Gemma ran away from home when she was 13 because she was being sexually abused by an uncle. Through a friend, she was promised a job."I didn't know the work would be in a bar. Some of the customers would look for sex but I didn't go with them."
The quiet, diminutive 19-year-old worked for a number of months in the bar-cum-brothel in the Philippines before being approached by "scouts" working for Father Shay Cullen's PREDA (People's Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistance Foundation).
She says she was nervous going to the local McDonald's with them where she later met Father Cullen, but says now it was the most important "lucky thing" in her life.
She has been with PREDA since then, receiving counselling, therapy and an education.
PREDA was founded by the Irish Columban priest in 1974 in Olongapo City, in response to the activities of US navy personnel based there during the Vietnam War.
"It all happened by accident. I was mistaken for a US navy man and I was offered an 11-year-old for sex. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it," says Father Cullen.
Since then he and others working with him have rescued thousands of children from the child-sex industry which continues to thrive in the Philippines.
The foundation, as well as providing therapy, counselling and support for victims of sexual exploitation, runs a theatre group, which is in Ireland at present. A group of young women, themselves survivors of abuse, will bring their play, described by Father Cullen as "emotionally demanding", to four centres between this evening and next Wednesday.
Gemma portrays the lead character, Celina, in the play, Once There Was A Dream, based on her own life experience.
"These young people are playing their own lives on stage," says Father Cullen. Theatre is a potent way for young victims of sexual exploitation to own what has happened to them, he says.
"It connects to the general recovery because it's an important means of emotional release. They can say it and cry and go through it all again, but with encouragement and support."
Once There Was A Dream will be performed at Liberty Hall, Dublin, tonight at 5 p.m.; Landmark Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon on Monday; Model Arts Niland Centre,
