Relief Group To Reprint Harry Potter Books

By Poch Reasey, VOA Khmer
Washington
02 June 2009

A US-Japan aid group has received permission from the author of the Harry Potter book series to translate her second book royalty-free and sell it in Cambodia.

Bernie Krisher, head of American Assistance for Cambodia/Japan Relief for Cambodia, and Neou Ty, his assistant, told “Hello VOA” Thursday that they had recently received permission from the Christopher Little Literary Agency, agents to JK Rowling, to publish her second book, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”

Several years ago, Krisher received permission to translate and publish her first book, "Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone." The first book cost $2 per copy to print but sell at a loss for only $0.60 to make it more affordable for Cambodian children.

“I would like to urge parents to encourage their children to read more books to continue our reading culture,” Neou Ty said Thursday.

The group is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving opportunities for the youth and rural poor in Cambodia.

Founded in 1993 by American journalist Bernie Krisher, the organization operates interlinked programs across Cambodia in the areas of education, health, rural development, and technology.

One “Hello VOA” listener wanted to know if he can buy the book in his hometown.

Unfortunately, Neou Ty said, the books are currently only being sold in Phnom Penh. He was looking for a way to distribute them in the provinces, he said.

Newspapers: Riding the tiger [-The Phnom Penh Post vs. The Cambodia Daily

Monday August 4 2008
Ian MacKinnon
The Guardian (UK)

Across Asia, rising newspaper sales are bucking the trend of dipping circulations in Europe and the US. China is now the world's largest newspaper market with 107m copies sold every day, while India shifts 99m. Investors are jumping on the bandwagon by acquiring titles or launching new ones.

Mint, for example, is an Indian business daily launched by the Hindustan Times group and the Wall Street Journal. It now has a daily circulation of 120,000 and is on course to break even. Editor Raju Narisetti, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, is optimistic the conditions are ripe to keep the newspaper market buoyant across Asia, and in particular India, for at least another decade, in stark contrast to the gloom besetting "dead tree" media further afield.

"Internet penetration is very, very low in India," says Narisetti. "It will change, but it's not happening yet. As a result it will be 10 to 15 years before some of the problems of newspapers in the west are dealing with come to India." The Indian market's growth has led to a feeding frenzy for media companies that could end with blood on the carpet. "There's a 'gold rush' of sorts," says Narisetti. "Some will flame out in disaster and some will be successful."

Indonesia's market is nowhere near as crowded. But it has some of the same economic and social pluses as India, prompting businessman James Riyandi to bankroll the Jakarta Globe, a new daily newspaper. He believes the paper can exploit the market dramatically better than the Jakarta Post, currently selling 30,000 to 35,000 copies per day.

In Cambodia, where a racing economy hit 9.6% growth last year, Australian investors have bought out Michael Hayes, founder of the English-language Phnom Penh Post, who remains editor in chief. The Post, which will compete against the non-profit Cambodia Daily and the recently launched Mekong Times, has a circulation of just 3,000 as a fortnightly, though it's hoped going daily will boost that tally.

But even in this backwater, reassuringly, some things still hold true: newspaper barons and their egos. The latest salvo in the long-running feud between Hayes and the Cambodia Daily's founder, fellow American Bernie Krishner, 76, came when Krishner discovered the Post was attempting to poach journalists, and warned staff by email that "jumping ship" would be "treason". "The Phnom Penh Post is the enemy," he wrote. "Michael Hayes, its founder and publisher, declared war on me from the inception of the Cambodia Daily and has never stopped trying to harm us and me."

Hun Sen's regime: The "perceived" enemies of my friend are my enemies

Bernie Krisher, publisher of The Cambodia Daily

Cambodia confiscates 'Burma Daily' publication

Phnom Penh (dpa) - The Cambodian government on Monday confiscated the Cambodia Daily newspaper from newsstands over a supplement called The Burma Daily, the Information Ministry and the newspaper's publisher said.

The official ministry explanation was that the confiscation was ordered because The Burma Daily, which had appeared since last week as a four-page insert with an identical masthead as its sister publication, was not licensed.

But publisher Bernard Krisher argued that the paper did not need a license because it was a supplement and the decision to confiscate the English- and Khmer-language daily, which has a circulation of about 5,000, reflected badly on the government.

