Prostitution Investigation Recap (Phnom Penh, Dec 04, 2013)

I've been asked to refrain from posting anything about my undercover prostitution investigations until after the annual mission trip in January 2014 had concluded. Now that the mission trip is complete, I wanted to share with you another side of my work with OBV...something that I can't really use on LinkedIn.

My first two work areas for OBV are teaching the OBV Vietnam and Cambodian girls Krav Maga and assisting OBV with marketing and communications. My third work area involves performing undercover prostitution investigations.

The goals of these investigations are simple: 1) Track down areas were underage prostitution is occurring, and 2) collect information for further investigation and eventual reporting to other organizations and authorities.

I offered to write reports after each investigation. Below is a direct copy/paste of my very first report sent to Fr. Martino and OBV leadership after my first investigation. This investigation was conducted in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.

My reports get a lot more organized than what you'll read below.

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• The OBV Cambodia house is away from the main tourist area, and any bars etc. near the OBV house will most likely be staffed with girls who only speak Khmer, no English. Similarly, there probably won't be Vietnamese girls, since they dont' speak Khmer.
• The hotspot for prostitution is naturally in the tourists areas, which is along the river and close to the night market.
• A tuk tuk driver told me that there would be Vietnamese girls along 104 Street (also in the tourist area), in bars Big Mama and Smile Girl. I checked out both. I found one half-Viet/half-Cambodian in Big Mama, none in Smile Girl.
• The same tuk tuk driver said that he gets ask for young girls a lot, and he insisted that it was much harder to find them since the crackdowns on brothels. He said I might have more luck at 104 Street, as some of the girls working there might be younger and work without proof of age.
• Big Mama looked liked they had a couple of younger girls working there. I spotted a couple of young looking girls playing pool in the upstairs billiard room. My half-Viet companion said they were 25, I didn't believe it, but I wasn't up close to get a better look.
• Smile girl had one or two girls who looked 18 or slightly older, but no obvious kids.
• We went out at 9:00 PM on a Wed, which apparently is already much too late for activity. I was either the only guy or one of two or three guys in the bar. It was hard to have a conversation and ask for young girls when I had 2-4 bar ladies hovering over me.
• I solicited one bar lady to spend the night with me. She quoted $50. I didn't ask what that included, but since she was spending the night, I gather it was open-ended.
• Stats: Visited two bars on near the OBV house, and three bars in the tourist area; Spent around $30 total for the evening.