From Killing Fields to Living Fields

Cambodia...

• A small country in Southeast Asia, area 181,035 km2, population approximately 13.5 million.


• One of the poorest countries in Asia.


• Ravaged by decades of civil war.


• A quarter of the population was wiped out in the 1970s as a result of the policies of an extreme communist regime.


• Origin of the term 'killing fields', where innocent men, women and children were beaten to death.

Many countries went through tragic upheavals in the latter part of the 20th century, but the story of Cambodia must rank among the most harrowing:

• A country with no inhabited towns, no personal possessions, no money, no schools, no health care, no religion, no trust, no hope.


• A country where enemies of 'the organisation' were betrayed and exterminated, where parents witnessed their babies being battered to death, where the condemned had to dig their own graves.


• A country where at least 1.7 million people died in four years as a result of starvation, disease and execution.

Communities...

Today, the world has largely forgotten Cambodia's traumatic past. Yet the country still suffers:

• 36% of the people live below the poverty line on less than 50 cents a day.


• 1.5 million children aged 14 and under have to work.


• Violent crime is commonplace.

The concept of community was lost during Cambodia's tragic upheaval in the 1970s and the effects are still felt today:

• Betrayal, often by friends or relatives and even by children, has left many unable to trust.


• Former, highly held values, such as the responsibility of grown-up children to care for elderly parents, have been slow to be recovered.


• Religious beliefs were repressed, believers persecuted or executed, and places of worship destroyed or desecrated by a brutal communist regime.


• Poverty and the desperate need to survive have fuelled corruption.


• The gap between rich and poor is widening rapidly.

Out of Crisis...

Crisis: an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty.

Cambodia's recovery from the effects of war, genocide and the virtual elimination of its skilled workforce has been slow and beset by setbacks:

• For more than a decade Cambodia was refused development assistance by western governments.


• Nearly 20 years of insurgence soaked up scarce resources and hindered recovery.


• Inconclusive election results, political instability and an under-resourced civil service have held back development.


• The rural poor have suffered as a result of floods, drought and deforestation.


• Cambodia is not expected to be clear of landmines until at least 2020.

Our main focus is education through two projects:

1. Sponsorship of children at school and adults at college


2. Our Dump Kids project

Our sponsorship programme enables Cambodian children to study at schools offering a higher standard of education than that which is available in the public school system. We also sponsor young (and not so young) adults to take college and university courses up to master's degree level.

Our Dump Kids project helps children who used to scavenge on a rubbish dump to go to school and receive a nutritious lunch each school day. See our Dump Kids Squidoo Lens for more information.