00:00:03:09 - 00:00:16:29
Chris
Hello and welcome to the ending Buddy Burnout show. We are your host, Chris and Filly, co-founders of a multi winning functional medicine practice serving busy people with energy, mood and gut issues.
00:00:17:00 - 00:00:24:27
Filly
Well, business, addictive doing, people pleasing and perfectionism might be the norm. It's not normal and it's a major contributor to health issues.
00:00:25:00 - 00:00:38:05
Chris
Our goal with this show is to give you a holistic root root cause approach to healing your body so that you don't have to continue doctor or diet hopping or popping a gazillion supplements hoping something might stick.
00:00:38:06 - 00:00:46:09
Filly
So get ready to heal your body, get your spark back deeply, connect with yourself, and step into the life of your dreams.
00:00:46:13 - 00:00:55:08
Chris
Let's dive in.
00:00:55:10 - 00:01:19:27
Filly
Hello! Welcome to the ending buddy burnout show. We're so excited to share with you a topic that Chris and I are really passionate about. Now, this episode today is a little bit different to usual. We're not specifically talking about how to end your body burnout, or even specifically health, but we are talking about a topic that we're very passionate about and that is around preventing sex trafficking.
00:01:20:01 - 00:01:44:28
Filly
So if you don't know already how holistic healing practice, Chris and Fully Functional Medicine are partnered with Free to Shine, a truly amazing child protection organisation in Cambodia that helps keep girls in schools and out of sex brothels. Now, I didn't interview with Nicky Mih, who is founder of Free to Shine. Back when we originally partnered with this organisation and I think that was back in 2021.
00:01:44:28 - 00:01:48:03
Filly
So we have been supporting Free to Shine for the last.
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Nicky
Four.
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Filly
And a half years. And we originally did this interview as a I think it was a Facebook Live, so we wanted to share the interview on the podcast today because it's still really relevant to the work that Mikki, that Nicky and Free to Shine are doing to prevent sex trafficking. And you may or may not be aware, but every client that works with us in a one on one capacity.
00:02:15:20 - 00:02:50:29
Filly
So whether that's, through a connect the dots initial consult, or working with us inside our ending body burnout method, we give one day's worth of safety and education to keep girls in schools and out of sex brothels. So if you have worked with us in the past, I want to say a very big thank you, first of all, because you have also helped us to support Free to Shine and to put a stop to what I think is one of the worst things that are happening in the world.
00:02:51:02 - 00:03:22:05
Filly
So, Nicky, there's a little quote that, Nicky said in the interview, and she and she also writes about this in her book that she wrote. So she says, I can't live in a world where girls are being tortured with acid, electrocuted, and right, and do nothing about it. And, I mean, we absolutely agree, which is why we do give that day's worth and safety and education to girls in Cambodia for every client that works with us.
00:03:22:08 - 00:03:49:23
Filly
Now, I want to share Nicky Mae's, buyer's. So you can just get a feel for how amazing this woman is. So Nicky is an educator, coach, and adventurer. Nicky Mae is passionate about inspiring people to learn, achieve, and make a difference in the world. In 2009, Nicky spent a month volunteering with more than 200 girls rescued from sex slavery in Cambodia.
00:03:49:26 - 00:04:14:27
Filly
An experience which profoundly challenged her and led to the creation of Free to Shine. Nicky leads a team of social workers and education officers who work with community leaders, police, schools and families to secure the safety of girls across rural Cambodia and help them achieve their right to access education, safe drinking water, enough food and adequate shelter. She is the author of Do What Matters What.
00:04:14:28 - 00:04:54:01
Filly
Leading a child protection organisation in Cambodia, taught me about life and leadership, and I know that you're going to find this interview one confronting because she does share some of the really, horrible things that are happening in Cambodia and in many other places in the world, but also super inspiring in the way that Free to Shine is working to address sex trafficking at a root cause preventative level before these kids even go into, sex brothels.
00:04:54:03 - 00:04:58:09
Filly
All right, let's dive into today's episode.
