Cambodia is a country located in the southeast of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, it shares borders with Vietnam to the east, Laos in the northeast, Thailand in west/northwest, and the Gulf of Thailand is in southwest. The area of  Cambodia is about¾ the size of Victoria. It has a population of about 13.4 million inhabitants. The capital city is Phnom Penh. Spoken languages are, predominantly (90%) Khmer. 

 

Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest economies with development being hindered by the loss of an estimated $2.5m or 25% of the then population at the time who were killed during the Pol Pot regime including the vast majority of the nation’s educated people. 

 

The Cambodian Genocide was the result of a social engineering project by the Khmer Rouge, attempting to create a classless agrarian society. The regime would ultimately collapse when the neighbouring Vietnam invaded, establishing an occupation that would last more than a decade.

 

The government of Cambodia is set up as a multi-party democracy under a constitutional monarchy.  The general consensus is that the government is corrupt. Elections are compromised so the result is a one party state. Hun Sen3 has been the Prime Minister since 1985.  Private newspapers have been shut down by the State.  

 

World of Difference Tours is a Rotary endorsed program started by DG Bronwyn Stephens. It combines tourism with cultural, volunteering and projects, and it has assisted over 14 Rotary clubs to undertake projects in Cambodia and later expanded to Laos. It also runs tours for secondary school students for cultural experience as well as hands-on projects.

 

World of Difference works closely with Rithy An, a local who is tour guide for many of the tours. Some of you will have heard Rithy speak at Conference. His story is incredibly moving having survived Pol Pot and being raised by monks in pagoda and when he is not looking after his own family & business he is working as the man on the ground with World of Difference. 

 

Whilst each tour is different, our tour was focused on re-visting past projects and also researching potential new projects. 

At Chress Village (Rithy’s village) we viewed water filters  & drilling for water and started to understand the importance of waster to these villagers and their quality of life.

 

We donated bikes to 2 schools Sreivbloker primary school in remote area 35km NE of Siem reap (& later in Laos near Luang Prabang) , we rode the last 10kms with the donated bikes with students to the school and watched the presentation of the bikes to the excited students.  In each of the school visits we interacted with the students, listened to reading, played word games, ball games, provided dental hygiene etc lessons.

 

The novice monks in Luang Prabang took the prize for having the best English & for being the cheekiest.

 

We visited many villages and sometimes got to ask questions via our guide and tried to understand their challenges. In a village in Laos occupied by Hmong people   We found the young daughters were not in school as they were selling handicrafts to tourists, so we are looking for a solution to this issue.

 

We also saw work from NGOs which perhaps and best of intentions but without maintenance the pumps etc had fallen into disrepair.

 

We also visited Krouser Thmey Deaf Blind School and played some games with the students and heard from the director about the challenges of the school and I am hoping to start a relationship with the school and Vision Australia and at very east Vision will assist with donation of surplus product.

 

Lastly, I am going to tell you about the hospital visit. Kampong Speu Referral Hospitalis the hospital that Mr Peter Lugg and fellow surgeon Dr Meng Sok are planning to build 3 operating rooms (a new wing).  Kampong Speu town is the capital of Kampong Speu Province.  It is situated 50 km south west of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It is about 2 hours drive from the capital. The centre of the town hosts a market, surrounded by bicycle shops, a dispensary and small restaurants. It is not a tourist town

 

The Kampong Speu Referral Hospitalwas originally built as a school, under Pol Pot regime it was converted to a hospital. It has 200 deliveries of babies per month and 90-120  basic operations per month. The proposal is for a new building consisting 3 operating rooms in total about 10m wide about 30m long to provide for more specialised surgery to service the needs of  the local community.  The site is on the old maternity ward, which has been demolished (2 years ago), only the footings remain. 

 

 

Approx. 20-30% patients in Phnom Penn are from Kampong Speu, many are in hospital as a result of road accidents on the busy main arterial road between Phnom Penn and Sihanoukville. The journey to Phnom Penn for surgery is long and many patients do not survive the journey.

For those that do, the families find it hard, Phnom Penn is expensive, they need to go there to look after their loved ones (provide food etc), they don’t have anywhere to live, the follow up of the patients after surgery is difficult to non existent  (due to the distance) and this reduces the quality of the outcome and leads to more poverty.

Rotary Hawthorn member Mr Peter Lugg and colleague Dr Meng Sok (with some help from their friends) are planning to build 3 operating rooms (a new wing) which will enable more specialised surgery to be be performed to better service the needs of  the local community including the road trauma victims.

 
Perhaps together we can make this happen and truly make a difference to the lives of the people of Kampong Speu in Cambodia?

 

 

Katrina finished her talk with two questions: "Would you like to go on a WOD tour?" and  "Can you spread the news to our local schools?"