- From: The Australian
- July 16, 2011
Catherine Marshall skins pumpkin in a Cambodian village
IN the Cambodian village of Old Piek Snaing, the women hack away at a mountain of pumpkins, removing their skins with swift, deft blows.
I try to emulate them, but the skin comes away in one long ribbon, taking with it a chunk of precious pumpkin flesh.
A woman sitting on her haunches looks at me aghast, articulating her disbelief in rapid-fire Khmer. I gesture my apologies, and after a long, hushed moment, she responds with forgiveness.
A piece of pumpkin is invaluable in this village where the Australian foundation SeeBeyondBorders supports a nutrition scheme for 300 children.
In a stifling lean-to kitchen, village women and volunteers stir soup in cauldrons suspended over wood fires. Hygiene isn't a priority here: blunt knives are coated in mud from the pumpkin skins, implements are washed in basins of water that stew in the midday sun. But in the impoverished countryside of Cambodia, this initiative represents progress.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
For most of the volunteers, this is their day off. They are Australian teachers who've come here with SeeBeyondBorders to teach the teachers, running intensive educational workshops in Battambang and Siem Reap. It's quite something to take on an education system still rebuilding itself after crumbling during the brutal reign of Pol Pot in the 1970s, but this sharing of skills provides both moral and practical support for a new generation of teachers.
The founders of SeeBeyondBorders, Sydneysiders Ed and Kate Shuttleworth, believe change begins with education, but their foundation supports a range of complementary, established projects that nurture the growth of a new society.
These include health and nutrition schemes, construction and gardening projects, and entrepreneurial assistance for Cambodians disabled by landmines and cluster munitions.
The foundation's immersion trips offer participants the opportunity to share their skills and labour, whether teachers or not, and learn their own lessons from the Cambodians they encounter.
For those who prefer to help from the sidelines -- or wish to continue contributing once they are home -- SeeBeyondBorders facilitates corporate sponsorship, online fundraising and volunteering opportunities based in Australia.
Such support ensures the proliferation of educational opportunities in a society where high-school retention rates are worryingly low.
These have included the refurbishment of mini-schools that service remote, under-resourced communities, and the construction of a school building in Phnom Kpuah, a village where 77 students were being taught in a makeshift classroom beneath their teacher's house.
Back at Old Piek Snaing, lunch is being served. The older children feed the babies first, spooning vegetable soup into their mouths. I wonder with frustration why it's the NGOs and churches that always end up caring for the weak. But Shuttleworth is philosophical.
"We know people would rather spend money on themselves than share it with their neighbour," he says. "But we need to stand against that tide. The only thing any NGO or person has got at the end of the day is their own integrity."
seebeyondborders.org
I try to emulate them, but the skin comes away in one long ribbon, taking with it a chunk of precious pumpkin flesh.
A woman sitting on her haunches looks at me aghast, articulating her disbelief in rapid-fire Khmer. I gesture my apologies, and after a long, hushed moment, she responds with forgiveness.
A piece of pumpkin is invaluable in this village where the Australian foundation SeeBeyondBorders supports a nutrition scheme for 300 children.
In a stifling lean-to kitchen, village women and volunteers stir soup in cauldrons suspended over wood fires. Hygiene isn't a priority here: blunt knives are coated in mud from the pumpkin skins, implements are washed in basins of water that stew in the midday sun. But in the impoverished countryside of Cambodia, this initiative represents progress.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
For most of the volunteers, this is their day off. They are Australian teachers who've come here with SeeBeyondBorders to teach the teachers, running intensive educational workshops in Battambang and Siem Reap. It's quite something to take on an education system still rebuilding itself after crumbling during the brutal reign of Pol Pot in the 1970s, but this sharing of skills provides both moral and practical support for a new generation of teachers.
The founders of SeeBeyondBorders, Sydneysiders Ed and Kate Shuttleworth, believe change begins with education, but their foundation supports a range of complementary, established projects that nurture the growth of a new society.
These include health and nutrition schemes, construction and gardening projects, and entrepreneurial assistance for Cambodians disabled by landmines and cluster munitions.
The foundation's immersion trips offer participants the opportunity to share their skills and labour, whether teachers or not, and learn their own lessons from the Cambodians they encounter.
For those who prefer to help from the sidelines -- or wish to continue contributing once they are home -- SeeBeyondBorders facilitates corporate sponsorship, online fundraising and volunteering opportunities based in Australia.
Such support ensures the proliferation of educational opportunities in a society where high-school retention rates are worryingly low.
These have included the refurbishment of mini-schools that service remote, under-resourced communities, and the construction of a school building in Phnom Kpuah, a village where 77 students were being taught in a makeshift classroom beneath their teacher's house.
Back at Old Piek Snaing, lunch is being served. The older children feed the babies first, spooning vegetable soup into their mouths. I wonder with frustration why it's the NGOs and churches that always end up caring for the weak. But Shuttleworth is philosophical.
"We know people would rather spend money on themselves than share it with their neighbour," he says. "But we need to stand against that tide. The only thing any NGO or person has got at the end of the day is their own integrity."
seebeyondborders.org
No comments:
Post a Comment