00:04:58:11 - 00:05:28:17
Chris
Welcome, everybody. To Chris and Filly functional medicine. Today we have an awesome, awesome interview with the lovely Nicky. Me. And, we we have Philippa is going to be chatting to Nicky, and, we're super stoked to bring to you this interview. But I reckon we just cut straight to it. Guys, if you have any questions, make sure you, you chuck them down in the comments down below.
00:05:28:22 - 00:05:48:03
Chris
We won't be able to answer them while we're going live, but, we'll get back to you as soon as we can, but, right now, thanks for tuning in. For those of you who join us as we go. Thanks for joining us. Stick around as long as you can. But handing it over to the lovely Philippa and Nicky.
00:05:48:03 - 00:05:49:13
Chris
Thanks, guys.
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Nicky
Thank you.
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Filly
Awesome. So yay! I'm so excited to be talking to Nicky today. So first of all I want to do a little pic of her boo. Do what matters. So Nicky is an author. She is also founder of an amazing organisation which I'll let Nicky tell you all about. It's called Free to Shine. The reason why we're doing these interview two is we've actually partnered with Free to Shine.
00:06:15:08 - 00:06:37:19
Filly
Which is an organisation that helps keep girls in Cambodia, in schools rather than in brothels. And as parents, Chris and I, with our own little girls and just thinking about the type of things that happen in other countries, even in our own country, and, you know, putting girls and other children into sex trafficking.
00:06:37:19 - 00:06:57:01
Filly
It is just the worst thing that I think could ever happen in this world. So we really wanted to get behind Free to Shine and help make an impact in the lives of these girls and their families and their communities. So, Nicky, I'd love you to introduce yourself and let us know a bit more about Free to Shine.
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Filly
So it was founded in, 2010. So that's 11 years ago. And I'd love to know why you were inspired to, begin it.
00:07:08:24 - 00:07:36:10
Nicky
Cool. Awesome. I'm really pleased to be here. Thanks for having me, Chris. And thanks for having me. Really. It's a pleasure. I'm Nicky me, co-founder and managing director of Free to Shine, which is a child protection organisation in Cambodia, specifically to prevent school age girls being trafficked into the commercial sex industry. So yes, it did begin in 2010.
00:07:36:13 - 00:08:21:14
Nicky
And where did it begin? Why like what was my inspiration? I suppose it began with, for me, reading a bunch of books about the plight of women and girls in different countries around the world, and those stories really upset me. But at the same time, they really, really inspired me to. So for example, from Mukhtar in Pakistan, who was sentenced to a gangrape as a punishment for a crime that her brother allegedly committed to ten year old Nusrat in Yemen, who walked into a court room and requested they help her get divorced.
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Filly
00:08:22:21 - 00:08:52:14
Nicky
And I read these books and I hated that such awful things happen, and I wanted to help. And then I didn't know how. So after reading each book, I'd place it carefully back on my bookshelf and I just go about my life as usual. And one day, because I had this, like, niggling feeling constantly. And one day I just realised that I can't keep reading these books, but doing nothing about it.
00:08:52:14 - 00:09:18:08
Nicky
So I made a promise to myself that the next book I read, no matter what the issue, what the country, I would do something. And then the next book that I read was about sex trafficking in Cambodia, and I learnt that girls are being tortured with acid, electrocuted and raped because we're doing nothing to stop it. And I knew that it was time for me to step up.
00:09:18:12 - 00:09:46:22
Nicky
Yeah. So it was about 12 years ago now that I went to Cambodia, and I spent a month with survivors, and I asked them how we could help. And that was when I learned that the day they got rescued, the traffickers didn't go without a girl. They just went out into a rural village and took a new young girl to replace them.
00:09:46:25 - 00:10:02:10
Nicky
And they said to me, Nicky, go out to the rural villages, find the girls who aren't in school and get them into school. And when I looked around the room at them, they were each shaking their head that not one of them had been in school when they were trafficked.
