Cambodian Victim of Brutal Attack Gets New Hand from Manchester Company

MANCHESTER, N.H. —A Cambodian woman who was the victim of brutal assaults is now getting a new hand from a Manchester company and vowing to help other women who have been victimized.

She goes by the name Nora to protect her safety. She said she was 16 when she was kidnapped and raped by a powerful man in her Cambodian village. She said he told her that, if her family pressed charges, he would kill them all.

“I was really afraid, because I saw that he could do whatever he wanted and he had power and, if he wanted to kill them, he could,” she said.

For six years, Nora said, she was sexually assaulted by the man until the day she stopped answering his phone calls. He then tried to kill her.

“He’s hacking at my hair and my head, and he grabs me by the hair and he cut me on my arm,” she said. “He got me on the back of my head. Then he took my by the hair and he put my head to the ground. He put his foot on my arm and started to cut my hand off.”

Nora said she played dead until the man left. She said she then called for help and eventually made it to a hospital and connected with an international group that helps victims of sex trafficking and slavery. That group was able to get her to a safe house.

Nora is now in Manchester at Next Step Bionics and Prosthetics getting fitted for a new hand.

“It’s a very humbling experience,” said Matthew Albuquerque, of Next Step. “We feel really good about being able to do something for her, given the horrific story that poor girl has gone through.”

Nora said she wants to use her new hand to help the other girls in her safe house do their hair and makeup.

“I want to see them and just tell them, ‘Thank you so much,'” Nora said. “I just don’t have anything else to give but ‘thank you,’ but I wish I could give them a piece of what’s in my heart.”

Nora said she will soon return to the safe house in Cambodia with her new hand and a new life ahead of her.