Sumner M. Redstone Charitable Foundation Donates $500,000 To The Cambodian Children's Fund

New Gift To Provide Long-Term Support To The Child Rescue Center Launched In 2007 With A Grant From The Redstone Foundation

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., April 14, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ -- Sumner M. Redstone today announced a second grant of $500,000 to the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF), a non-profit program that provides a wide range of critical health and educational services to impoverished and abused children in Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh. This most recent gift brings Mr. Redstone's total commitment to CCF to $1 million.

Mr. Redstone's initial $500,000 grant in 2007 established CCF's child rescue center, now a thriving community facility providing the most at-risk children with education, health care, nutrition and play area, all within a secure environment. The center cares for children of all ages, from newborns in the CCF Nursery program and three- to six-year-olds in its daycare, to those in their teens wanting the opportunity to study. A maternal care program ensures that each child enters the world as healthy as possible and into a family that understands childcare, nutrition and basic child development. The additional $500,000 grant from Mr. Redstone will help fund the continued operations of the center.

From Tinseltown to the Trash Heap: One Man, Big Change

August 13, 2010
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If you can, please help Scott Neeson helps poor and destitute Cambodian children. Click here to contribute.

YouthGive contributing writer Matt Robertson shares his story from travels in Cambodia:

Words from pleading voices ring out: "Scott, take my child...take my child to study, please...please take him!" These words still echo in my mind a month after returning to the States from my exploration through Cambodia. Women bring their children up to us, asking for a chance at education for their child, as we tour through the garbage dumps looking for abandoned kids with no support. These images will stay with me forever.

This scene was one of many I witnessed while volunteering last month at the Cambodian Children's Fund in Phnom Penh. The experience provided for me an absolutely illuminating perspective, having grown up in a privileged Northern California community, taking excellent education for granted.

I had taken a year off from Pitzer College and used the opportunity to join my mother on a three-month sojourn throughout Southeast Asia. After she returned to California, I decided to continue exploring with one of my best friends. After lounging and soaking in the Indonesian culture and reveling in the backpackers highway for three weeks (good fun!), we decided it was time to look beneath the surface and see if we could return the gift of travel by somehow giving back to the part of the world we were blessed to be traveling in.

I had met Scott Neeson at a fundraiser for the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF) in San Francisco. During our brief exchange it was obvious that helping in Cambodia was his passion and life's work. The former President of 20th Century Fox International, Scott was used to the best Hollywood had to offer...big time money and lots of power. But then Scott traveled to Cambodia between job contracts, and this was the experience that would change his life forever.

During his initial stay, Scott witnessed soul searing poverty and brutal circumstances shocking to most of us in America. Seven months after returning to his new job, Scott said, "the virus had set in," and continuing his Hollywood life as before was clearly no longer an option. "This is simple," he told himself, "I have so much, and they have so little..." He sold everything and moved to Cambodia to help in whatever way he could.

It is now six years later and Scott is busy at work using his skillful management in collaboration with a fantastic local staff to truly transform one of the poorest communities in Cambodia. Three thousand families in the Meanchey District of Phnom Phen suffer from extreme poverty, debt, sexual abuse and child trafficking, as well as vicious domestic violence. CCF is committed to taking the kids in the worst situations and providing them with education, medical care, a safe living environment, and essentially a second chance at life. And they are doing it.

But he can't help everyone...not yet.

Growing since it's founding in 2004, CCF now houses 515 children who previously lived on the dumps in four residential facilities. The facilities are complete with full-time staff, computer labs with learning software and educational tools such as books, pens and paper, white boards and vocabulary posters. Children in the program benefit from safe and secure shelter, a nutritional diet, medical treatment, dental services and vaccinations. Scott has also set up "Satellite Schools" which teach English to hundreds of the applicants on the waiting list still living in harsh conditions. The four facilities are now at their maximum capacity and the organization lacks sufficient funding to expand beyond their latest developments.

