AsiaLife Covers Chab Dai's Director!

AsiaLife magazine recently did a Q&A with Helen, Chab Dai's Founder and International Director and I thought it was fantastic! Not only do I think Helen is awesome, but the article was written by a friend - so I'm totally not biased ;)

Helen is so articulate about the issues around human trafficking. At the office, we talk a lot about the complexities of multiple vulnerability factors, issues of dignity in the media, and how best to address this injustice holistically and collaboratively. She has spent over a decade working in this sector, and thinking through all these complex cross-cutting themes.

Please go read the whole article, it is great! But for now, I thought I would share one of my favourite excerpts:

Is the increased attention on anti-trafficking helpful?I think there is a danger point that trafficking has become the sexy issue. You get a huge influx of money, attention, organisations, but if that is not coordinated, it can create chaos. We have seen a lot of people coming to address this, but they’re not necessarily doing it in a collaborative manner, and they don’t necessarily understand a lot of the complex issues within the Cambodian culture, within the history.

People are led by their heart on this issue, but sometimes they forget to bring their brain with them. You get lots of well meaning people, but they don’t really know what they’re doing. And that is a huge risk factor. A lot of people start working on this issue and get paralysed by emotion. Some people may say I’m hard-headed, but what Cambodia doesn’t need is a lot of emotional wrecks. They need people who are able to strategise for responses, to support them, to help them develop policy.