A brief history of Cambodia

I can't remember exactly where I was when I decided to create a charity. If you have read my e-mails there shouldn't be any question of where I found the inspiration; Cambodia itself, with its many layers, is inspiration enough: I suppose a large part of why I found Cambodia so heartbreaking and why it affected me so much, is it's amazing history. Here is a very brief history of Cambodia to hopefully put the country in some kind of context.

In 1975 the reign of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge began. Pol Pot's army marched into Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, and declared that history would begin again in Cambodia. The first year of revolution was known as 'Year Zero' and all references to past history were banned and destroyed.

The Khmer Rouge marched everyone in the cities into the countryside to work up to 15 hours-a-day on the rice fields; children 10-years-old and up were expected to work. The stronger were trained as soldiers; children aged as young as ten. Religion and family relationships were banned and the smallest infringement of the rules resulted in execution.

The Khmer Rouge murdered all intellectuals. People who could speak a foreign language or who wore glasses were executed. A prospering middle class of doctors, politicians, military men and civil servants; the backbone of the country, were murdered, as were their entire families. As an example, there were around 1000 doctors before the revolution. 53 survived.

The Western world, fuelled by America's distracted fear of communism, stood by and let the atrocities happen. The Vietnamese invaded in December 1978 and quickly prevailed. Pol Pot escaped and did not die until 1998.

Although the Khmer Rouge were toppled in 1979, their legacy still lives on today. For years Cambodia has been in political and economic turmoil; their infrastructure was left in tatters by the war and they are still rebuilding. Disease is a big problem; there are several serious epidemics including Hepatitis, AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Dengue Fever. The healthcare systems is still in tatters as is the education system.

I met a girl in Cambodia who taught in a very rural school for two weeks. She told me the children had never seen a white person before, and that the English teachers could barely string together a sentence in English. This is only one example.

Cambodia is a country in need. Not just of aid but of responsible help. Cambaid is not just about throwing money at the problem; as well as the concerns of corruption that are unavoidable in such a poor country, the people do not want to rely on charity. They want to be self-sufficient; not only will this promote self-reliance but will promote a sense of self-worth that is so important.

I could ramble on about Cambodia for hour and hours. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

Thanks for reading.

Jon