woman: the following program is an original production of linktv. narrator: next up, the true story of a girl who just wants to go to school and has to change the mind of her entire village to do it. an award-winning animation and other short films from linktv's "viewchange" film contest. man: "viewchange" is about people making real progress and tackling the world's toughest issues. can a story change the world? see for yourself in "viewchange, crossing the gender gap." narrator: compared with men, the lives of women are so often hidden behind the walls of tradition, poverty, and isolation. compared with men, the stories of women so often

just aren't told. but the documentaries you're about to see are different. they put women in front of the lens and behind it, and through photography, film, and even animation, they show us women stepping out from behind those walls, surviving and even thriving in some of the poorest countries in the world. take a look across the global gender gap and see the grand prize winner of the "viewchange" film contest. srey: my name is srey neth. i am cambodian. i am a victim of sex trafficking. translator: i do not know my father. my brother, he gambled and left home. we were poor and so my mother sold me to a neighbor, a pimp. i was 14.

i lived in a place called the building, where i served drinks for the first week. i didn't know. i thought i had a job to help my family, but the other girls told me things. later, the pimp sold my virginity for $300. srey: i lost my choice. i lost my voice. i lost myself. translator: i was worth nothing to them but money. some nights, i was sent out with one or two customers. some nights, he kept me in, where i saw 10, 20 customers.

when i didn't want to have sex, they beat me. sometimes they electrocuted me. i could have ran, but i was afraid, and my mother had made a contract. i am a good daughter. i do not want to hurt my mother. then there was a man, a foreigner. he took me in his car to the forest. he was drunk, and he did things to me that hurt badly. then one night i was taken to a hotel to see another customer, but it was the police and a nongovernment organization. i was very afraid. i thought they will make me work more, but instead, they took me to a shelter. i was safe. i could not leave, but no one could hurt me there. srey: and then i found out

i have hiv. one of the men, he give it to me. translator: for many, especially in cambodia, hiv means death. but for me, i am lucky. at the center, i have a second father and a second mother. james, he made sure i have healthcare and anti-retroviral drugs. he gave me a chance at life. siah held my hand and showed me how to live again. she took me to the pagoda and told me the stories of buddha. she told me the stories of the time of pol pot and the khmer rouge, when she worked the rice fields for 18 hours every day and many died. she showed me how to forgive and how to love, first myself

and then others. i live with other girls who have stories just like me. i know the other girls are afraid. they are angry. i know they feel that there is only one thing left for them, and i know late at night, they hurt just like i did. but like tci gave to me, so will i give back to them. i want to help the others, to protect them from the pimps and the brothels. srey: i am srey neth. i am a survivor. it has been five years, but i have found my home. i have found my voice and i am finding myself. [woman singing in foreign language]

rangina hamidi: trying to do business in a war zone brings challenges beyond anybody's imagination. things like basic infrastructure, electricity, transportation. we have a country and a government that is still not a working government, so trying to do business in this region is probably one of the hardest things to imagine. but yet, nothing's impossible, so everything can go forward.

man: rangina hamidi was born in kandahar, but when the soviets invaded afghanistan, her family fled the country, eventually landing in northern virginia, where she grew up and was educated. after the events of 9/11/2001, she returned to afghanistan with a mission to find ways to economically empower the women of her native country. she is the founder of kandahar treasure, an enterprise employing over 450 women who embroider garments and housewares for the domestic and international market. rangina: i came here as a nonprofit worker, and the bureaucracies, the politics, the lack of a real vision forward really disappointed me. and so i thought that the alternative to this mess was business, because business offered sustainability and business gives an opportunity for people to rebuild their own lives with their own hands. i saw my country in the past 30 years of war, we are constantly waiting to be spoonfed by the world. so my answer to this

dissatisfaction was start a business that i can own, but with a sustainable model, i know that in the future we can stand on our own two feet and not depend on the world to provide for us. i prefer business over charity because doing business gives me integrity. kandahar treasure respects that women in kandahar live in a very strict, traditional, conservative society. almost all of the women that we work with in our business don't have the permission to leave their home to work. we decided that we would go to their homes rather than ask them to come to a production site. the women embroider. it's a very old embroidery skill that women in kandahar are specifically known throughout the country. before kandahar treasure, this embroidery never really was introduced to the world as a possible product for market. so by recognizing this incredible fine skill that the women had, kandahar treasure used the opportunity to provide a working opportunity for the women at home. kandahar treasure empowers women.

