IBT has an exciting new project. We are sponsoring a Cambodian educational program and encourage you to support this worthwhile project. The community based Self-help community Centre (SHCC) www.thislifecambodia.org. Click on website for further information.
During her recent visit to Siem Reap Cambodia volunteering at an orphange, Wendy met a 24 year old Tuk Tuk driver, Chourn Sambath, from the Puok District, Siem Reap. This amazing man was using his own money and hard physical work to build a classroom to teach young kids in his local village. The decision was simple. IBT is now proud to announce a $1,000 donation to the new building and ongoing support to this worthwhile community based program - Self help Community Centre (SHCC). This is grass roots education with real impact for both children and the village community as a whole. In addition IBT is sponsoring Sambath to obtain his teaching qualification at a Teacher Training College in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia has a population of approx 14 million. It is a developing country with a sad and a brutal history. USA bombing raids in the early 1970s estimate approx 2 million Cambodians were made refugees. The Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, they immediately evacuated the cities and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects - justified by an extreme view of establishing an Utopian Agrian society. Estimates vary as to how many people were killed during this reign, ranging from 1 – 3 million. The brutality of the 1970 and 1980’s led to the complete destruction of cultural, economic, social and political life in Cambodia – it is only in recent years that reconstruction efforts have begun and some political stability has finally returned to Cambodia.
Organisations such as SHCC direct money raised to school and community groups, directing efforts towards the rebuilding of infrastructure, housing, health and education in Cambodia.
“The enemies of the state on the Khmer Rouge's "death list" during Pol Pot's four-year reign of terror were "the intellectuals, the doctors, the lawyers, the monks, the teachers and the civil servants . . . students . . . former celebrities, the poets . . . the rebellious, the kindhearted, the brave, the clever, the individualists, the people who wore glasses.''
- Teeda Butt Mam, Cambodian refugee
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