| Making Halos, Not War | Tuol Sleng Museum, Phnom Penh | |
Cambodia is burdened with a legacy of internal upheaval - namely, the killngs and suppression of the Pol Pot regime in the 1970s, causing untold destruction of the nation's human capital - and international conflict, leaving perhaps millions of unexploded munitions that continue to kill and maim civilians. Cambodia has only recently begun the process of bringing those responsible for the killing fields to justice (it is estimated that 1.7 million Cambodians died during Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime). In the meantime, Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world with limited resources and a poor health record: medical care is unaffordable for the majority of people, and the HIV/Aids virus continues to spread, despite the work of health campaigns. Cambodia continues to rely heavily on foreign aid, which often ends up in the pockets of government officials through endemic corruption. This is why we want to set up our own programme in Cambodia: to ensure that money will be spent directly on children. We want to help teachers give children a good start in life, by teaching them valuable skills that will help them grow, learn and develop. We want to help children develop the potential to become adults who can make a contribution to their community and country: to lift Cambodia out of the shadows it has suffered under for so long. |
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| A Rich History | Temples at Angkor Wat, West Cambodia | |
| Phnom Penh was once called the 'Pearl of Asia'. Its French colonial past, age-old skirmishes with Vietnam and custody battle with the Thais over the magnificent Angkor Wat, has shaped a diverse and colourful country. Cambodia's history now makes it a major tourist draw, bringing in much-needed money into the developing country.
The golden age of Khmer civilization was the period from the ninth to the thirteenth century, when Kampuchea, or Cambodia, ruled large territories from the capital in the region of Angkor in western Cambodia. The fifteenth to the ninteenth century was a period of decline and territorial loss. In 1863, King Norodom signed an agreement with the French to establish a protectorate over his kingdom. The country gradually came under French colonial domination until King Sihanouk asserted Cambodia's independence in 1953. Pol Pot's Communist Party of Kampuchea came into power in 1975, after years of civil war. The new government sought to completely restructure Cambodian society. Remnants of the old society were abolished, religion was suppressed and agriculture was collectivised. Life in 'Democratic Kampuchea' was strict and brutal: hundreds of thousands died of starvation and disease. Vietnamese forces launched a full invasion of Cambodia in 1979, capturing Phnom Penh and driving Kampuchea's army westward. Today, Cambodia is relatively stable. However, political violence continues to be a problem. For more information on Cambodia's history and current affairs, look at the BBC or Wikipedia websites . |
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| A Watery Country | Phnom Penh on the Mekong River | |
is a country in Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand. Much of the country's geography consists of rolling plains, but the large, almost centrally located, Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and the Mekong River, which traverses the country from north to south, are dominant features. Cambodia lies within the tropics; its southernmost points are only slightly more than 10° above the equator. Roughly square in shape, the country is bounded on the north by Thailand and Laos, on the east and southeast by Vietnam, and on the west by the Gulf of Thailand and Thailand itself. The climate is monsoonal and has marked wet and dry seasons of relatively equal length. Both temperature and humidity are generally high throughout the year. Forest covers about two-thirds of the country, but it has been somewhat degraded in the more readily accessible areas by burning (a method called slash-and-burn agriculture), and shifting agriculture. |
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