00:10:02:11 - 00:10:02:21
Filly
00:10:02:27 - 00:10:34:15
Nicky
And they believed if they were in school they wouldn't have been trafficked. They would have been safe. And so I began talking to every organisation I could find. I began researching and I found that there were really great organisations that were collaborating with the police on rescue operations, that were aftercare centres for survivors. When they were rescued, there were even legal teams working within the justice system to try to bring about prosecutions.
00:10:34:17 - 00:10:44:25
Nicky
Yeah, I couldn't find any organisation out in these rural villages that was specifically identifying these next girls before the traffickers did. So that's what we do.
00:10:44:26 - 00:11:06:12
Filly
Yeah, I love that too. I think that's what, when Chris and I wanted to align ourselves with an organisation and a charity that we could, give back to as well. I really loved what you do because it's not so much about. Yes, you. We need to support these girls that have already been through these horrible experiences.
00:11:06:12 - 00:11:21:11
Filly
But what I love about what you do is that it's really getting at the root cause of why it's happening, even in the first place. And like, even from a health perspective, in functional medicine, it's all about getting to the root cause of your health issues. And you know why you're feeling this way and why your life is this way.
00:11:21:17 - 00:11:46:02
Filly
And so doing you're doing this it like this, like really important global, level, which I love. Cool. So tell us a little bit to about, the sex industry. So how many people are in it currently enslaved? Because like you said to, you know, we read especially in the Western cultures, we read these books and it's like, oh, that's awful.
00:11:46:02 - 00:11:55:03
Filly
And then we put them back on the bookshelf and we don't really understand the magnitude of this stuff that's happening around us.
00:11:55:06 - 00:12:15:22
Nicky
So globally, there are more than 4.8 million victims of forced sexual exploitation. And on average they are held in captivity for 23.1 months. And 99.4% of them all women and girls, 21.3% of them are children.
00:12:15:24 - 00:12:37:08
Filly
That's awful. That is just like all of it's awful. All the numbers are awful about the fact that a quarter of them are kids, too. When I was reading your book, and not that I want to dwell on, like the awful things that happen, because this book is probably full of more of the hopeful and inspiring things and the way that the girls and the families are changing lives and their own lives.
00:12:37:11 - 00:13:08:06
Filly
But, in the initial first few chapters, there were just some horrific things, like little four year old child being kept in a cage and brought out when evil men wanted to come and have sex with it like that is just. I can't even comprehend the type of people that would do that. So, I think to the magnitude of it, the amount of people that are being exposed to this, I think everyone should be doing something within our power to be able to help support this.
00:13:08:06 - 00:13:22:29
Filly
So whether it's, you know, learning more about it, donating to a cause like yours or actually getting involved with the communities, so can you see a day where sex trafficking actually stops?
00:13:23:01 - 00:13:49:17
Nicky
I can, I can and to go back to your point, currently, what the world spends on stopping and preventing sex trafficking is less than half of 1% of what the traffickers making profit. And so the traffickers are far more serious about doing it than the world is about stopping them. And so that's what needs to change. I think more people are required to step up.
00:13:49:22 - 00:13:58:11
Filly
Yeah, yeah. That's cool. So I'd love to learn, our listeners, to learn a bit more about how you actually support the young girls in Cambodia.
00:13:58:14 - 00:14:33:15
Nicky
Cool. Yeah. Cool. So I have a team of education officers and social workers. We've helped 754 school aged girls across 59 different rural villages to achieve their rights. So that's to be free from slavery, to access education, but also safe drinking water, enough food and adequate shelter. So our work centres around three main goals. So our first goal is safe communities for children.
00:14:33:17 - 00:15:05:29
Nicky
So we teach families how to protect themselves from exploitation and abuse. So we conduct monthly safety visit and social work interventions, focusing on strengthening family and community systems so that the safety and education of their children is their priority. And we address complex factors such as poverty, hunger, illness, unemployment, migration, addiction, family violence and death.
00:15:06:01 - 00:15:07:03
Filly
00:15:07:05 - 00:15:40:03
Nicky
And our second goal is educated girls, because while the girl is physically in the classroom, she's safe. She's under the watchful eye of a professional, someone who can report if and when her circumstances change. So we provide the materials, then the funds that she needs in order to access a local state school. But we also help the girls to stay in school by providing access to safe drinking water and food and adequate shelter.