Some of these new developments CCF has introduced are programs that aim to uplift the whole community rather than focusing exclusively on the children. "You can't take a child out of the family and expect them to be good and balanced citizens," says Scott. CCF seems to be helping redefine exactly what "family" means in this society where virtually anyone in their 30's and older experienced the Khmer Rouge genocide of the late 1970s. Many are missing an essential ingredient of wisdom passed down from generation to generation of child rearing skills and ethical behavior. CCF's new programs are directed towards educating local families with this essential knowledge and also providing nurturing environments for the children to have the opportunity to reach their fullest potentials.

Scott and the Cambodian staff have an uncanny ability to identify community needs and devise solutions that address them. A maternal care program now provides local women with childcare classes and basic necessities for caring for their newborns. A nursery provides a safe play and basic learning environment for preschool children ages 2-5. The "Engender Program" provides mothers with well-paid daytime jobs making tote bags as a way of livelihood. And the "Excelerators Program" provides extra-curricular educational opportunities that, in the past, have included two contingents of students who visited the Global Youth Leadership Summit in the United States.

However, the most impressive experience for me was witnessing the lively, vital Community Center built in the midst of the dump. At one corner CCF has provided a free clean water pump that acts as a convening place for the surrounding locals and has cut the infant mortality rate in HALF. Rice and soup can be bought daily at a discounted price, and the nursery buildings surround the border of a volleyball court. A medical building provides free medical check-ups (the only one in Cambodia to do so) and performs minor surgeries. Community "disco" dances are organized once a month with bright lights and good music that provide a safe and appropriate environment for boys and girls to meet each other and hang out at night. It has truly become the heart of the community.

Cambodia has been a major wake-up call for me. Working with CCF and engaging in cross-cultural exchange has provided me with a perspective I had previously lacked. I no longer take access to schooling for granted. I have truly realized that education is not my right; it is my privilege and an incredible gift that is up to me to take advantage of. For many of the young people I have met while traveling around Asia, going to college is their highest aspiration. Unfortunately most cannot afford the comparatively modest costs required for course tuition.

But perhaps the greatest lesson I have taken back with me from my travels is that despite the traditional differences each culture claims as their historical heritage, humanity shares a common thread in our fundamental needs for life. As the Internet and social media networks continue to expand to a global platform, it is easier than ever to learn about what is happening in the rest of the world and suddenly peoples problems are not so far away. Now, you CAN make a difference.

I asked Scott what might be the best way for someone to help contribute to CCF, knowing that most people do not have the opportunity to travel to Cambodia and see for themselves what needs to be done. His answer surprised me: "Just being aware of what is going on out there makes the biggest difference." Being home now I feel those words resonate within me. By knowing what some people live through on a daily basis there has been a deep shift in priorities in myself and smaller things I was previously preoccupied with seem to no longer hold as much weight.

But that being said, CCF still greatly benefits from any kind of donation, and I was impressed by what they can do with just a little financial support. Even with a small donation you can provide two young children with education for a month. Thirty dollars can feed a child suffering from malnutrition and $1200 covers an entire year of expenses in the program.

A child's resilience is a fantastic inspiration to witness. With just a little attention and the right environment, a child who used to pick trash everyday can grow up with aspirations to better their culture's way of life, and have the skills to do so. The kids and young adults at CCF proved this to me every single day of my time there. All children have incredible potential, yet most lack appropriate resources to nurture it.

"Is this all it takes to change the lives of two children?" Scott reflected in his early days in Phnom Penh. Five hundred and fifteen children later, he is working harder than ever to provide these kids with the resources they need to become Cambodia's next generation of movers and shakers.

Person of the Week: Scott Neeson

As a result of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, millions of lives were lost, creating a particularly dire situation for children. Many of the now-grown children and their kids live in the dump as a last resort. Child prostitution remains a big problem as well. (Margaret Conley/ABC)
The Steung Meanchey garbage dump site in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, spans eight football fields. The stench of the 100-feet-deep dump carries for miles in the humidity. It is where the poorest of Cambodia's poor eke out a living, collecting scraps of glass and metal, which they then sell for less than a dollar a day. (Margaret Conley/ABC)
Executive director/founder Scott Neeson received the Ambassadors for Children Peace Award, given by the World Food Program, this year for his work for the Cambodian Children's Fund. "There is a contentment now and a fulfillment that I would never get anywhere else," Neeson said. "I'm not sure if it's happiness -- I don't know how you define happiness, but there's a knowledge now that what I'm doing is right and what I was meant to do." (Margaret Conley/ABC)

Cambodian Children's Fund Offers Safe Haven From Life in Garbage Dump

By MARGARET CONLEY
ABC News (USA)
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Nov. 28, 2008 — The garbage dump in Cambodia's capital spans eight football fields and is more than 100 feet deep. Its stench in the hot humidity of Phnom Penh carries for miles.

