Petra Nemcova shocked by human trafficking

Washington (ANI): Witnessing human trafficking first-hand during a recent visit to Cambodia left supermodel-turned-humanitarian Petra Nemcova totally shaken and horrified. Nemcova was so shocked by the experience that she teamed up with Southeast Asian-based charity the Somaly Mam Foundation in an effort to raise awareness for the devastating crimes.

"It makes me so angry. Girls and boys get sold as young as four-years-old and are put in animal cages. Some of them never see the light anymore," Contactmusic quoted her as saying. "We met this girl who was 13 and a pimp made her lose her right eye. The words 'pimp' and 'child' should never be in the same sentence," she added.

The Czech Republic-born model was very much moved by the foundation and its work, with its main purpose being to seek and rescue women and girls from the horrors of a life in brothels or on the streets. Nemcova displayed her support by wearing a dress hand-sewn by women rescued by the group, to a recent charity gala.

The model had suffered her own hardship during her 2004 vacation in Thailand, where she got caught in a tsunami, receiving multiple broken bones and internal injuries and losing her fiance, photographer Simon Atlee.