Bad Policy: Good Consequences

The organization is called Korsang. Its staff: former Cambodian American gang members from the streets of San Diego, Virginia, and Kentucky—deported as “undesirable aliens” for crimes committed in the US. They are the children of Cambodian refugees whose families fled after the Vietnam War and during the Pol Pot regime. They have names like Wicked and Snot. They are in Cambodia because their parents, not understanding American citizenship rules, neglected to file naturalization papers for them. Thus, they are eligible for deportation based on the guidelines of the Patriot Act. Raised as Americans by Khmer parents, they are more hip-hop generation than Cambodian – former Bloods and Crips who know the laws of the street, and dance to the beat of the urban inner city.

But here they are – on the dusty streets of Phnom Penh, staffing a drop-in center and harm reduction outreach program that is the vision of Holly Bradford, a former IV drug user, and harm reduction expert from Boston. Grandmother to a Cambodian grand-daughter, she came to see the country of her grandchild’s roots, and has basically never left. Meeting the young deportees, she saw something different – not “undesirable aliens” or gang members – but young men who understood something about what it meant to be marginalized. Young men who knew something about the streets and what it takes to survive, and who wouldn’t be afraid to go out and try to reach others whose lives were even harder than theirs.

They are a family now – supporting one another, laughing, crying, and partying together. By day, they work with a team of trained peer educators to meet the needs of the IV drug using population of Phnom Penh, hoping to stem the spread of HIV and HepC. The outreach team provides clean needles, collects used syringes, distributes condoms, helps access HIV testing and medical care. In the Center, young users hang out, watch television, sleep, learn English, eat and talk. The staff’s American backgrounds have worked to their advantage here – giving them cache, and a mystique that is appealing to those they are trying to reach. Break dancing classes are a particularly hot activity, with street children as young as four and five twirling on their heads with abandon.

To do their work, Korsang has built relationships with the police, local NGO’s, and the American Embassy, who despite the irony involved, is an ally and supporter of these young Americans who have been thrown out of their country. Their work has been featured numerous times on the front pages of the Cambodian papers, and visitors and reporters now flock to hear about their successes, which are significant. In just a couple of years, thousands have already been reached on the streets, with broader networks and more comprehensive one stop health and education services envisioned in the future. When asked, none of the young men of Korsang could have ever imagined their lives to have taken them on the path they now travel. But for many, they have come a long way to find their way home.