Steung Meanchey, the massive dump, offers up scraps of glass and metal that children gather and sell, making less than a dollar a day -- enough for one bowl of rice. Many live in shacks made of bits of wood and plastic. It is where the poorest of Cambodia's desperately poor children eke out a living.

With nowhere else to go, children head to the dump as a last resort. Many have lost their parents and this dumpsite is their lifeline.

Hope Amid the Rubble

While on vacation between jobs in 2003, former top Hollywood executive Scott Neeson saw the dump's devastation for the first time.

"It shattered my world. It was like walking from the best parts of west Los Angeles, where I was living, to the apocalypse," Neeson said. "It's worse than anything you can imagine. There are body parts, there are chemicals. I found limbs. I found fetuses, chemical waste. There are rats, all sorts of sinkholes that people disappear into."

Peak hours between midnight and 4 a.m. are the most crowded and dangerous times at the dump.

"There's an average of 24 children every day who are backed over by the trucks and tractors," Neeson said. "You see the sight of 20 to 30 kids with flashlights on their heads and motorbike batteries on their backs going through the garbage. It's just the saddest, saddest thing."

After seeing the desperate circumstances of the dump with his own eyes, Neeson vowed to give these poor children a second chance in life to escape their impoverished surroundings.

"This country is so broken," said Joseph Mussomeli, former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia. "It has been 30 to 40 years of a nightmare -- genocide, civil war, foreign invasions, rampant corruption; anyone who has had any education has been annihilated."

In 2004, Neeson left the film industry and moved from Tinseltown to Phnom Penh to found the Cambodian Children's Fund, or CCF.

"The plan was much more modest," Neeson says of his initial vision. "It was to come here to set up a facility for 45 children, and to raise them to be not just well educated and good parents, but also community leaders."

His vision has flourished; CCF now hosts more than 400 children. Funded with private donations and child sponsorships, CCF provides a home, food, health care and job training to children in critical need. The facilities continue to expand and the progress is visible.

As executive director, Neeson knows the name of every child and has seen how far they've come since CCF opened its doors.

Kunthea, a 14-year-old girl who fled an abusive home, has found her livelihood at CCF.

"Sometimes my father used violence on my mother; they fight," she said. "I try to go between them and he also beat me. He used sticks to beat my mother."

Kunthea learns English at CCF, as well as food hygiene and nutrition at its Star Bakery. Her passion is being there, making nutrient-enriched breads and distributing them to the local community.

Wearing a tall chef hat as she rolls dough in the bakery, filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies, Kunthea seems worlds away from her life at Steung Meanchey. She also volunteers her time teaching village children to read.

"In the future, I want to open a shop to help my parents and all my siblings," she said.

Neeson has high hopes for Kunthea.

"She hasn't yet come to terms with her own potential," Neeson said with pride. "I'm hoping that in a year's time she will be looking at doing things much more meaningful for Cambodia."

CCF's Contribution

Besides offering a safe haven from the garbage dump, CCF is a place where the children learn computer skills, attend classes and beauty school, and are taught traditional dances and songs.

They learn to sew and make bags with their own handmade-in-Cambodia designer label, Srey Meanchey, which loosely translates to Little Miss Garbage Dump.

In addition to support at the facilities, CCF has arranged for many of those living at the dump site to have access to fresh water, mosquito nets to help prevent against disease and health care at no charge. These services can be vital to the survival of the families.

At the dump site, Neeson found 16-year-old Saroeurn. Motherless, he had called Steung Meanchey his home since he was 3 years old. Saroeurn used to work day and night at the site, rummaging through trash. "He'd work at the dump until he was exhausted and just found a place to lie down amongst the garbage, sleep, wake up and continue picking garbage," Neeson says. "And this was year on year, he was doing this."