He vowed to continue to print The Burma Daily for several more days as planned even if it were confiscated. After its printing is finished, it is to become an online and mail publication for distribution in Burma.

"The Burma Daily has no political agenda," he said by telephone. "It is designed to introduce to the Burmese people what a free and responsible newspaper looks like."

Krisher said he had not spoken to the ministry about the reasons for confiscating the paper, which is viewed by expatriates as a primary source of daily news in English.

"I don't have to explain to anyone," he said. "The New York Times does not explain to President [George W] Bush."

Media analysts speculated that the government might fear that the often anti-government Cambodia Daily might embarrass it by taking a similar approach to the Burmese military junta.

Cambodia and Burma have maintained warm relations despite an international outcry over the junta's appalling human rights record.

The nation's largest journalism association, the Club of Cambodian Journalists, said it was investigating the confiscation of the newspapers.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith was not available for comment Monday.

A brief look at Cambodian schools program

Click on the map to find out the names of all the schools funded

December 24, 2007
Newsday (Long Island, New York, USA)

NAME: American Assistance for Cambodia

WHAT: An independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving opportunities for youth in rural Cambodia; operates programs across Cambodia in the areas of education, health, rural development and technology. Has helped build nearly 400 primary and lower secondary schools in rural Cambodia since 1999.

START: Founded in 1993 by American journalist Bernie Krisher, former head of the Newsweek and Fortune Tokyo bureaus. He also started The Cambodia Daily, Cambodia's first English language daily.

PROGRAM: Donors raise $13,000 to sponsor the construction of a school in a village that currently lacks one. Matching funds are provided by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

After the school is built, donors are encouraged _ but not obligated _ to fund improvements for their school, such as providing English and computer teachers, computers powered through solar panels, Internet access, a well or water filter, a school nurse or a vegetable garden.

ON THE NET: http://www.cambodiaschools.com

Weekend Beat: Father, daughter team up to help Cambodia

10/20/2007
BY MARIE DOEZEMA, STAFF WRITER
Asahi (Japan)

Long-time journalist Bernard Krisher is finally free to say and do what he likes. Though the former Tokyo bureau chief of Newsweek was hardly a shrinking violet before retirement, leaving the industry has allowed him to pursue other interests.

"I always felt a journalist should not be a participant--you should not be an activist. You have enough power as a journalist to write about things and to make an impact that way," says Krisher, 76. "Once you leave that particular discipline, then you're certainly free to follow your passions and link yourself to a cause."

Unlike many retirees, Krisher's obsession these days is not his golf game, but improving the quality of life in Cambodia. What began as a "mom and pop operation" in the early 1990s has turned into a full-fledged father/daughter venture. This past spring, Krisher's daughter, Deborah Krisher-Steele, quit her job at jewelry empire Harry Winston to pursue nonprofit work in Cambodia.

"Our diamonds are better," she says, referring to the children the Krishers are trying to help. Before working for Harry Winston, Krisher-Steele worked for several nonprofits. "I know what the problems are in these nonprofits, so I think I bring that to this organization. I know how administrative costs pile up," she says. "That's not the way we run things."

Though it's something of a dramatic career change, Krisher-Steele says the decision to work with her dad is hardly surprising. "Having grown up with a father who was a journalist and traveled around a lot of Asia--not just Japan--I was aware of what was going on," she says. "Basically my dad dragged me around everywhere, so that probably had the biggest impact."

Krisher came to Japan in 1962. As the Tokyo bureau chief of Newsweek, he quickly made a name for himself in, as he puts it, "un-covering the Vietnam war."

"No one was claiming their fiefdom, which journalists very jealously guard," he says. "They were all in Vietnam focused on that and I sort of capitalized on that and was able to travel all over Asia if I saw a story. The radar screen was on Vietnam, which I didn't much care about."

Krisher's travels took him to Cambodia, and he quickly fell in love with the country. "I was very taken by Cambodia and saw a fairy tale type of country with a benevolent king," he says. "It was a little Paris in Asia. The city was very beautiful, the people were very kind and gentle and happy."