00:15:40:05 - 00:16:07:17
Nicky
And then our third goal is women in leadership. And I'll tell you why that's important to what we do. So we model gender equity. So only 7% of the village leaders that we work with, and only 5% of the school directors, we work with a female. So it's so important that we invest in the next generation of Cambodian women leaders by providing leadership training to emerging leaders.
00:16:07:17 - 00:16:13:00
Nicky
And I'll tell you about that, in a little while. And also, funding university places.
00:16:13:02 - 00:16:33:28
Filly
Yeah, that's so cool. I love to you talked about the complex factors. That's what, you know, in case people are like, what are you talking about? The root cause of getting to the root cause of the issue is that, you know, the fact that, I remember reading in your book that it's just like the simple thing of not having safe water for us.
00:16:33:28 - 00:16:50:15
Filly
We think, like, well, yeah, you know, we just take water for granted. But in, other areas of the world, if you don't have safe water, that means that, you know, potentially you get sick for a week or two or a month chronically sick where you can't go to work, and then you can't earn money for your family.
00:16:50:17 - 00:17:01:13
Filly
And then you left it. This, you point where you, very vulnerable, I guess, to exploitation. Like what you said. Exactly.
00:17:01:15 - 00:17:02:14
Nicky
Right. Yeah.
00:17:02:14 - 00:17:24:21
Filly
And I love the leadership part, too. That is so cool. Because it's also not just about. And not that you at all give handouts. It's kind of like. And when you, do provide things for the girls or the family, it's also to support them in their own self-sufficiency. So that's amazing. And then creating leaders to then help you guys as well in your organisation.
00:17:24:21 - 00:17:33:00
Filly
I think as I was reading the book to a lot of girls, sort of been championing what you're doing and then go out and do other stuff too.
00:17:33:02 - 00:17:46:03
Nicky
Yeah. I mean, one of the purposes of is doing that is as part of an exit strategy, we don't want to have to be in Cambodia forever. So it's about equipping them with the skills so that they can keep the next generation of children safe.
00:17:46:03 - 00:18:05:13
Filly
Yeah, I can even see you, you know? You. Yeah. I don't know how long in a in the future of it, Cambodia is all set up and then you move to the next country that really needs the help. So I'd love to learn a bit more about some of the, the impact that for you to shine has made and your future goals.
00:18:05:16 - 00:18:46:08
Nicky
Yeah. Okay. Cool. So we've travelled 500,000km. We've provided 30,000 safety visits, 2500 social work interventions. We've facilitated 170 community trainings, provided 900 bikes and more than 900 bikes, funded 1.4 million curriculum classes, provided 2.2 million days of safe drinking water, provided leadership training to 23 emerging leaders, funded 33 university places, built 21 homes, and helped teenage girl build a community library.
00:18:46:10 - 00:19:19:18
Nicky
But to better illustrate what that actually looks like, I'd love to tell you a story about kin and also race. I think that'll that'll illustrate better than than just the numbers do. So kin was eight when we found her, and her and grandma didn't have a house, so they lived outside on a wooden bed. So if you imagine a wooden bed frame with the wooden slats, and they placed a mat made of leaves and palm leaves over the wooden slats, and they they slept on there and they lived, they lived on that.
00:19:19:25 - 00:19:46:22
Nicky
And they'd wrapped in plastic and hung the plastic through the trees, but they were still getting wet every time that it rained. And the first time we met kin, she told us that she sometimes borrows a neighbour's bike and cycles to the school and she said, I stand outside the gate looking in at the children, learning, and I hope that one day maybe I too can sit inside the classroom.
00:19:46:25 - 00:20:09:11
Nicky
So we we enrolled her in school. We got her the uniforms and the shoes and the bag full of books and pens that she needed. But more importantly, we visit her every month to ensure that she stays safe. And we built her and grandma a small home of their own. Yeah, and you know, kin loved school from day dot.