Saroeurn has become a chef at the local restaurant, Metro, where he cooks steak and other specialties. He serves as a mentor and role model to CCF's younger students, dreaming of life beyond the dump.

Neeson's Personal Journey

Nearly every day Neeson continues to makes the trek to the dump site, providing hope in a world that seems hopeless and looking for the community leaders of tomorrow.

His new home in Phnom Penh is far from his former lifestyle, hanging with Hollywood big wigs and spending weekends at Catalina.

"I had a big motor yacht. I do miss it," Neeson says. "Now I spend Sundays at a garbage dump."

In July, Neeson was awarded the Peace Award by the non-profit organization Ambassadors for Children, for his devotion to serving the disadvantaged, abused, and abandoned children of Cambodia.

Far from Hollywood, Neeson continues to pave the way for hundreds of children in Cambodia to have their own happy ending.

"There is a contentment now and a fulfillment that I would never get anywhere else," he said. "I'm not sure if it's happiness -- I don't know how you define happiness -- but there's a knowledge now that what I'm doing is right and what I was meant to do."

Summer in Cambodia changed her life

June 21, 2008
BY LAURA ALBANESE
Newsday (USA)

Willi Rechler admits that, before last summer, she had been a little selfish. The Jericho High School senior lived a moderately comfortable existence and, while always involved in philanthropy, hadn't so much seen how the rest of the world lived. All of that, she said, changed.

Rechler, who helped to found the Amnesty International Club in tenth grade, wanted to see firsthand the situations that concerned her. She joined a travel program with Putney Student Travel and booked a ticket to Cambodia, a country still recovering from the genocidal reign of the Khmer Rouge, not knowing what to expect.

"I went there with an open mind," she said. "What I learned in Cambodia changed me. I have a different perspective on the world."

She learned about the effect of genocide and was particularly struck by the lack of medical care. She also saw a community struggling to grow out of its past difficulties and progress toward modernization.

"It really gives me a lot of hope," Rechler said. "Before I went, I tried to be compassionate and watch documentaries, but this is a whole other perspective."

What she saw, she said, has made her involved in the situation in Darfur and motivated her to petition for inclusion of genocide studies in the curriculum. Jericho recently started offering the class.

"One of the best moments was my brother coming home and yelling at me because he had a test on the curriculum," she said. "When I have a decision to make on anything, I just think about what I learned and it makes me want to make the world a better place."

Similar sentiments have also led her to organize the Cambodian Children's Fund, a fundraiser that raised over $4,000. Rechler also hopes to continue her studies of different cultures at Yale, where she'll be attending this fall.

Events to aid children in Cambodia; Yoga teacher hopes to raise $30,000

The Whig Standard (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

In the early part of the decade, Kingston yoga teacher Amanda Daniels spent close to two years touring Cambodia. She returned home profoundly affected by the poverty and suffering she had witnessed.

Daniels recently pledged to raise $30,000 by December for the Cambodian Children's Fund, a registered charity that provides poor and abused children with health care, education, food and job training.

On Monday, Daniels is holding the first of a series of events to kick-start her campaign. A "full moon Yoga for Cambodia" celebration will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Feel Yoga Studio, 80 Princess St. Suggested donation is $10 or more.

On Friday, the Spencer Evans Trio, along with Chris Brown, will perform at the Grad Club on Barrie Street in support of Daniels' campaign. Tickets cost $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Music begins at 9:30 p.m.

Daniels said in a release that her goal is to support the children's fund and urge all Kingstonians "to remember our fundamental interdependence and to act from this awareness," and to foster world citizenship by connecting Kingston with Cambodia.

From Tinseltown to Cambodia

Rewarding work ... Scott Neeson

February 03, 2008
The Sunday Telegraph (Australia)

IN 1993, Australian movie executive Scott Neeson was mixing with international celebrities, launching films such as Titanic and attending the Academy Awards.

But in story is worthy of a Hollywood film, he gave it all up to move to Cambodia and help orphaned children.

"I was driven by the extent of the poverty here," he said.

Mr Neeson's goal in 2003 was tohelp 40 children. Today, the Cambodian Children's Fund provides homes, education and health care to 320 orphans.

"I'm dealing with some of the most abused, impoverished and neglected kids in the world," he said.

