It is situated opposite the Royal University of Fine Arts, quite near the National Museum in Phnom Penh. There are three businesses in this one small shop, the ground floor housing the fair trade shop and the spa while the upstairs houses their kitchen and the awesomely chillax cafe aptly named Sugar and Spice.
Daughters of Cambodia is an organization which rehabilitates sex workers who come to them voluntarily by teaching them new skills to sustain their lives. According to their information posters, one of the most prominent value that drives girls to the sex industry is filial piety. Parents uphold this so strictly that daughters are expected to support them once they reach a certain age. This practice is called repaying the milk money where the daughters are expected to repay their parents for the money, time and effort it took raising them.
The disconnect comes when the girls are not educated and have not been taught any skills. They are then sometimes knowingly trafficked by their own parents or relatives to brothels in the city. Others make their way to the city hoping to find some decent job. Again, due to lack of education and skills, most can only find work in karaoke joints and seedy massage parlors. They then get pimped by owners. Others have huge medical bills of parents to pay off forcing them into the trade for quick money.
Daughters of Cambodia does not go out and forcefully take these girls from the trade like other NGOs. The organization claims that it is traumatic and sometimes the girls are not ready causing them to return to the trade after some time. The return is also contributed by the fact that after the rescue there is no plan B. They are not given any alternative to look for money to sustain themselves.
At Daughters of Cambodia however, the girls who walk in are ready to make that change. They are then taught skills and given psychological counseling and are consistently monitored to ensure they get recover from the trauma of their past. There are five businesses that they do to help the girls, there is sewing, cooking, massage therapy, jewelry making and another one which I cannot remember.
The fair trade shop, the massage parlor and the cafe are all places in which they products and their skills are put to good use. When we walked in the cafe, we didn’t know the history of this place. We sat down in one of their numerous comfortable couches, logged on to their wifi, saw the happiest people in Cambodia waiting on us and then I saw a Caucasian girl helping one of the Cambodian girls read the bible. That was when I got curious and decided to google them.
If you are interested in helping out, you can search them and on their website they have a donate section. You can choose to continue USD70 a month (that’s the one month salary of the girls) or USD35 (half a month) continuously or if you are a bit tight on cash and still want to contribute, you can give a once off donation too. They have a form for you to fill and then they will contact you with payment details.
Alternatively, if you are thinking of doing a gap year, come volunteer here. It may have strong Christian backing and theme, but even if you are not a Christian, there is so much to do here, like coordinating their PR, do fundraising, organizing their kitchen, manage the shop and other things. I am only blogging about this place because I see for myself the happy faces these girls have and it is really a beautiful thing.
Even if you don’t feel up to it, at least be aware. Here is their website, go check it out. Daughters of Cambodia
I will leave you with a picture of the delicious food from their cafe:
That is beer battered fish with tartar sauce and tomato chutney, spicy crumbed chicken with butter garlic sauce and mango chutney, banofee smoothie and mango nana smoothie. 
