Cambodia School in Angkor Wat
In February 2010 I visited Angkor Wat (Cambodia) to get an inside look of the numerous non profit organization based there. I was quite amazed by all the international efforts and initiatives that are giving a helping hand making a big difference in the lives of thousands of cambodians. It was really inspiring and encouraging to realize that the way I used to look at big organizations changed by the time I got to knew how they started and operated. It ranked from big well recognized international organizations to private personal enterprises that started from the simple idea that a difference had to be made.
We started at a small community school inside the Angkor Wat complex and we were allowed to attend one of their Khmer language class. We could feel how our presence made the kids very excited. The teacher was very kind to interrupt the class to explain us the difficulties that schools like theirs had to retrieve funds from the local government and the historical problems behind it.
Cambodia’s education system holds a very important place in the country’s plans for integrating itself into the regional and international economies and for reducing the poverty of its people. The Cambodian government, and the many international and nongovernmental organizations that provide it with development assistance, regard education as the key to developing the human resources and skills that will allow Cambodia to take its place in these economies. The country’s education system, once the envy of many countries in Southeast Asia, was almost totally destroyed during the 1970s, and it has had to contend with the legacy of this destruction in the years since
Regardless of the fact that they have been striving with the problem for many years, the joy at class, the aim to learn and the hope in their eyes caught our attention. We left the school that morning with a bitter taste in the heart but decided to leave a small print in their hearts and help them with their chalkboards and books expenses of the year. Will it make a difference? A small one for sure, but that was not a solution. Educational problems are a real and severe handicap for any countries future and need to be addres
After spending several days in Siem Reap, we visited Handicap International at its facilities to learn more about their work and vision.
Handicap International is an international organisation specialised in the field of disability. Non-governmental, non-religious, non-political and non-profit making, it works alongside people with disabilities, whatever the context, offering them assistance and supporting them in their efforts to become self-reliant. Since its creation, the organisation has set up programmes in approximately 60 countries and intervened in many emergency situations. It has a network of eight national associations (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA) which provide human and financial resources, manage projects and raise awareness of Handicap International’s actions and campaigns.
Supporting and advocating for reliable, well stablished, transparent organizations was the safest and more responsible way to make a difference in Cambodia. By volunteering and helping these organizations, we will create the needed pillars to march towards a brighter future. It will avoid short term patches that will meet dead points at some stage, leaving behind the hopes of the people that once believed in them.
So I asked myself again if one person could make a difference then. The answer was and is still the same to me. Is was and was never about whether we can or not, is about trying our best to make that difference. Not to find our responsibility and place in this messy world but to make ourselves the way we think can contribute to a better world.