"It's heart breaking but incredibly rewarding."

"I would love these kids to be given a family in Australia."

Neeson's life now is a world away from the Hollywood Hills. Gone are the mansion, the Porsche and the yacht.

"I had the lifestyle of royalty. I'd be crazy not to miss it, but I have no regrets," he said.

Donations can be made at www. cambodianchildrensfund.org

Cambodian Photos Shed Light on Poverty

This photo, part of an exhibit by Trevor Wright, shows a young child chewing on a stalk of sugar cane. Wright's photo exhibit "Life at the Cambodian Garbage Dump," is located on the 4th floor of the HFAC.

28 Jan 2008
By Jenica Stimpson
BYU NewsNet (Bringham Young University, Utah, USA)

Trevor Wright, a BYU student and media arts major, served his mission in Cambodia and was intrigued with its people. He decided to go back last summer with the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF) to serve the people he had grown to love. For three months he taught English to impoverished children and helped make their lives a little easier through the aid that the Children's Fund provides.

While serving in Cambodia he took documentary-like pictures of children at the dump. Families are driven to the dump in poverty and struggle through life as garbage pickers who find and sell whatever they can in hopes of earning enough money to survive. Children must help support their families by rummaging through the garbage each day.

"Through my photos, I like to capture the moments, situations and feelings of the individuals so that we can develop a greater understanding of human beings," Wright said. "Because of this experience in Cambodia, I have decided to minor in international development."

Wright's photos are currently displayed in the 4th floor west hall of the Harris Fine Arts Center.

Wright first became interested in photography while in high school and was influenced by his dad. As he grew older he became especially interested in documentary-type photos. He is planning on making a documentary film on the founder of CCF, Scott Neeson, in the near future.

Hollywood film executive Scott Neeson founded the CCF when he traveled to Cambodia in 2003 and witnessed the desperate needs of young children. After working in the film business for 26 years, he now resides in Phnom Penh, Cambodia year-round.

According to the CCF Web site, the organization has three separate facilities where 300 children receive nutrition and housing, medical treatment, dental services and vaccinations. The children are also involved in an educational program that includes local language reading and writing, classes in English, social sciences and math. They also attend evening classes where they learn traditional Khmer music, dance and drama.

"Through these photos I hope that other people will fall in love with Cambodia like I have," Wright said. "I hope that these photos will give an insight that these people are individuals just like you and me."

US Embassy Holds Christmas Party for Hundreds of Children

By Suon Kanika, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
14 December 2007

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh Thursday night hosted a party for more than 300 children from the Cambodian Children's Fund for a special hip hop music concert featuring The Dana Leong Band from New York City.

Beside the concert the children also enjoyed food, received gifts from Santa Claus and enjoyed the Embassy's spectacular holiday lights show.

Mrs. Sok Chan Neourn is a staff member of the Cambodian Children's Fund told VOA she was "so excited and happy to bring all these kids from poor neighborhood to enjoy the party organized by the US embassy and hip hop music performed by the American band."

One little girl told VOA that this is her first time at the US embassy. "I get to watch different nice music; there are DJs and many delicious food, and many different fun activities such as rides and blowing bubbles."

U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, Joseph A. Mussomeli, who initiates the idea and helps organize the event, said this is a part of his efforts to strengthen the cultural ties between the United States and Cambodia.

"We do many. Personally we do some. My wife and I will sometimes have events for children with HIV/AIDS. Sometimes we would go to orphanages to just hand out gifts."

The festivities started at 5pm and ended at 8pm. Everyone went home with a big smile on their face.