After the Khmer Rouge regime and subsequent political unrest left the country in shambles, Krisher was compelled to do something. In 1993, he launched the Cambodia Daily .com>. "The greatest needs in Cambodia and probably many countries like it are information, health and education. I began with information."

Starting the newspaper felt like coming full circle, he says, reminiscing about the Pocket Mirror, a publication he started at the age of 12.

Also in 1993, Krisher founded Japan Relief for Cambodia and American Assistance for Cambodia, nonprofits to aid in the reconstruction process. Today, his projects have funded the building of 385 schools and have grown to include the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope, a charity that treats patients free of charge; the Bright Future Kids home, a scholarship magnet school for promising kids from poor villages ; A New Life Orphanage for children whose parents have died of AIDS; and a scholarship program for girls .

One of Krisher's favorite parts of his work is helping kids become Internet savvy. "I'm looking to the next generation," he says. "It's amazing the satisfaction you get seeing little kids learn and using that education to improve their lives. If there was more education and these kinds of programs all around the world, I think we'd get rid of many of the ills.

"There'd be no terrorism because terrorism I think comes out of the fact that these people have no hope; they don't think anybody cares about them, so they don't mind even killing themselves and hurting other people who haven't shown any interest in them. In Cambodia, they know people care. People build schools for them and they learn from the schools and they benefit, so they don't have this feeling of animosity, hate, imperialism, colonialism or whatever--I think this is something that's been lost on much of the world and on a lot of politicians."

As a survivor of the Holocaust, some of Krisher's motives for his work in Cambodia are deeply personal. "I was born in Germany--we luckily left unscathed, but many of my relatives died. I saw so many people who didn't make the right decision quickly enough in order to flee, or who didn't know how to react against attacks by powerful people."

One thing both Krisher and his daughter are adamant about is working toward sustainability. Krisher credits Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for passing on some valuable insight during an interview in 2000. "She's the one who gave me this--she was very critical of NGOs who go to countries and make people dependent and give and give and give," he says, adding that she emphasized the idea of teaching people how to fish rather than giving them fish.

Krisher recalls his first trip to Cambodia decades ago, when he doled out gifts of cash, shoes and soy sauce. "I realized that was very nice and people were grateful, but that after a week or two it's gone," he says. "I hope we can someday just wave goodbye with a smile. This may take another decade, but that's the wish."

Until the programs reach a sustainable level, the Krishers are confident that they'll find the necessary support. According to Krisher-Steele, the time is right for nonprofits to flourish.

"A lot of money is coming in to NGOs abroad from Americans. A theory is that this is coming from people who don't support current U.S. foreign policy," she says. "This is foreign policy on an individual level."

For his part, Krisher is doing his best to reap the benefits of his decades-long journalism career.

"If you have to program your life, I would say work hard to make a lot of money and make a name for yourself, and don't think about what you're going to do for other people for the first 30 or 40 years of your life," he says. "Then you go back when you've left your work and you can say, 'Now you can pay me back, you can build a school.' It's worked, actually. Cash in on what you've done."

Boerne High reaching out to Cambodia

10/19/2007
Zeke MacCormack
Express-News (San Antonio, Texas, USA)

BOERNE — Looking beyond their own wants to others' needs, Boerne High School students poured pennies out Friday to kick off an initiative aimed at building a school in Cambodia.

The pep rally penny drive generated $680 toward the goal of raising $13,000 by next spring.

That's the amount needed to build a simple rural school in the underdeveloped Asian country, according to American Assistance for Cambodia.

"We like creative, innovative projects that help bring our community together and promote good will," Boerne High Principal Betty Butler said.

Since 1999, the independent nonprofit organization has overseen construction of more than 300 schools in rural areas of Cambodia, according to its Web site, cambodiaschools.com.

The schools are among aid initiatives by the organization, founded in 1993 by American Bernie Krisher, former head of the Newsweek and Fortune Tokyo bureaus.

Local students joined the effort after seeing news accounts of a drive by Overlake School in Redmond, Wash.

"It's made us aware of the great need there is in the world, the importance of education in developing countries, and it's given us an opportunity to learn about Cambodia and the genocide there," said Francisco Grijalva, headmaster at Overlake.

Overlake students last spring visited the school they funded in Pailin, he said, and a teacher from there is soon coming to visit.

