Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News (Pennsylvania, USA)
For Vandy and Chhunly Oum, their Cambodian homeland is still filled with memories of pain and suffering.
It was the site of unspeakable horror, tragic loss and unimaginable sorrow.
But, despite all of that, the Lebanon couple has decided it’s time to go back — not for themselves, but for the millions of desperate people still living there. They will join Dr. Albert Alley next month when he leads a 13-person team of doctors, technicians and volunteers to the South Asian country on a mission to provide much needed eye care to indigent people.
For Alley, this trip will be his 55th through the organization World Blindness Outreach. Although the ophthalmologist, who has a practice in North Cornwall Township, has traveled to more than 20 countries with WBO since 1990, this will be his first visit to Cambodia. It won’t be the first for the Oums.
Both Vandy and Chhunly were born and raised in Cambodia. When they were teenagers, a civil war erupted, pitting communist revolutionaries against the established government. By the time he reached his 20s, Vandy found himself in the middle of the fighting.
“I was in college and, because of the war, my parents ran out of money,” he recalled. “So I joined the military.”
In 1975, at the age of 26, Vandy was stationed on a ship patrolling the waters between Cambodia and Thailand when word came across the radio that the communists had taken over. There was only one thing for Vandy and his shipmates to do.
“When the communists took over we just took off,” Vandy said. “We couldn’t go back to land. If we go back, they’re going to kill us.”
As his ship fled to the Philippines, communist soldiers soon found Vandy’s family. Learning that they were related to a soldier, the family was killed.
“I had eight brothers and sisters,” Vandy said. “They took them out and killed them all; they killed my parents.”
Out of a family of 11, only Vandy, two younger brothers and one younger sister escaped. One of Vandy’s brothers fled to Vietnam. The other brother and sister would be smuggled out of the country to the U.S. by Vandy after the war ended.
Unable to return to Cambodia, Vandy soon found himself headed to the U.S. He ended up at a refugee camp at Fort Indiantown Gap and shortly after was sponsored by Church of the Good Shepherd and moved in with a member of the church.
While Vandy was able to escape at the beginning of the communist takeover, Chhunly was not so lucky. Soldiers swept through her town, forcing everyone out of their homes.
“You couldn’t stop to pack or anything,” she said. “If you stopped, they’d kill you. If you talked or cried or didn’t do what they said, they’d kill you.”
In all of the confusion, the 21-year-old Chhunly was separated from her family, most of whom she would never see alive again. As for herself, she, like thousands of other Cambodians, was forced to roam the countryside doing the communists’ bidding.
“If they needed a road built, they marched you there, and you built it. If they needed a bridge, they made us build it. We didn’t have a choice, they would come get you anytime, in the middle of the night, and make us work,” Chhunly said. “You don’t know where you are or when it’s going to end. You don’t know day from night. I don’t know how I survived, I’m amazed by that.”
Chhunly said she awoke each morning expecting to die — just like the hundreds of people around her starving to death or being murdered daily. But, somehow, she survived.
When the war ended, Chhunly found herself in a refugee camp in Thailand. But, when the U.S. came to take the refugees to America, she was among the unlucky ones left behind.
“They said they had met their limit, that they couldn’t take anymore,” she said. “There were still thousands of us there. Thailand said they couldn’t be responsible for us, so they pushed us back up into the mountains, back into Cambodia.”
Chhunly waited in the mountains, surrounded by people dying of starvation and an assortment of diseases, until she was rescued in 1979. She, like Vandy, was sponsored by a church in Lebanon County — this time Lebanon Valley Bible Church — and soon found herself living with a local family.
It was after both Vandy and Chhunly found their ways here that they met — born in the same country but brought together thousands of miles away.
“I was part of the older refugee population,” Vandy explained. “When the new refugees would come, we would get together so they could tell us what was going on.”
Vandy and Chhunly soon married and started a family. They have two daughters, Sulyn and Kelley, and a son, Kenneth. After working as Hershey Foods, where Chhunly still is employed, Vandy eventually went into business for himself. He owns a convenience store at the corner of routes 72 and 419 in West Cornwall Township, as well as a store in Camp Hill and a shopping center in Maryland.
With the heartache that Cambodia has caused them, it would be easy to understand if the Oums never wanted to return. But, out of the goodness of their hearts, they will. They know what it is like to suffer and to need help. And, blindness is something that hits close to home for Vandy.
“When I was young in Cambodia, my sister had cataracts,” he explained. “My family was poor and could not do anything about it. We had to see it grow every day until her eyes were white, and she was blind. We could not afford the surgery.”
Alley and his team want to make sure that other families don’t have to face that same fate.
“I sat down and talked with the Oums, and they had a real passion about helping the indigent people of Cambodia,” Alley said. “They inspired us to want to go there.”
The team will station itself in a government hospital for the poor and perform about 200 free operations. The group will take with it all of the supplies and equipment needed for the surgeries. Vandy, Chhunly and their daughter, Sulyn, will accompany the doctors as translators and trip coordinators.
While Vandy and Chhunly said they are excited to help their countrymen, they’re not too sure how they will handle their return to Cambodia.
“He’ll be fine. He got out before it got too bad,” Chhunly said, looking at her husband. “I don’t want it yet. I’m not ready to go.”
“She has had enough suffering in Cambodia,” Vandy said. “She doesn’t want to go back. She thought she was going to die every day. But there is a need; that’s why we’re doing it.”
Alley added, “I’m sure it’s going to be hard. It’s obviously going to be a very emotional experience for all of us.”
