Cambodia is a country with a long, proud history. At its height, the Angkor Empire once dominated much of Southeast Asia.
The photo above was taken at Angkor Wat at sunrise. Once the ancient capital of the Angkor Empire, the city went into decline in the 15th century. Today, the vast temple complex of Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage site—breathtaking in its scale and quiet beauty..
For centuries, the Khmer people and their government were caught between the rivalries of their neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia ultimately turned to the French in the 19th century for protection. In the 20th century, Cambodia was drawn into the Vietnam conflict. The US dropped an estimated 250,000 tons of bombs—though some estimates place the number far higher. This devastation destabilized the government and made possible the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
In just four short years, they killed 2 million people and destroyed the infrastructure and economy of Cambodia, leaving its people traumatized. The photo below shows the killing fields, one of 20,000 such sites all around the country. What followed was decades of fighting and civil war, leaving generations of people traumatized.
Imagine trying to rebuild when all the teachers, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and other educated people were purposely targeted for elimination. During my visit to Cambodia, I was profoundly struck by the ways quiet acts of philanthropy can make an enormous difference.
In the 1990s, a Vietnam War veteran named “Bud” Gibbons began working to revive and modernize an ancient Khmer tradition: silk production and weaving. Today, his Cambodian partner runs a workshop that has trained 10 local women to weave beautiful silk fabrics. They earn an income, support their families, and strengthen the entire village. The man in the photo on the left is spinning silk from the cocoons, and the woman on the right is weaving it into cloth.
We also visited a school in the rural village of Ang Chang Chas’s village, near Siem Reap. It was started by the Spitler Family Foundation. The school provides education in core subjects as well as English language and computer literacy. The school has more than 600 students, with half attending from 7am until 11am, and the other half from 1pm until 5pm. For this small, remote village far from the nearest school, the impact has been transformative. It was the vision of one man, a businessman from Phoenix, AZ who wanted to make a difference. The smiles on the faces of the two young girls certainly attest to that.
Our tour also took us to a restaurant called Haven. It was started by a Swiss couple who fell in love with Cambodia and wanted to do something to help. They set up a restaurant where they train chefs, sous-chefs, and other hopsitality workers, many of whom have disabilities. The food was delicious and it was deeply satisfying to know that so many people had been given the skills to get good jobs and be able to care for themselves. A new group of students are now learning those same skills.
On our last day in Cambodia, we visited the Cambodian Land Mine Museum and Relief Facility. It is a nonprofit founded by a young boy who was forced into the Khmer Rouge as a child soldier. Today, his nonprofit organization has trained teams to find and destroy the land mines. They have cleared over 9 million square meters of land and hundreds of minefields. Not so long ago, as many as 1000 people a week were injured or killed by unexploded bombs or landmines. Their goal is to clear Cambodia of all land mines by 2030. They want to replace minefields with schools.
Most Americans have little sense of the hardships that the Cambodian people have endured. And even if they do, many aren’t sure how to help. But change is possible. Supporting these organizations and foundations like these—quiet, committed, and human-scaled—can make a real difference. Each began with individuals who just wanted to help.
Thanks for tuning in,
Margaret
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