Boerne High School's National Honor Society chapter got the local ball rolling, donating $2,000 it had banked from a car wash.

"It's a really unique and amazing opportunity to be able to bring Boerne High School and the Boerne community together," said Jacob Knettel, a senior who leads a committee created in August to lead the fundraising drive dubbed "Purple Out Cambodia" — referring to the school colors.

Beside soliciting funds from local businesses, the project will get proceeds from the Nov. 2 Fall Fest, an annual lunch-hour event with games and food sales that normally benefits clubs.

"A lot of the clubs used the funds to go on trips and make T-shirts and to pay for their activities," Knettel said. "Now instead, all of Boerne High School is joining together to help others."

The curriculum at Boerne High also is being shifted to focus more on Cambodia to give students a better understanding of the beneficiaries of the aid.

Students plan to continue raising funds next year for accessories such as a water well and Internet access at the campus that they will name and may someday visit.

Boerne teacher Catherine Davis said her students' faces "went blank" upon hearing that diverting cash from their clubs may provide Cambodian kids with their only real shot at a formal education.

"We hope they realize that not everyone is as blessed as (the students) are, and that they can use their blessings to help others," said Davis, one of three faculty advisers on the project. "It's not just them in the world, and the world needs help."

zeke@express-news.

Cambodian schoolchildren offer a hero’s welcome to two Kaimuki businesswomen who funded school

Professional voice coaches Neva Rego, front, and Betty Grierson, left, posed with their student, Dr. Kathleen Kozak, at the Bel Canto School of Singing in Kaimuki. Kozak, who built a school with the American Assistance for Cambodia program in 2006, inspired the two business owners to work extra hours to raise $20,000 to fund a secondary school for underprivileged Cambodian children. (CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Singing the praises: Cambodian schoolchildren offer a hero’s welcome to two Kaimuki businesswomen who funded school

STORY SUMMARY:
Two Kaimuki small-business owners worked an extra hour a day for a year to save money to fund a school for Cambodian children who were still living in the shadow of the Killing Fields.

Though Neva Rego and Betty Grierson, owners of the Bel Canto School of Singing, don't fit the stereotypical profile of Hawaii's well-heeled philanthropist, they were so inspired by the unfortunate children of Cambodia that they used hard work to overcome their lack of resources.

The women, along with other Hawaii donors, were recently honored by King Father Norodom Sihanouk, who threw a palace lunch in their honor and sent them home with silver.

However, the small-business owners said that the greatest rewards came when the children who inspired their gift gave them a hero's welcome.

Neighborhood children and students from schools surrounding the Bright Future Kids School in the rural countryside outside of Phnom Penh sat patiently during the grand opening of their sister school. Kathleen Kozak, a doctor for Straub in Hawaii, was one of the major donors for the project. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Sunday, October 14, 2007
By Allison Schaefers
aschaefers@starbulletin.com
Honolulu Star Bulletin (Hawaii, USA)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Two Kaimuki small-business owners showed Cambodia the meaning of aloha on a recent trip to open a secondary school that they funded for more than 300 underprivileged children in Kandal province.

Neva Rego and Betty Grierson, owners of the Bel Canto School of Singing, worked an extra hour a day for a year to raise $20,000 to build a school in a remote Cambodian village where the children did not have access to an education. The women were moved to build a school for Cambodian children when their voice student, Dr. Kathleen Kozak, began singing the praises of American Assistance for Cambodia program. Kozak invited the business owners to the opening of the school that she funded last year for the nonprofit, founded by retired journalist and Holocaust survivor Bernie Krisher.

Workers continued to build the facility minutes after the grand-opening ceremony for the school. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

It's ironic that music is the stuff Rego and Grierson are using to help rebuild Cambodia and lead the country's children out of the shadow of the Killing Fields. In the years after infamous communist leader Pol Pot killed 2 million Khmer people in the 1975-79 genocide, Cambodia has struggled to rebuild without the aid of all of the trainers, educators, artists and entertainers who were among the first to be executed. Last year, only one out of every two Cambodia children completed primary school, but Krisher hopes to change that with Khmer schools that he has built largely with U.S. and Japanese aid.