when a woman earns, it gives her power beyond our understanding and imagination. women are always a liability here. their food, their clothing, their health, every aspect of their life has to be taken care of by a man figure in the household. and so now, with women having the ability to earn money, at home even, they now have an opportunity to become an asset to the family. indirectly, we're also changing the social dynamics of the society, and that is an important step to changing women's social reality in the country that we work. one cultural benefit to women in kandahar is that it is beneath the man to ask for monetary assistance from a woman. a man will not ask a woman for money because it will bring down his manhood. women, by the mere fact that they now have money in their hand, are making decisions. they're now earning side-by-side with their men, and that in itself improves self-esteem, because she now knows that she's worth something. and the mothers are now able to negotiate with the father, who

wants to marry the girls off at an early age. the mother basically is buying time for her daughters to not get married early because she's now bringing income, and the father agrees. so this is one very important example of how the social, as well as the economical change is happening. we have over 450 women who are working with kandahar treasure. an average afghan family consists of about seven to eight people. if you do the math, i would say that at least 3,000 to 4,000 people are benefiting from kandahar treasure. i would never have considered these women as victims, because they're changing not only their lives, but their societies and the future of their children. these women are not victims. as a woman, as an afghan woman, i have come to believe that the future of afghanistan depends on its women. i cannot count on the men who have murdered, who have killed, who have destroyed to rebuild my country. women, on the other hand, because we have not been involved in the destruction,

i think we're a natural alternative to giving afghanistan a new image, a new face, and a new future. i would like the world to know that women as stakeholders of their country and their society and their families are better advocates for peace and stability in their nation. by being involved in businesses that have integrity, i know and i believe that women can change the future of afghanistan. narrator: don't go away. when we return, give a girl a bicycle and she gets an education. and see the grand prize winner of the "viewchange" film contest. man: like what you saw? then visit viewchange.org, linktv's brand-new multimedia website. watch over 200 stories about new solutions to the developing world's biggest challenges, get involved with the issues, share the stories with friends,

and help change the world. all at viewchange.org. [bharati]

armene modi: for about a couple of years, we only focused on adult women and literacy for them. and i noticed many of the girls who came to the class were very, very young girls with mangalsutra, which is a gold and black beaded necklace around their necks, which in india is a symbol of matrimony. and they had babies on their hips, and i started to ask what's going on and why are such young girls married off

already? modi: in many villages, there were only schools to the seventh grade. there were no high schools, so we worked in 10 villages at that point in time, and there were only three high schools. so then i asked, you know, i asked the parents, the mothers, well, what happens to the boys? you know, how do you send the boys to school? and they said, well, we give them bicycles. and i said, well, what about the girls? and they said, oh, no. it's a waste of money to give a bicycle to a girl. she's going to turn around

and get married. and there's a famous indian saying: why water a plant that's going to grow in a neighbor's garden? so i thought, my god, if it's only a bicycle that's keeping girls from going to school, let's go ahead and, you know, give it to them. [bharati]

[bharati's mother] [bharati]

narrator: and now, the grand prize winner of the "viewchange" film contest, aaron kisner's "final voices: kakenya." [child singing] kakenya ntaiya: i was engaged to be married when i was five years old. my parents arranged it. in my community, when a girl is old enough to walk, she's taught how to sweep the house, how to collect water from the river, and how to cook for the family.

a girl is trained to become a mother and a boy is trained to become a warrior. my mother's life was very hard. i knew that i wanted something different. if my chores were done, i could go to school. every child, it doesn't matter where they are, every child has a dream. i dreamed of becoming a teacher because teachers looked nice. teachers didn't have to work on the farm. when a girl becomes 12 or 13 years old, there is a ceremony. we are told that this ceremony will make you a woman, and once you're a woman, you can get married. we're not supposed to cry. i knew that if i were married, i could no longer go to school. i would not become a teacher. so i went to my father. i asked him not to force me to be married. i agreed to go through the ceremony if he promised to delay my marriage, if he

allowed me to finish school. he agreed and we made a deal. when i finished high school, i had to make another deal. my father was sick, so according to our custom, all the men his age were now my fathers. there is a tradition among my people that someone who comes to you before the sunrise will bring good news, and you must not tell them no. so i went to them one by one. when all the elders agreed, the whole village came together and combined their money. for the first time ever, a girl from our village would go to college. today i am finishing my phd. i did get married, but it was to a man that i chose. my dream of becoming a teacher has grown. i have built the first primary school for girls in my village, a place where girls can be free, a place where they can dream,

a place that lets them know that their dreams are possible. i am kakenya ntaiya. this is my vital voice. now raise yours. [children singing] man: like what you saw? then visit viewchange.org, linktv's brand-new multimedia website. watch over 200 stories about new solutions to the developing world's biggest challenges, get involved with the issues, share the stories with friends, and help change the world. all at viewchange.org. ñ?ñ?ñ?ñ?ñf

>> you are watching original video by truthdig.com. for more information and resources, visit us on the web at www.truthdig.com. [cheering and applause] >> thank you. thank you, um, bob, slade, kpfk, uh, and all the other people who made this possible.