3 QUESTIONS: Helping Cambodian children is Hendrie's priority

Cambodian children surround Dr. Nancy Hendrie, founder of The Sharing Foundation, during a visit to the country. (Courtesy photo)

Feb 18, 2010
By Patrick Ball/Staff Writer
Concord Journal (USA)

Concord — As a pediatrician at Emerson Hospital, Dr. Nancy Hendrie opened her office to kids from Concord and the surrounding communities. As founder and president of The Sharing Foundation for the past 13 years, Hendrie has “opened up a whole new life” for the children of illiterate farmers and fishermen in Cambodia.

On Feb. 27, Room at the Table will sponsor a fundraising event to benefit The Sharing Foundation of Concord from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pilgrim Congregational Church UCC, 55 Coolidge Ave., Lexington.

You’ve said education “opens up a whole new life” for the kids you work with in Cambodia.

Our motto of the foundation is “Helping to Care for Cambodia’s Children,” and originally we meant this in kind of a medical sense, because there are so many medical needs and the medical care in Cambodia is abysmal, but it’s become very much involved with education. We’ve been there 13 years; we have five schools and children in school from pre-school to college. The reality is that in a developing country education is the clue, because if you can get educated, get a skill and surpass your parents you have a chance for a bright future, to support your family and yourself, but also to better the conditions in the country. … We had our first eight college graduates in the summer, and every one of them got jobs in a country that has a 22 percent unemployment rate, and they fire up the oncoming high school kids and even grade school kids. We just started this little computer program for second-, third- and fourth-graders and boy, they just took to it like ducks to water. They’re thrilled. Education in Cambodia is the biggest thrill a child can have.

How did you become involved in this kind of work over in Cambodia?

I got into it because I’ve always been interested in children. I was a pediatrician in Concord for a long time, and made a lot of trips on behalf of children through an adoption agency in Waltham. When I got to Cambodia, I realized that ‘Whoa, this was one of the poorest countries in the world, … and it wasn’t the few children who were being adopted to the U.S. that really mattered, it was the zillions of children growing up in the country without medical care, education, just fundamental things, immunizations, clean water. So there was work to be done and it didn’t take rocket science to figure out what to do. It’s just been a fantastic opportunity, and as you begin to see kids go through the schooling process and develop and become teachers themselves, it’s a real thrill.

What can you say about how far The Sharing Foundation has come over these past 13 years?

It’s amazing. I never would have pictured, if you’d asked 10 years ago where do you expect to be in 10 years, I would never have imagined that we’d have 16 projects that involve about 1,500 kids a day, including our five schools, an orphanage with 75 kids in it, half of whom have HIV or congenital anomalies or some sort of real medical disability. … One of the things that pleases me every time is seeing Sopheak who’s now 9 1/2 years old and one of our oldest HIV kids, he’s out there playing soccer with everyone else, healthy as anything. We get our antiretrovirals from India, and our kids are tested every three months. They maintain their good health. It’s not true that only American pharmaceuticals will keep you alive, despite what the politicians tell us. Seriously, it’s amazing.