BANGKOK: A foundation supporting anti-sex trafficking activist Somaly Mam has closed, but the disgraced Cambodian woman feted at charity events in Australia is trying to claw back credibility and vows to continue her work.
The Somaly Mam Foundation has announced on its website it has ''officially ceased all operations, ended grant funding and permanently closed our doors'' after claims Ms Mam fabricated parts of her story and those of at least one child victim used during fund-raising campaigns.
But Ms Mam told Fairfax Media that ''cutting off funding without notice and leaving so many lives without support was quite upsetting''.
"I forgive the [Somaly Mam] board for what they did to me personally but I am still concerned about victims in the centres,'' she said, referring to the Cambodian non-government organisation AFESIP (a French acronym for Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances) which is caring for about 170 rescued young women.
The foundation abruptly cut ties with AFESIP in June but said it would be ''rebranding, renaming and relaunching''.
But in its latest statement the foundation said it had ''decided going forward, the right opportunity for our staff and our supporters would be to support'' other anti-trafficking organisations.
Ms Mam resigned from the foundation in May after an independent legal investigation confirmed reports raising doubt about the story of 13-year-old Long Pros that helped raise millions of dollars for the charity.
Ms Pros claimed her right eye was gouged out by a brothel owner, but hospital records showed she had the eye removed due to a tumor she developed in early childhood.
The foundation has not said where any donated money has gone following its closure.
Ms Mam, who became a global celebrity feted by Hollywood stars and world leaders, broke a long silence on claims against her after a favorable article was published in the September US edition of Marie Claire, the same day that a public relations offensive was launched on her behalf.
''I have not lied,'' she told the magazine. ''They wanted me to say sorry. I'm not sorry for my life,'' she said.
New York-based celebrity agent Scott Gorenstein, who is acting for Ms Mam, told Fairfax Media that she and a group of her friends were in the process of starting a new organisation tentatively called the New Somaly Fund.
He said Ms Mam had taken over management of AFESIP, effective immediately.
The scandal that engulfed Ms Mam after a series of exposes in the Cambodia Daily, Newsweek and Fairfax Media has prompted calls for greater scrutiny of non-government organisations that promote the stories of alleged victims in fund-raising campaigns.
Ms Mam, who claimed she was raped at 12, forced to marry at 15 and then sold into prostitution, headed the multimillion-dollar non-profit Somaly Mam Foundation and was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people and a CNN hero.
Mr Gorenstein, who also acts for American actor and singer Liza Minnelli, has been offering to arrange media interviews with Ms Mam who he said ''wants her dignity and reputation restored, for herself and for all the survivors that she represents''.
''It is her hope that having set the record straight, she can return to the work of rescuing and rehabilitating victims of human trafficking and to helping halt sexual slavery in all forms,'' he said.
But in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, Ms Mam's estranged former husband Pierre Legros, who helped set-up AFESIP, was quoted as saying the media was again shaping new versions of her story.
''You know when you work in this world [of non-government organisations], you know fabricated stories are used by everyone to get funding,'' he said.
Fairfax Media
The Somaly Mam Foundation has announced on its website it has ''officially ceased all operations, ended grant funding and permanently closed our doors'' after claims Ms Mam fabricated parts of her story and those of at least one child victim used during fund-raising campaigns.
But Ms Mam told Fairfax Media that ''cutting off funding without notice and leaving so many lives without support was quite upsetting''.
"I forgive the [Somaly Mam] board for what they did to me personally but I am still concerned about victims in the centres,'' she said, referring to the Cambodian non-government organisation AFESIP (a French acronym for Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances) which is caring for about 170 rescued young women.
The foundation abruptly cut ties with AFESIP in June but said it would be ''rebranding, renaming and relaunching''.
But in its latest statement the foundation said it had ''decided going forward, the right opportunity for our staff and our supporters would be to support'' other anti-trafficking organisations.
Ms Mam resigned from the foundation in May after an independent legal investigation confirmed reports raising doubt about the story of 13-year-old Long Pros that helped raise millions of dollars for the charity.
Ms Pros claimed her right eye was gouged out by a brothel owner, but hospital records showed she had the eye removed due to a tumor she developed in early childhood.
The foundation has not said where any donated money has gone following its closure.
Ms Mam, who became a global celebrity feted by Hollywood stars and world leaders, broke a long silence on claims against her after a favorable article was published in the September US edition of Marie Claire, the same day that a public relations offensive was launched on her behalf.
''I have not lied,'' she told the magazine. ''They wanted me to say sorry. I'm not sorry for my life,'' she said.
New York-based celebrity agent Scott Gorenstein, who is acting for Ms Mam, told Fairfax Media that she and a group of her friends were in the process of starting a new organisation tentatively called the New Somaly Fund.
He said Ms Mam had taken over management of AFESIP, effective immediately.
The scandal that engulfed Ms Mam after a series of exposes in the Cambodia Daily, Newsweek and Fairfax Media has prompted calls for greater scrutiny of non-government organisations that promote the stories of alleged victims in fund-raising campaigns.
Ms Mam, who claimed she was raped at 12, forced to marry at 15 and then sold into prostitution, headed the multimillion-dollar non-profit Somaly Mam Foundation and was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people and a CNN hero.
Mr Gorenstein, who also acts for American actor and singer Liza Minnelli, has been offering to arrange media interviews with Ms Mam who he said ''wants her dignity and reputation restored, for herself and for all the survivors that she represents''.
''It is her hope that having set the record straight, she can return to the work of rescuing and rehabilitating victims of human trafficking and to helping halt sexual slavery in all forms,'' he said.
But in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, Ms Mam's estranged former husband Pierre Legros, who helped set-up AFESIP, was quoted as saying the media was again shaping new versions of her story.
''You know when you work in this world [of non-government organisations], you know fabricated stories are used by everyone to get funding,'' he said.
Fairfax Media