"We've got 382 schools and more coming in every day," Krisher said from Phnom Penh on a recent trip to open several high-profile development projects in Cambodia, including a secondary school for the brightest Khmer children and an orphanage for children who have lost either one or both parents to HIV or AIDS.

Rego and Grierson said they were touched by the children they met in Cambodia during the opening of the Kozak Ohana School in 2006 and wanted to find a way to make their own difference.

"We didn't think that we had enough money to open a school, but when we met the children, we decided that we had to make it happen," Rego said, while surrounded by the bright, brown-eyed students at her simple Kandal province school and from the nearby village.

Many other Hawaii people have opened their hearts and their checkbooks to Krisher's cause, shoring up the health, education and, eventually, economic prospects of Khmer children so that the emerging country can meet its development goals. On Krisher's most recent fundraising trip to Hawaii, donors pledged more than $78,000 to bring the total of Hawaii-funded schools in Cambodia to 16. However, Rego and Grierson don't fit the stereotypical profile of the wealthy philanthropists that often fund such projects.

A Cambodian government official handed out gifts to children of the New Life Orphanage during the establishment's grand opening. All children at the orphanage, which was funded through Bernie Krisher's foundation, have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Still, Rego and Grierson said that they figured if the children of Cambodia could find a way to survive each day in a land short on money, resources and access to the basics like adequate food, shelter and even clean water, than they could manage to find a way to fund a school.
"These children are so poor that all they know about is staying alive from one day to the next," Grierson said. "We are so concerned about things like paying insurance on our cars, but these kids just want to stay alive."

While they were short of dollars, the two business owners were determined. By working harder and saving more, they were able to make a project happen that at first seemed impossible.

"We just worked longer hours," Grierson said, adding that the pair named the school Bel Canto after the Hawaii business that made it possible.

Retired journalist and Holocaust survivor Bernie Krisher, left, who founded the American Assistance for Cambodia and the Japan Relief for Cambodia school-building programs, received a hug greeting from King Father Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Ties between the unlikely friends served as the inspiration for Krisher's school-building program. (COURTESY ROYAL PALACE OF CAMBODIA)

The businesswomen said they also were inspired by Kozak's example from the year earlier. The young doctor funded the opening of the school with faith, dogged determination and lots of work hours.

"I didn't have the funds when I committed to building a school, but I found a way to do it," Kozak said.

A fortuitously timed tax refund helped bolster Kozak's savings so that she could open her school last year. She returned to Cambodia recently to celebrate the opening of the Bel Canto School, as well as the opening of the Bright Future Kids School, another project that she helped fund.

"It was amazing to be at the opening of the Bright Future Kids School," Kozak said. "One year ago, we held a groundbreaking. Now, there are several buildings that will be there for perpetuity."

The Bel Canto School and others like it will serve as feeder schools for the Bright Future Kids School.

"The sky is the limit at the Bright Future Kids School," Krisher said. "It will provide secondary education and a chance for a bright future for the smartest children from Cambodia's most remote villages. Without this school, these children would have had to go back to farming after they finished elementary school."

Building the Bel Canto School was just another adventure in a lifetime of many for the two business partners and longtime friends.

Professional voice coach Neva Rego, front, signed the welcoming book at the opening ceremony for the Bright Future Kids School. Betty Grierson, left, who works with Rego, and their student, Dr. Kathleen Kozak, observed the signing. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Rego, a native of Kaimuki, and Grierson, formerly of Canada, met in Italy while studying opera. Rego returned home to Hawaii in the early 1980s and soon after opened the Bel Canto School of Singing so that she could share her love of music and expertise with others. Over the years, Rego has coached many stars, including the Brothers Cazimero, Makaha Sons, Shari Lynn, Jimmy Borges and Danny Couch. She also was recognized by the Hawaii Legislature last year for her contributions to the state, which have included voice coaching for 16 Miss Hawaiis and two Miss Americas.
Gov. Linda Lingle herself honored Rego last week with a commendation letter acknowledging the opening of the Bel Canto School in Cambodia and thanking her for her work as a goodwill ambassador on behalf of Hawaii.

Grierson, who went home to Canada for a time before joining Rego, helped Rego expand her school and her dreams.

"In our own small remote way, we are helping Cambodia to rise up," Grierson said.

