a baby in a large mixing bowl floating past, being navigated by his father.  his kind of flooding here in the streets of Phnom Penh has not occurred in more than ten years. 




We found ourselves trapped only for a few hours in this very unsanitary water which was a mix of rain, river and sewer, but many families in the city lost everything they owned—which was little to begin with. Many of the families we work with in our prevention project live in meager bamboo and cardboard homes which washed quickly away taking the little food that these families had. 
 
I know that I cannot adequately explain the desperation which many children in our area are facing right now. We are facing an emergency need for food and medicine. Please consider helping us in this real time of urgent need. Working in a grass roots effort, we will be able to get the food and medicine directly to the people who need it. 
 
Navigating mud and water yesterday, Chris and I walked down one alley where naked children begged us for something to eat. One mother carrying a baby approached us and, with tears in her eyes, thanked us for providing their family with some rice. Please help us be the hands and feet of Jesus to these desperate people.

Check It Out!

Our latest video

Prison Visit

Help spread the word about Rapha House. Share this video with others!

Sopheap: A Re-entry Success Story

I first met Sopheap many years ago on my first visit to Rapha House. She was living there with her siblings.

We didn't find Sopheap, she found us. She sought us out when her father was preparing to sell Sopheap's younger sister to traffickers. Maybe you remember seeing the story of Sopheap's sister. We showed her rescue on DVD.

Now Sopheap is living independently with her husband and son. She also cares for her younger brother and another sister who recently reintegrated from Rapha House.

Sopheap was our very first micro-credit project. She faithfully repaid her loan and owns a small clothing shop in the marketplace.

During my last trip to Cambodia, I approached Sopheap about becoming a wholesaler distributor to other business owners in her area. It seemed like a real opportunity for her and a good way to provide employment for our reintegrated girls, if this project succeeds.

We don't know if it will, but here's the latest. Sopheap took our seed money and went to Phnom Penh to shop for items that she thought business owners in her area may want. She returned home. And within two days, she had sold everything that she bought!

We're smart enough to know that one success doesn't build a business. But we're also smart enough to back a winner. Sopheap is a winner. So we're going to provide her with business coaching and the financial resources to see if we can build a wholesale distribution business that will provide economic opportunity for other reintegrated girls to come.

Want to get in on the action? Make a donation to Rapha House and mark it "Sopheap."