Hope for Cambodian Children [in Stung Meanchey]

ABC News (USA)

It is hot and humid and the stench of the Steung Meanchey garbage dump in Cambodia's capital of Phnom Penh is unbearable and inescapable. It is hard to believe people live there. However, many children have no choice but to forage through the waste for recyclables that earn them 25 to 75 cents a day for a bowl of rice. (Margaret Conley/ ABC News)

Neeson first discovered the Steung Meanchey garbage dump during a "first class backpacking trip," while staying at Phnom Penh's luxe Raffles Hotel. Neeson was in between jobs -- president of 20th Century Fox International and head of Sony Pictures' international marketing. However, the site had a lasting impression on the Hollywood executive and he packed his bags and left Tinseltown in 2003 to make a difference. (Margaret Conley/ ABC News)

The second Cambodia Children's Fund facility, CCF2, offers a safe environment exclusively for girls, many of whom have been subjected to domestic and sexual abuse. Neeson calls the facility his "pride and joy." (Margaret Conley/ ABC News)

"The problem is, how do you say no?" Neeson asked rhetorically. He said that when he visits the site children follow him around saying, "Please take me to school." (Margaret Conley/ ABC News)

Over the last four years, Neeson, shown at left, and his team have opened three facilities -- CCF, CCF2 and CCF3 -- that aid impoverished children by providing comprehensive educational programs, vocational training and health care. The majority of the kids live in-house, learning computer skills, English and local Khmer songs and dance. (Margaret Conley/ ABC News)

CCF also teaches vocational skills including food hygiene and production at Star Bakery, where nutrient-enhanced breads and pastries are made to improve nutrition in local communities. Children also learn how to make trendy-looking, yet practical bags made out of recycled flour and sugar sacks. The bags have been well received in the United States, with all proceeds going to CCF. (Margaret Conley/ ABC News)

I Left Planet Hollywood To Help The Poorest Kids On The Planet

Why ex-movie boss Scott now dedicates his life to charity work

2 July 2007
By Annie Brown
The Daily Record (Scotland, UK)

TWO days ago as he stood knee deep in the stinking mud of a Cambodian dump, Scott Neeson's life flashed in front of him.

He was once "Mr Hollywood", a movie executive with a mansion, a 36ft yacht and A-list stars on his speed dial.

But four years on and the trappings of wealth are gone.

Scott sacrificed his opulent life to move to Phnom Penh, to set up the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF) in 2003 and help Cambodia's poorest children who lead a grim existence scavenging in Phnom Penh's notorious rubbish dump.

Scott, from Edinburgh, now has 263 children in three facilities, with health care provided by Fiona McLeish, a paediatric nurse from East Kilbride.

And he has just enlisted the help of Sumner Redstone, America's 25th richest man and the media mogul famed for firing Tom Cruise.

However, a couple of days ago on one of his regular visits to the dump, he lost his footing and found himself sinking in to the mire.

Scott said: "The stench was awful. I was knee deep in what I will politely call mud, but wasn't. At that moment I thought of my previous life and my friends who were returning from Cannes while I am trying to scrape muck off my leg with a stick."

He returned to the CCF centre, which now educates, cares for and feeds impoverished children and he was greeted with laughter.

He said: "The kids were edging away from me shouting 'you stink'."

Scott enjoyed a glittering 10-year career in LA as President of 20th Century Fox International and as head of Sony Pictures' international marketing.

He oversaw the releases of such films as Titanic, Star Wars, Braveheart, Independence Day and X-Men.

He was friendly with Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford and even shook hands with Prince Charles at a movie premiere.

Scott, 48, had a house in the Hollywood hills, complete with swimming pool and Cindy Crawford as a neighbour.

He returns to LA about four times a year, but now the importance of Tinseltown is exploiting his connections there for the benefit of the CCF children.

His latest success story is a perfect illustration and brought Redstone to the rescue of Lyda, one of the world's poorest girls.

Media mogul Redstone is worth an estimated £6billion as chief of Viacom, which owns Paramount, CBS and MTV.

Lyda is a 13-year-old girl who has been a CCF child for two years after Scott found her at Steung Meanchey, Phnom Penh's huge garbage dump - a place he describes as "apocalyptic".

She had been abandoned at five and was sleeping on the ground. Like all the children from the dump she was earning a living working 13-hour days from 5am, picking through the garbage for recyclables to sell for pennies.

Scott said: "When I first saw Lyda, she was small, hunched and alone, but she was so loving and had an amazing smile."

A medical check-up at CCF uncovered scoliosis, a severe curvature of the spine.

Scott took her to LA after a hospital offered to treat her for free, but was then devastated to be told that the doctors considered it too risky to operate.

But while he was in LA he met up with Sumner who had been asking about CCF and he took Lyda with him.