While the Bel Canto School in Kandal will be most concerned about teaching the students basic subjects like speaking English, eventually the Hawaii philanthropists might try to teach them to sing, too.

"If it goes well, eventually we'd like to hire a music teacher," said Rego, who has been honored with an "excellence in education" award from the National Society of Arts.

While the two business owners have earned many accolades in Hawaii, the most touching praise that they received has come from King Father Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

King Father hosted a lunch for the American and Japanese school donors. The women also were royally greeted from the students of the school they funded.

"They gave us so much love," Rego said, with tears in her eyes as she recalled the way that she felt to see all of the children at their school lined up to greet her on opening day.

Even Grierson, the least sentimental of the pair, said she cried at the event.

"There was plenty of waterworks," Rego said.

But there was also much joy, she said. While career choices kept the women from marrying and having families, they said that they now count hundreds of Cambodian schoolchildren among their ohana.

"Ever since we made the decision to fund this school, I've felt so much joy. These children have become our kids," Rego said. "I've learned that doing well for others is what true happiness is all about."

Bernie Krisher's mission: educate Cambodia

Bernie Krisher, second from right, shared a laugh earlier this month with Rose Marie Pritts, second from left, and Dr. Heather Catell, right, when they met with some Honolulu volunteers to garner support for his Cambodia relief efforts. Krisher's agency, American Assistance for Cambodia, has built more than 300 schools, including 16 funded by Hawaii residents. (Photo: JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM)

"Earning $2 a day instead of $1 a day might feed a family or put a roof on a house. It might help them manage their life a little better, but it won't help them reach their potential -- for that they need to go to school" - Bernie Krisher

Ex-journalist's mission: educate Cambodia

Hawaii leaders have played a key role in building schools for the third-world children

By Allison Schaefers
aschaefers@starbulletin.com
Honolulu Star Bulletin (Hawaii, USA)

STORY SUMMARY

In the years after infamous communist leader Pol Pot killed 2 million Khmer people in the 1975-79 genocide, Cambodia has struggled to rebuild without the aid of all of the trainers, educators, artists and entertainers who were among the first to be executed. Last year, only one out of every two Cambodia children completed primary school, but Krisher hopes to change that with the 355 Khmer schools that he has built largely with U.S. and Japanese aid.

During his most recent visit to the islands, Krisher networked with Gov. Linda Lingle as well as Hawaii's business and community leaders and secured funding for six more schools.

FULL STORY

Last year, only one out of two children in Cambodia completed primary school.

Trying to change that statistic in a post-Holocaust nation is much like trying to grow a garden in a kudzu patch -- often small seedlings emerge only to be choked by the unrelenting vines.

The United Nations Development Program estimates that 90 percent of Cambodians live in rural areas, more than a third live below the poverty line and many are dying of preventable diseases. Each year, about 30,000 Khmer children die -- that's one of the highest childhood mortality rates in Southeast Asia.

In the years after infamous communist leader Pol Pot killed 2 million Khmer people in the 1975-79 genocide, ignorance is the vine that ate Cambodia. Luckily, retired American journalist Bernie Krisher, himself a survivor of another Holocaust, knows something about gardening in adverse circumstances.

Krisher believes the Khmer children, who live in the shadow of the Killing Fields, are the seedlings that one day will make Cambodia's economy and community bloom. That's why he's come out of his retirement as the former Newsweek bureau chief for Asia to help build 355 schools for Khmer children. He's getting by with a little help from business leaders, high-ranking friends who include among them the likes of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, and folks from Hawaii and around the globe.

Earlier this month, Krisher stopped in Hawaii during a five-week fundraising tour in the United States. During his most recent visit to the islands, Kri-sher met with Gov. Linda Lingle, Hawaii business leaders and other movers and shakers, securing funding for six more schools.

"The people in Hawaii are very generous," Krisher said. "There are many retired people here who have had a good life like me. If you are enjoying the fruits of what you gained in terms of prestige and finance, you are looking for ways to give something back."

Krisher, who was on his third visit to Hawaii and has worked with more than 50 donors from the islands, described kamaaina as among "the most hospitable people" that he's ever had the fortune to meet.

"Where else in the world do you land and they put a lei around your neck?" he said.