00:20:09:12 - 00:20:31:03
Nicky
She loved school. When we met her. She also had a ten year old sister who'd also never been to school, but who had already been sent to Thailand to work. So we worried about her in the hopes that we'd be able to get her back safely and also get her into school. And after a year, we were able to enrol her in school too.
00:20:31:05 - 00:20:36:03
Nicky
And kin is now 15 and both her and her sister are thriving.
00:20:36:10 - 00:20:57:03
Filly
That's so amazing. That is so cool. I actually I told my little girls who are five and eight, they're always at about ten, six and ten about about kin. I told them I tell them about the house or the not house that they lived in and and then how that they I think my girls are actually complaining about wanting to go to school.
00:20:57:05 - 00:21:14:25
Filly
And I said, you are so lucky to be able to go to school like it's actually illegal not to go to school into, Australia, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, but and then I explained to them to you that some people live in a house where it's just glad rap for the walls and then to go from that to now thriving.
00:21:14:27 - 00:21:32:10
Filly
That is just so awesome. And I love the numbers. I think your, business partner is an accountant. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the numbers, the numbers give it substance, but then the stories give it the heart. And I think that's what people connect to too.
00:21:32:17 - 00:21:53:09
Nicky
Yeah, yeah. Totally. Totally. And it's nice to get both. Yeah. To, to really say and get a flavour for what it is. Yeah. If I can, I'd love to tell you about Ray as well, because I think I think your listeners would love to hear about Ray. So. Yeah. Ray is 14, and she has this belief that if she works hard, she can achieve her goal.
00:21:53:09 - 00:22:32:03
Nicky
And her goal is to be a teacher. And I guess one of the things that I've learned. So my book is about 34 lessons that I've learned. So one of the things that I've learned is that despite the challenges they face and they face challenges that we couldn't even imagine, despite the challenges they face, so many of the girls on our program are eager to share their knowledge and improve their communities, and Ray was concerned that her community had no where to come together in the evening to read and to learn, and the nearest place that they were using was far enough away that the children were cycling home in the dark, on busy and
00:22:32:03 - 00:23:05:20
Nicky
dangerous roads where there had been accidents. And so racers, if she could borrow a few more library books and also a whiteboard and some pens because she wanted to start her own small library from her house, and she wanted to begin tutoring a small group of children in literacy and maths school, so that that was called, we'd had a few girls that had wanted to do that, but when we saw Rhee's strength and determination, we invited her to be part of our Emerging Leaders program.
00:23:05:22 - 00:23:27:21
Nicky
And once she joined that, her plan just grew from a few books on a whiteboard to actually building a library and a community centre as well. And she did that. And her mom uses that community centre to teach adults in her village not to be violent to their families, to teach them about the effects that it has on them.
00:23:27:24 - 00:23:55:13
Nicky
Yeah. And her dad teachers, almost lost all of some scraps. And he said that he envisions his library as a key part to being, like, a role model for all the villagers. So I just a little sad story, because Ree lives in extreme poverty, facing challenges that none of us have. And yet she has this cool ambition to help and serve her community.
00:23:55:16 - 00:24:12:05
Filly
And also the library too. And learning like when you're in those extreme conditions you would, you would kind of think that I would kind of think that, you know, it'd just be more about getting enough food on the table, whereas they have these big visions and they make things happen from nothing, which is amazing.
00:24:12:07 - 00:24:36:07
Nicky
Yeah, they really do that. I think they because of where it began with the Khmer Rouge, war, it's their parents were denied an education. So they believed that the poverty that they're in, the struggles that they face, how hard their life is, is because they don't have that education. So they know they want an education because through education they can change it.
00:24:36:07 - 00:24:37:07
Nicky
Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:37:13 - 00:25:00:10
Filly
That's so cool. And I can see to it your you have come from to it's almost like a round, round circle of reading lots of books, reading lots of books, and then having these girls just devouring books at school. Yeah. Sorry. How could our listeners find out more about what you do and what free to sign do?
00:25:00:10 - 00:25:01:08
Filly
00:25:01:11 - 00:25:22:27
Nicky
Yep. So I think, a really cool place to start would be with the book. It's called Do What Matters what leading a child protection organisation in Cambodia taught me about life and leadership. So that would be a really cool place to start that they can get that on our website. Yeah. It's like, so they can get that on our website, which is free to shine.