The billionaire was so taken with her that he got on the phone to the Cedars-Sinai Hospital in LA to which he had just donated Û20million.

Scott said: "Sumner was doing the whole curmudgeon thing, and starts barking out orders and the next thing you know, Lyda is getting the best medical treatment in the whole world."

One of the world's top orthopaedic surgeons, Dr Robert Bernstein, successfully operated and Sumner picked up the Û100,000 tab.

The day after the operation it had straightened Lyda's spine so much she was 5cm taller.

Lyda was released last Monday, a week earlier than expected, and she is now able to walk.

She is staying with friends of Scott and has with her Fiona McLeish who has been working with CCF for a year.

Fiona is the health co-ordinator for CCF and as well as administering first aid at the dump, runs a series of health programmes, not just for the children, but for their families too.

The nurse, who worked at Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Kids, is still in LA with Lyda but will return to Cambodia with her shortly.

She said: "CCF is an amazing organisation. I only planned to stay for three months but as soon as I saw what they were doing, I decided I had to stay on longer.

"The children are wonderful and it makes such a difference to their lives."

AFTER his sojourn to LA, Scott wanted to get back to Cambodia straight away in what he sees as "reality".

He said: "It's nice being safe, they have traffic rules and the chances of getting dysentery are slimmer."

But he added: "After 10 days I get the itch to come back to reality. I miss the kids too much. I would rather be in the back of the truck with the kids than a private jet any day."

While in LA Scott visited a friend in the movie business who was arranging for a private jet to be flown to Europe for a famous actress and the publicist was demanding to know the thread count on the seats.

Scott said: "I really don't miss that at all. It's totally obscene."

After 10 years climbing the corporate ladder, Scott now admits he had lost perspective on the level of wealth which surrounded him.

He now looks back with a more cynical eye.

He said: "I once had a case where there were two actors who were in a film together and they didn't get on.

"We had to send two private jets to fly from LA to Europe because they just wouldn't go together. The cost of the jets and the fuel was ridiculous."

It was on a backpacking holiday through Asia when a stop over in Cambodia changed Scott's life.

He was struck by the terrible poverty and thought that helping the child beggars would be a simple case of giving their families money.

He paid for children's education, bought families furniture and clothes only to discover that when his back was turned they would sell everything and take the children out of school.

He set up the CCF in 2003, providing shelter, food, education, medical care and fun through dancing and art classes.

The children learned the joys of security and simply being children. After trying to juggle a new job at Sony, Scott realised to really make a difference he would have to up sticks and move over to Cambodia.

"So many people in LA think the film industry is all there is," Scott said. "Every day people tell you how lucky you are to have such a great job and have so much money. Eventually, you start to believe the hype.

"It makes it hard to give it up."

But he said the decision was as much for himself as the children "It was fear on my part," he said.

"I didn't want to reach the age of 70 and look back at my life and think 'well, I have had a very successful corporate life'.

That just wouldn't be enough as I want achieve so much more."

So it's no surprise that many in Hollywood thought he had lost his marbles when he quit.

His mother Elizabeth is dead, but his father Colin, from Edinburgh, also thought he was insane.

The 84 year-old had watched his son's rise from a working class boy to millionaire movie executive and couldn't comprehend why he would give it all up.

Scott said: "He thought I was crazy. He hit the roof." It was in Scott's contract with the film company that his father would be flown first-class twice a year from Australia, where he now lives, to visit his son in LA. But Scott's move brought his father's days of flying first class to an halt and instead he was demoted to travelling cattle class on Vietnam airlines.

But when he saw what his son was doing, he was immediately converted.

Scott said: "Now he thinks it's the best thing I have ever done. He sits outside in his little red plastic chair and the kids are all over him.

"It's the best gift I have ever given him. He is at his happiest when he is here."

Since he set up the CCF there have been good days and bad days with one constant - Scott also has never been happier.

To make a donation log on to www.cambodianchildrensfund.org

'I would much rather be in the back of a truck with all the Cambodian kids than in a private jet any day.'

Miracle Surgery Mends Cambodian Orphan

Plucked From Garbage Dump, Little Lyda Gets Cutting-Edge Care In L.A.