But, more importantly, Hawaii people opened their hearts and their checkbooks to Krisher's primary cause, shoring up the health, education and, eventually, economic prospects of Khmer children so that the emerging country can meet its development goals. On this trip, donors -- many from Hawaii's business community -- pledged roughly $78,000 to bring the total of Hawaii-funded schools in Cambodia to 16.

Krisher's business partnership with Hawaii started three years ago when he met Jerry and Vanny Clay, who were touched by the plight of the children they saw while on a trip to Vanny's home country. Vanny, who now teaches French at Punahou School, was one of the lucky Khmer nationals who were studying in France when the Khmer Rouge began terrorizing Cambodia.

"I wanted to show my husband Angkor Wat," said Vanny. "While we were looking at the beautiful sights, we noticed that there were children wandering around. When I asked why they didn't go to school, they said there were no schools."

That's been the status quo in the wake of Pol Pot's quest for a completely agrarian society, said Douglas Gardner, the UNDP resident representative and UN resident coordinator for Cambodia, during an interview last October in Phnom Penh.

"The country lost many of its trainers -- the school teachers, the professors, the artists, the entertainers -- and that continues to strike at the development of young Cambodians," he said.

While searching for a way to help the children of her homeland, Vanny learned of Krisher and his efforts to empower Cambodia through its children. A dialogue eventually led to Krisher's first Hawaii donor trip.

"We invited other couples to a reception at my husband's law firm and they were all convinced that this was the way to help children," Vanny said. "We don't push people -- it's from their heart if they want to help."

The Clays and other prominent Hawaii business people and citizens, like Andrew and Marty Roach, who first met Kri-sher in the 1960s in Asia, have not only become school donors but also his unofficial ambassadors in the islands. Others, like Rose Marie and Richard Pritts, who formed a network of sponsor donors to fund a school, have even made or are planning to make trips to Cambodia to extend the connection and cement business partnerships.

For many business leaders in Hawaii, it's also been a way for them to follow Krisher's example and enhance their retirement.

"Cambodia is kind of an orphan nation and it arouses a lot of sympathy," said Dr. Bill Cody, a retired psychiatrist who along with Heather Cattell, a psychologist, donated a school garden that feeds 370 school children.

The need to help was more personal for the Roach family, who built Krisher's No. 266 school and named it the Monique Brousseau School after their adopted Khmer granddaughter.

"Because of my granddaughter, I'm really trying to help as much as I can," said Marty Roach. "When I look at her, I think here is this bright child from a Cambodian village and there must be lots of children just like her."

Krisher's seemingly boundless energy, which provided the genesis for his creation of two nonprofit organizations, the American Assistance for Cambodia and Japan Relief for Cambodia, has produced results beyond his rural schools project. Krisher's organizations also have resulted in a free hospital, a free press, empowerment programs to help girls stay in school and a special academic program for Cambodia's brightest students.

"Helping Cambodia find the power center and get things accomplished has satisfied my ego as journalist," he said. "Being a journalist taught me to find the points where you can get something accomplished. I know how to identify the people to go to and how to get things done."

While some are amazed that Krisher has accomplished so much in his retirement, his powers of persuasion are the stuff of legends. One of Kri-sher's schools bears the Kissinger name because it was donated by Walter Kissinger, Krisher's longtime friend -- who also happens to be the brother of Henry Kissinger, who as former President Nixon's secretary of state and national security adviser played a key role in the United States' decision to bomb Cambodia in the 1970s.

"They were worried about the reaction Cambodian people would have to a school with the Kissinger name," Krisher said. "I told them that it would be OK. The people would love it and they did."

Krisher also pulled a minor coup of his own when he managed to convince J.K. Rowling's' publisher to translate a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" into Khmer.

"I discovered that Cambodians stopped reading after Pol Pot," Krisher said. "Kids want to learn English and computer skills, but they've never heard Shakespeare or Dickens. I thought that I would like to publish one book that would get kids to read."

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" fit the bill because of its universal appeal for all ages, he said.

"It has ghosts, and Cambodians believe in ghosts, and it has a kid who triumphs over evil, and so far the Cambodians have not triumphed over evil," he said.

Krisher understands old ghosts, and the role that hope can play in rebuilding a life.