00:25:22:27 - 00:25:44:26
Nicky
The org, it's also available on Amazon. And then also on our website, they can read our impact reports. So we do quarterly impact reports and also annual impact reports. They're really good places to to begin. There's also some videos if they want to actually see what, what it looks like. They can watch some videos would be.
00:25:44:28 - 00:25:46:01
Nicky
Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:46:03 - 00:26:05:20
Filly
I just want to say something, something else about your book, too. I'm a very avid reader reader as well, and a pretty high critiqued that. I, I think Chris would it would no, we, I mean been reading it and I don't want to put it down. It's an awesome book, even just from a, like a storytelling point of view.
00:26:05:22 - 00:26:20:17
Filly
You will love it and get a lot from it. And also to if our listeners, would like to get involved or, you know, any ways that we can help out, what are some of the ways that people can get involved with what you do?
00:26:20:19 - 00:26:47:01
Nicky
Yeah. Great. So you might have a listener who might be interested in sponsoring a girl. We've got 118 girls awaiting a sponsor, so that would be one really cool way. You might have a listener who works in a company that's got more than 20 employees, and they could find out for us if their company has something called a workplace giving program that we could get added to, that would be really helpful.
00:26:47:04 - 00:27:05:19
Nicky
And you might have a listener who runs their own business and they might be interested in our Business Matters webinar. So which other ways they might be interested? If they contact us through our website, through the contact page, then we'll help direct them to the best place for the type of support that they would be most interested in.
00:27:05:22 - 00:27:17:17
Filly
Awesome. So good. Well, I think that is all the questions answered. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
00:27:17:19 - 00:27:34:06
Nicky
Just the I, I'm really happy to have partnered with you guys. There's it's such a nice alignment of what you're wanting to achieve with parents. Yeah. So I'm really happy to, to work with you guys and, with the community that you've built.
00:27:34:12 - 00:27:57:25
Filly
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, just another little thing. Like, the way why we aligned with you guys, too, is you're helping children. You're helping families in a different way to what we are, in terms of getting parents healthy and more connected with their family. But really, it's like it's the same end goal to create really healthy, happy, and thriving families.
00:27:57:25 - 00:28:02:23
Filly
And that's going to make the world different. And it's a beautiful place to live in.
00:28:02:26 - 00:28:03:25
Nicky
Exactly.
00:28:03:26 - 00:28:07:27
Filly
So thank you so much for coming on that.
00:28:07:27 - 00:28:09:07
Nicky
You're welcome.
00:28:09:07 - 00:28:30:10
Filly
It was awesome to chat. And if anyone has any comments then, you know, feel free to put them down on, you know, comment section. I'll also put a link to, to the live video straight to your website so that people can easily find find you guys. And yeah, any other resources that I might find useful to point people to?
00:28:30:12 - 00:28:33:04
Nicky
Yeah. Brilliant. Awesome.
00:28:33:07 - 00:28:55:09
Chris
Cool. All right. Well, thank you so much, Nicky, for jumping on, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. Those of you who have, Nicky, we invite you to stick around. We'll have a little bit of a chat after we finish this live stream, but for everybody else, thank you. So much. Make sure you leave a comment down below if you want more information.
00:28:55:09 - 00:29:00:02
Chris
And, and we'll talk to you guys soon. Thank you. Everybody.
00:29:00:05 - 00:29:03:18
Nicky
Bye.
00:29:03:20 - 00:29:13:23
Filly
Thank you so much for listening. We so appreciate you. If you'd like to give us extra smiles, drop us a review and spread the love by sharing this episode.
00:29:13:26 - 00:29:46:00
Chris
You can also write your own state of burnout and the root cause contributors by taking our Ending Body Burnout assessment on our website. And if you're interested in learning about that group one on one ending buddy burnout programs, shoot us a DM via Instagram or Facebook. Have the best day ever.
00:29:46:03 - 00:29:46:10
Chris
For.