DaveMekeel@LDNews.com
It was the site of unspeakable horror, tragic loss and unimaginable sorrow.
But, despite all of that, the Lebanon couple has decided it’s time to go back — not for themselves, but for the millions of desperate people still living there. They will join Dr. Albert Alley next month when he leads a 13-person team of doctors, technicians and volunteers to the South Asian country on a mission to provide much needed eye care to indigent people.
For Alley, this trip will be his 55th through the organization World Blindness Outreach. Although the ophthalmologist, who has a practice in North Cornwall Township, has traveled to more than 20 countries with WBO since 1990, this will be his first visit to Cambodia. It won’t be the first for the Oums.
Both Vandy and Chhunly were born and raised in Cambodia. When they were teenagers, a civil war erupted, pitting communist revolutionaries against the established government. By the time he reached his 20s, Vandy found himself in the middle of the fighting.
“I was in college and, because of the war, my parents ran out of money,” he recalled. “So I joined the military.”
In 1975, at the age of 26, Vandy was stationed on a ship patrolling the waters between Cambodia and Thailand when word came across the radio that the communists had taken over. There was only one thing for Vandy and his shipmates to do.
“When the communists took over we just took off,” Vandy said. “We couldn’t go back to land. If we go back, they’re going to kill us.”
As his ship fled to the Philippines, communist soldiers soon found Vandy’s family. Learning that they were related to a soldier, the family was killed.
“I had eight brothers and sisters,” Vandy said. “They took them out and killed them all; they killed my parents.”
Out of a family of 11, only Vandy, two younger brothers and one younger sister escaped. One of Vandy’s brothers fled to Vietnam. The other brother and sister would be smuggled out of the country to the U.S. by Vandy after the war ended.
Unable to return to Cambodia, Vandy soon found himself headed to the U.S. He ended up at a refugee camp at Fort Indiantown Gap and shortly after was sponsored by Church of the Good Shepherd and moved in with a member of the church.
While Vandy was able to escape at the beginning of the communist takeover, Chhunly was not so lucky. Soldiers swept through her town, forcing everyone out of their homes.
“You couldn’t stop to pack or anything,” she said. “If you stopped, they’d kill you. If you talked or cried or didn’t do what they said, they’d kill you.”
In all of the confusion, the 21-year-old Chhunly was separated from her family, most of whom she would never see alive again. As for herself, she, like thousands of other Cambodians, was forced to roam the countryside doing the communists’ bidding.
“If they needed a road built, they marched you there, and you built it. If they needed a bridge, they made us build it. We didn’t have a choice, they would come get you anytime, in the middle of the night, and make us work,” Chhunly said. “You don’t know where you are or when it’s going to end. You don’t know day from night. I don’t know how I survived, I’m amazed by that.”
Chhunly said she awoke each morning expecting to die — just like the hundreds of people around her starving to death or being murdered daily. But, somehow, she survived.
When the war ended, Chhunly found herself in a refugee camp in Thailand. But, when the U.S. came to take the refugees to America, she was among the unlucky ones left behind.
“They said they had met their limit, that they couldn’t take anymore,” she said. “There were still thousands of us there. Thailand said they couldn’t be responsible for us, so they pushed us back up into the mountains, back into Cambodia.”
Chhunly waited in the mountains, surrounded by people dying of starvation and an assortment of diseases, until she was rescued in 1979. She, like Vandy, was sponsored by a church in Lebanon County — this time Lebanon Valley Bible Church — and soon found herself living with a local family.
It was after both Vandy and Chhunly found their ways here that they met — born in the same country but brought together thousands of miles away.
“I was part of the older refugee population,” Vandy explained. “When the new refugees would come, we would get together so they could tell us what was going on.”
Vandy and Chhunly soon married and started a family. They have two daughters, Sulyn and Kelley, and a son, Kenneth. After working as Hershey Foods, where Chhunly still is employed, Vandy eventually went into business for himself. He owns a convenience store at the corner of routes 72 and 419 in West Cornwall Township, as well as a store in Camp Hill and a shopping center in Maryland.
With the heartache that Cambodia has caused them, it would be easy to understand if the Oums never wanted to return. But, out of the goodness of their hearts, they will. They know what it is like to suffer and to need help. And, blindness is something that hits close to home for Vandy.
“When I was young in Cambodia, my sister had cataracts,” he explained. “My family was poor and could not do anything about it. We had to see it grow every day until her eyes were white, and she was blind. We could not afford the surgery.”
Alley and his team want to make sure that other families don’t have to face that same fate.
“I sat down and talked with the Oums, and they had a real passion about helping the indigent people of Cambodia,” Alley said. “They inspired us to want to go there.”
The team will station itself in a government hospital for the poor and perform about 200 free operations. The group will take with it all of the supplies and equipment needed for the surgeries. Vandy, Chhunly and their daughter, Sulyn, will accompany the doctors as translators and trip coordinators.
While Vandy and Chhunly said they are excited to help their countrymen, they’re not too sure how they will handle their return to Cambodia.
“He’ll be fine. He got out before it got too bad,” Chhunly said, looking at her husband. “I don’t want it yet. I’m not ready to go.”
“She has had enough suffering in Cambodia,” Vandy said. “She doesn’t want to go back. She thought she was going to die every day. But there is a need; that’s why we’re doing it.”
Alley added, “I’m sure it’s going to be hard. It’s obviously going to be a very emotional experience for all of us.”
DaveMekeel@LDNews.com
1 comment:
Our thought and prayer are with you Pou & Bong Srey! God bless!
Your neighbor in the US
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