Mam Fund pledges cash for AFESIP

A new organisation has been created under the name of disgraced sex-trafficking activist Somaly Mam, which says it will raise money for a local NGO she founded that lost funding in the wake of allegations that key parts of her life story were fabricated.

According to its website, The New Somaly Mam Fund was “created by friends of Somaly Mam who … believe in her integrity and disbelieve the attacks upon it”.

In May, Mam resigned from the Somaly Mam Foundation (SMF) after Newsweek published a damning indictment of her life’s work. SMF subsequently terminated its funding of Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Precaire (AFESIP).

The Somaly Mam Fund says it will raise donations to “sustain” AFESIP’s work.

Uong Chheng, AFESIP outreach program manager, said he had not heard of the fund and was unsure of Mam’s current whereabouts.

“We were told that more staff will be cut … if there is still no funding. We all are worried.”