Brauer College student Kim Ferguson, 18, has a life-altering new perspective after her World Vision trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. (Picture: ANGELA MILNE)AMY MARSHALL
The Standard (Australia)
August 8, 2006
KIM Ferguson expected to be shocked by the poverty she would see when she went with World Vision to Cambodia and Vietnam, but she had no idea how much it would change her.
Seeing children living on rubbish dumps without clothes and watching her teachers have to turn down prostitution offers from women and children only skim the surface of her experience.
The Brauer College 18-year-old returned from the World Vision study tour early last month and found it such an eye-opener that she has changed her university plans and will instead look for international aid work next year.
``Year 12 is almost over and all of a sudden I don't know what I'm doing. I can't follow the normal path anymore,'' she said.
But rather than be saddened by the devastating poverty she saw, the warm-hearted teenager was uplifted and inspired.
``It sounds so cliched, but you realise it is possible to make a difference in the whole scheme of things if you can just change one life,'' she said.
``We went to a school in Cambodia run by a Filipino man who used to live in Australia. He pawned off his wedding ring to feed the village.
``In Cambodia it was so much better than Vietnam. In Vietnam it's still communist and they're just living with their devastation. But in Cambodia they're really trying to pick themselves up.''
Kim said she was ``blown away'' by the difference World Vision was making in the Third World communities she saw.
``Rather than give them money to buy things they'd give them pigs and then teach them about agriculture and so they farm the pigs and they make profit for the whole village,'' she said.
Seeing children living on rubbish dumps without clothes and watching her teachers have to turn down prostitution offers from women and children only skim the surface of her experience.
The Brauer College 18-year-old returned from the World Vision study tour early last month and found it such an eye-opener that she has changed her university plans and will instead look for international aid work next year.
``Year 12 is almost over and all of a sudden I don't know what I'm doing. I can't follow the normal path anymore,'' she said.
But rather than be saddened by the devastating poverty she saw, the warm-hearted teenager was uplifted and inspired.
``It sounds so cliched, but you realise it is possible to make a difference in the whole scheme of things if you can just change one life,'' she said.
``We went to a school in Cambodia run by a Filipino man who used to live in Australia. He pawned off his wedding ring to feed the village.
``In Cambodia it was so much better than Vietnam. In Vietnam it's still communist and they're just living with their devastation. But in Cambodia they're really trying to pick themselves up.''
Kim said she was ``blown away'' by the difference World Vision was making in the Third World communities she saw.
``Rather than give them money to buy things they'd give them pigs and then teach them about agriculture and so they farm the pigs and they make profit for the whole village,'' she said.
6 comments:
Ms. KIM FERGUSON came from a very prosperous country and she was shocked at the level of poverty in Cambodia. Now! The question is why do average Cambodian see such poverty as normal? The reason is very simple because all their life AH HUN SEN had been conditioning these poor uneducated Cambodian people to live like that and so it is normal to them! It take an outsider like Ms. KIM FERGUSON to notice and to make a change!
At some point in time, AH HUN SEN need to understand that these Cambodian people are not cows or buffaloes that can be taken advantage of all the time! AH HUN SEN had done enough to these poor Cambodian people and it time for a change! End this fucken misery now!
Yeh... you are right.
But how to end this misery.
Who will initiate it.
Every single Cambodian politician from the States or from Europe ends up in the same ugly pot.
Why only Ms. KIM FERGUSON experienced this. What happen to all the prosperious Cambodian refugees' teenagers who live in America? Did they send their spoil kids to see all the poverty in Cambodia? Why are we not like Jews, we don't go back to help.
Good for you Ms Kim. YES, you are right Mr anonymous. I totally agreed. I have a 19 year old rotten, spoil, obese,and do nothing kid. Although, she did finish high school and trouble free. So she got credits for this achievement. I have not so good-plan to buy her a ticket to send to Cambodia to live there for three months with her relative along with the monthly stipend $50 and without A/C. She has to use to 90-100 F or 40 degree C all day. I wonder how long she is going to pick up the phone and call me in the middle of the night, wanting to come back?
12:44AM
You can't compare Jewish people with Cambodian people! Many Jew live all over the world! They are richer and more educated than Cambodian people! With their intelligence and God on their side, the Jewish people were able to a create a nation in 1967!
NOw can Cambodian people create a nation? Of course not! Cambodia lost the Khmer Krom to the Viet in 1949 and the whole Cambodia to the Viet in 1979! Cambodia can't even maintain what they have! This is ridiculous! I feel ashame to be Cambodian sometime!
With the current corrupted government system under AH HUN SEN today had made it impossible to help Cambodia in anyway! Cambodian people don't have to lie to me. The minute any Cambodian people got off the airplane at Cambodian airport and corruption started right there! I have to pay to get my passport back even at the fucken Cambodian border! I am pissed as hell knowing that I come to Cambodia to spent my hard earn money and these corrupted Cambodian officials do this to me!
This is only a fraction of what I have to tell you! But if you are talking in the field of business and corruption is worst than this and I can't even put a number on it! Every Cambodian business people like me know that Cambodia need technology and the know how to compete in the real world and Cambodian people need a long term plan to see any benefit about 10-15years! Now try to explain this long term plan to corrupted Cambodian officials about what you are going to do! You know what these Cambodian corrupted will say money talk! Even if you have the fucken money to pay to one high corrupted officials but don't forget there are twenty more corrupted officials that need to be paid to cut the red tape and by then your 70 thousand dollars business plan go down the drain!ahahaha Hey man! Don't be fucken blame other Cambodian people for not wanting to help Cambodia.
In addition only a very few Cambodian people oversea are well off to do anything! I know a few Cambodian millionaire oversea but because of serious corruption in AH HUN SEN government and they rather adopt the attitude of wait and see first!
This I will tell you! No smart Cambodian business people would want to do business in Cambodia as long as AH HUN SEN still in power!
Who said Cambodian people are stupid? Not me!
One more greedy white woman wanting to jump on board the Aid Bandwagon.
One more Western piggie wanting to get her nose in the trough.
I'm sure the Western salary she'll be hoping to earn in Cambodia, the colonial lifestyle she'll be able to live, the air-con car ferrying her from her air-con BKK1 home to her air con office has not influenced her decison to 'help' the Khmer people by most probably sitting in an office and writing meaningless reports all day.
And after dining out in Phnom Penh's fanciest restaurants, sipping wine in Ruby's Bar and living the extremely comfortable life of a true 'agent of virtue,' she'll carefully adjust the halo on her head and send emails home telling her friends how much she is 'helping' the Khmers on her 'hardship posting'.
Meanwhile, the masses will continue to pick rice for less than a dollar a day, a few will amass millions in offshore bank accounts and life will go on.
KiR
www.khmer440.com
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