ABC Radio Australia
It carries the intials of one of the world's richest companies but the Big Heart Project is anything but.
It was created by a young couple from the Australian city of Melbourne, as a grass roots not for profit organisation with a partial focus on what's now known as "voluntourism" or volunteer vacations.
Two years on, the couple aided by locals and volunteers are caring for orphaned and abused children and are teaching English to more than 400 young Cambodians.
Presenter: Claudette Werden
Speaker: Adrian Trout, Big Heart Project; Cameron Sar, MyCambodiaTV; "Joshua", volunteer
WERDEN: It was two years of travelling in southeast Asia , that prompted Adrian Trout to, as he says, open his heart.
TROUT: It was from that experience of travelling and seeing a lot of suffering, just a very different take on the world to what I've been brought up with in Australia and reading a lot of books as well when I was travelling on things like sex slavery and a lot of the horrors that we often don't like to face up to and realising that this is reality for a lot of people and I didn't feel like I could walk away from that reality and go back into my bubble in Australia.
WERDEN: The Big Heart project is run from a modest house in a sleepy rural village in the southern province of Takeo. Cameron Sar, a Cambodian refugee who fled to Australia when he was 7, visited the project earlier this year.
SAR: It brings back memories, where I was born, all I can remember, my mum hold my hand, we ran across to Thailand border to refugee camp, and on the way there on the road, I see dead people everywhere, blood on the ground because there was war back then, Pol Pot Khmer Rouge.
WERDEN: Cameron says while there is no longer any war, the poverty in Cambodia remains but he believes the project is having a positive impact .
SAR: The kids can speak english and that's something I never seen especially at a local, really, a small town, it's the first time I've been to an NGO, an Australian NGO like this, these guys here are doing a good job because they got heart to help Cambodian people.
TROUT: Having a skill like english is going to massively aid them in their future, it means they're able to get a job in the city, as a translator, or go into hospitality, tourism.
FX......Kids singing/talking
WERDEN: Another volunteer Joshua says he's grateful for the experience and is hoping to return at the end of this year.
JOSHUA: Probably the best part was that you really got to meet these children who are remarkebly resilient kids, while there are many social problems in Cambodia, the children had a really good sense of joy and of yeah just of resilience after everything they'd endured.
WERDEN: The Big Heart Project home school looks after 12 orphans, and there are 400 young Cambodians who attend the project's english classes run by local teachers and overseas volunteers , the project's overriding philosophy is based on buddhism.
TROUT: The reason why we chose Buddhism as a good framework of ethics and morality for the children, is because it's non theological, we weren't really interested in imposing any belief systems on the kids, in that they can choose what they want to believe, it's totally up to them but at the same time we did think it was important to have a framework of ethics that we can work with with the kids, y'know when one kid is hitting another kid, clearly they need to learn that that's not the way to behave. And they do meditation in the morning and the idea behind that is by reaching clearer states of mind there will be less fighting and it's amazing how the kids, they're like one big family.
FX....kids talking
TROUT :: They respond amazingly to love because a lot of them have come from very abused backgrounds and it's just amazing what a thing like love can do, I guess that's why we call ourselves Big Heart Project, that in itself is a very powerful healing tool.
1 comment:
Mr Sam Rainsy, Why don't you sue PM Hun Sen as you promise to us Cambodian people and your true supporters?
Are you tried to bargain or negotiate with PM Hun Sen again like 2005 lawsuit at America??? Why?? Why??
We want to see Mr Sam Rainsy act as he said to sue PM Hun Sen in every democracy Countries court of justice around the world.
We want the results as transparency, from your progress in suing PM Hun Sen in every court of justices!!!
We are Cambodian people afraid that you are just using the lawsuit to scare PM Hun Sen than when PM Hun Sen gives you (Mr Sam Rainsy) green light. You again, hang your Lawsuit like 2005.
Mr Sam Rainsy, You must do as you said, otherwise you the same as Mr Kim Soka.
Mr Sam Rainsy, where are your law suit VS Hun SEn in America Court of justice? We want to see and hear the stories transparency because we afraid that you are just try to bargain with Hun Sen like 2005 again.
We Cambodian people as well as your supporters are waiting to see your real action in suing PM Hun Sen (In America Court of justice, all countries’ court of justice in Europe, Japan Court of justice, Australia Court of justice, New Zealand court of justice, Canada court of Justice, UN court of justice, World Human Right court of justice, NATO court of justice…) as you Mr Sam Rainsy said.
Mr Sam Rainsy must do as you said OK. Don’t you dare to bargain with PM Hun Sen like 2005 again?
May be you can’t be Prime Minister of Cambodia because of unfair election as 5-6 million Vietnamese votes for Hun Sen and Hun Sen add up his cheating skill in every election but you can be a great Khmer Hero by suing PM Hun Sen about the facts that he has done to Cambodia and Cambodian people so far.
If you Can’t be Prime Miniter due unfair election all the times but Mr Sam Rainsy, you can gives a great stain to PM Hun Sen and CPP Vietnam slave about their crimes against Cambodian people since 1970 until today.
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