"I think he's driven because of his background," Roach said. "You know he was a Holocaust survivor. He was on the last train out of France and escaped to the United States where he got a good education. Now, he's trying to do the same for others."

In this stage of Krisher's life, it's more about supplying the missing link, he said. It's about what comes after you've managed to triumph over evil and reach your dreams. It's about realizing that life, even in rural Cambodia, has its own complexities.

"There's a missing link when the United Nations Development Program or the World Bank talks about poverty reduction," Krisher said. "Earning $2 a day instead of $1 a day might feed a family or put a roof on a house. It might help them manage their life a little better, but it won't help them reach their potential -- for that they need to go to school."

Bernie Krisher, the man behind the Cambodia Daily newspaper and AAFC's Rural Schools Project

Bernard Krisher LENA AFRAMOVA PHOTO

Saturday, March 10, 2007
PERSONALITY PROFILE: Bernard Krisher

By VIVIENNE KENRICK
The Japan Times

One interviewer called him "a mobile office." Others called him "a pusher, a hyperactive bundle of energy and ideas, a class act." Magazines referred to him as "a Japanese institution," and "a one-man United Nations."

Of himself, several years later, Bernard Krisher, a retired journalist in his 70s, said, "I had a good education, the profession I wanted, my wife and two good kids. What do I do the rest of my life?"

He gave his own answer. "If you have a roof over your head and three meals a day, stop and think, do something in return and don't expect anything."

So far, Krisher's life divides neatly into three divisions. The first third began in Germany, where his father was a fur trader from Poland. As Hitler rose in power, the Krisher family left for France. With the German occupation of France in 1939, the family caught the last train from Paris, eventually secured visa for Portugal, and then for the United States.

In New York, Krisher, at the age of 12, began publishing a monthly magazine. "Journalism was in my blood. I never contemplated any other profession."

The second division of Krisher's life jelled when, still an undergraduate, he worked part-time for the New York Herald Tribune. Graduated, he spent two years as an army radio school interpreter in Germany.

He returned to report for the New York World Telegram, then entered the Ford Foundation's program at the Columbia Journalism School for Advanced International Reporting. Newsweek took him on for its Asia Bureau in Tokyo. Nearly 20 years later he retired as Newsweek's Asia Bureau chief. Today he is still Tokyo-based.

Two interviews electrified Krisher's record at Newsweek. He said, "The most difficult and rewarding was with President Sukarno of Indonesia, and the most important of my life was with the late Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Neither had ever given exclusive interviews before. No emperor of Japan, in 2,000 years, had ever given an exclusive interview."

Sukarno introduced Krisher, ever on the watch, to Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. The shaping began of the next division in Krisher's life. His was not to be a gentle retirement.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, exiled in North Korea, personally sought Krisher's promise to help rebuild shattered Cambodia. When North Korea was devastated by floods in 1994, Krisher swung into action.

Opposing the policies of the U.S. and Japanese governments, he used the Internet to solicit donations and bought relief supplies that he took to the North Korean countryside. His carrying heavy bags of rice gave him a heart attack necessitating heart valve replacement surgery.

These days, "my focus is mostly Cambodia," Krisher said. He says that every morning in the shower he gets a fresh idea of something that he can make possible. A seven-day-a-week man who takes no vacations, he works without any committees. True to his belief that people need to know, Krisher founded the independent newspaper Cambodia Daily.

He launched the Sihanouk Hospital Center for the American charity HOPE, and took up the requirements of the Future Light Orphanage.

He founded two nonprofit organizations, American Association for Cambodia and Japan Relief for Cambodia, which operate programs to improve opportunities for Cambodian youth and rural poor.

AAFC's Rural Schools Project has helped build in districts that had no suitable buildings more than 300 schools, many of them computer-equipped. Krisher has raised the money, equipment and technology by persistently urging his worldwide network of influential friends and celebrities.

He has seen to it that each donation received is matched with funds from the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank.

Restless, he develops his causes. He is concerned with a village's silk products, with the future of bright children, with the antitrafficking of young girls. He engineered having a U.S. 50-cent version in the Khmer language of J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.' He said, "I think of things that have to be done. They may take a bit of magic."

For additional information about AAFC's Rural Schools Project, click here.