Following the Vietnam war, and in an effort to disrupt the Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge, the US forces and Republic of Vietnam bombed Cambodia and then invaded. Thousands of people were killed between 1969 and 1973. This drove many peasants to join the Khmer Rogue, a resistance movement that was led by Pol Pot until the mid 1990s. The regime changed the name of the country to Kampuchea and were heavily backed by China. The Khmer Rogue immediately evacuated the cities and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country’s agriculture, discarded Western medicine, destroyed temples, libraries; anything considered Western. The forced labour farms became ‘The Killing Fields’. Over two million Cambodians died from executions, overwork, starvation, torture and disease. Because of the large number of deaths, and because ethnic groups and religious minorities were targeted, the deaths during the rule of the Khmer Rouge are considered a genocide as defined under the UN Convention of 1948. Pol Pot died in 1998 before he could be tried.

In 1989 my Mum qualified as a psychiatric nurse. Her first few years working in the community were spent with Cambodian refugees. Known as ‘The Boat People’ most had fled the country during the reign of the Khmer Rogue and had suffered rape and other forms of torture. They had lost loved ones and endured horrific experiences and yet somehow made their way to New Zealand in search of a better life. Mum worked with their self-started community in Dunedin, who were dealing with high instances of post-traumatic stress, depression, deep anger and trying to cope a lifetime away from their South East Asian home. She talked about ‘her Cambodian ladies’ with such admiration and pride; I cannot even imagine the stories Mum would have heard.

A few months ago, Science Guy and I walked into a house in Chiswick and before we had got all the way down the hall, I knew we were going to live there. The owners (Dom and Ben) and their family, have gone to live in Cambodia where their daughter is from, to work hands-on with the charity they helped to establish. The Cambodian Children’s Charity (CamKids) work in the Kampong Speu region where they have built medical centres, organised a doctor service to outlying villages. They constructed and now fund the ongoing costs of a school attached to the Kais Village Orphanage, as well CamKids was instrumental in contracting the CRDT – The Cambodian Rural Development Team – to establish a working farm at the orphanage. CamKids donated over $21,000 to the project in the first year and when the CRDT left in 2008 there were chickens, pigs, fruit and vegetables. They’ve installed a bio digester, a means of harnessing the methane gas from the cow and pig manure for cooking. The bio digester has cut the cost of gas for cooking by half. Using local materials and labour, they are helping to build the local economy in a community still picking up the pieces thirty years after the reign of the Khmer Rogue ended.

And in an attempt to raise funds, Dom and Ben are taking on the Angkor Wat challenge; an 80km bike ride followed by a half marathon. The kids are even running 3km each! This Christmas if you have a few spare pounds, dollars, peso’s or euro’s: please consider donating to a fantastic charity in the hands of some pretty awesome people.

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