Los Angeles, June 13, 2007
CBS (USA)

When Scott Neeson first laid eyes on Lyda, the 13-year-old orphan was clambering over a mountain of garbage in a Phnom Penh, Cambodia slum. She was moving slowly and painfully because of a spinal deformity that left her with a severe hunchback. Still, she persevered.

Neeson and Lyda were truly from opposite ends of the world: He was a former film executive nicknamed "Mr. Hollywood" who gave up his home and Porche in exchange for a life in Phnom Penh and occasional head lice. "I've gone from Hollywood to the garbage dump, and I'm so much happier today," he explained.

Lyda "is such a loving girl," he told Early Show correspondent Hattie Kauffman. "She was living in the garbage dump. She was left there by her parents when she was five. She was fending for herself, basically."

Neeson resolved to get Lyda the medical help she needed through the charity he founded to fund three orphanages he's opened in Cambodia. But the surgery that could give her a pain-free and mobile life would cost dearly, and needed to be performed in an American hospital. Lyda needed an angel in her corner.

Enter Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom and CBS Corporation, and a major philanthropist. "I had no idea how the children live in Cambodia. I mean, little girls being put out for prostitution, children living in dumps, scrounging for something to eat. The story really got to me," he told Kauffman.

"No one else would do the operation, it's such an intricate operation," Neeson said in explaining how Lyda ended up at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in his old hometown, Los Angeles. "It was just too complex, and Sumner was like, 'Ha! Not too complex,' the whole curmudgeon thing, and starts barking in these orders and, the next thing you know, Lyda is getting the best medical treatment in the whole world." The surgery cost upwards of $250,000.

Her surgeon, Dr. Robert Bernstein, feels that, without the surgery, Lyda would eventually have been paralyzed, because her bones were pressing against her spinal cord.

Since her arrival, Redstone has visited with Lyda and wants to continue helping Cambodian orphans. "All of these children need a lot of help," he said.

For more information about the Cambodian Children's Fund, click here.

Redstone to help Cambodian kids

Sumner Redstone

Mogul offers grant of $500,000 to charity

Sun., Jun. 3, 2007
By PETER GILSTRAP
Variety.com (USA)

After meeting a 13-year-old named Lyda, Sumner Redstone has turned an entire country of in-need children into one of his most personal causes.

Redstone has made a grant of $500,000 to the Cambodian Children's Fund, a nonprofit program that provides a wide range of critical health and educational services to impoverished and abused children in the capital city of Phnom Penh.

Org was founded in January 2004 by Scott Neeson, who as president of 20th Century Fox Intl. was involved in films such as "Titanic," "Braveheart" and "Ice Age."

In 2003 Neeson became head of Sony Pictures international marketing; he left shortly thereafter to start the charity after witnessing the Cambodian situation during a vacation. Neeson, who now acts as full-time CCF executive director, covered all initial costs for the establishment and operation of the CCF facility.

"From Hollywood to Cambodia was a really tough transition," Neeson said from his Phnom Penh headquarters. "The biggest was how little power you have here to help people. In Hollywood you can get most things fixed; here there are limitations to what you can do," he explained.

"I was intrigued that Neeson quit his job and sold everything and went to Cambodia to help these kids," Redstone told Daily Variety. "I had no idea what went on in Cambodia. When I met him, he had with him a little girl named Lyda. She had been abandoned by her parents like tons of kids. Scott found her at a dump where countless poor (children) lived, scrounging for food or something to sell. She had a back deformity."

In addition to his donation, Redstone is making 13-year-old scoliosis victim Lyda a personal priority.

"I've given big money to big charities, but you never get in touch with the actual person, even though you help a lot of people," said the philanthropist. "But I met this little girl, and I've arranged to have her operated on by a top pediatric surgeon at Cedars-Sinai."

Currently, the CCF aids more than 250 children through three facilities that provide shelter, food, inhouse health services, cultural classes and a range of educational and vocational training.

Among other projects, Redstone's contribution will be used to create the Sumner M. Redstone Child Rescue Center, a stand-alone facility scheduled to open this fall for children 5 to 16.

"The amount I gave was very small for me, and I will give more, but it was the maximum amount he can accept without losing his status as a public charity," said Redstone. "My real motive in getting the story out is to inspire others to help."