‘Hero’ Meets Challenges for Dump’s Children

Voting continues until Thursday November 20, 2008 at 6 a.m. ET.

Phymean Nuon, founder of the People Improvement Organization

By Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Washington
21 October 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

Around 1,500 families live around Phnom Penh’s largest dump site, Stung Meanchey, including many children who should have an education, no matter how poor, according to the founder of an organization who helps hundreds of children at the site.

“Some of them have no homes,” said Phymean Nuon, whose work creating the People Improvement Organization has been honored by the television news network CNN and who was a guest on “Hello VOA” Monday. “They put up tents, and every day they collect trash, such as cans and plastic.”

“Even though they are street children and have no money, they should know how to read and write,” she said. “Sometimes I cry because I see these children and these women sleeping at the trash dump. Each time I come here I see them eating spoiled rice. The place is like hell, and they should not wait for the next life.”

The People Improvement Organization offers free schooling to children at the site, and Phymean Nuon has been chosen to compete with 10 other CNN honorees for “Hero of the Year.” She was already featured as one of its “Heroes,” and if she is selected, she will win $100,000, which she said would go toward further helping the children.

The children work at the dump site between 10 and 12 hours a day, making less than a dollar, and sometimes making no money at all, Phymean Nuon said. They do not receive an education and live in hazardous circumstances; some of them have been killed by garbage trucks, she said.

Phymean Nuon started her organization four years ago, recruiting children to come to the center. The organization has classes from grades one through nine, and works under Ministry of Education guidelines that allow students to continue education in government schools.

Classes are tailored to the schedules of the children, so they can continue to scavenge and earn money, she said.

“Some children at my school collect trash until late at night and fall asleep in the classroom,” she said.

Phymean Nuon tells the children not to give up hope.

“Even if we are poor and struggling and don’t have any money, we can go to school,” she said.

“Some children are injured from broken glass, needles and razors,” she said. “If they don’t have an education, they will collect trash until the day they die.”

Activist Has Hopes of Being CNN’s Top Hero

By Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
15 October 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

Phymean Nuon, the founder of an organization that helps hundreds of children working at a dump outside Phnom Penh, has been nominated as CNN top “Hero” for 2008.

Phymean Nuon’s People Improvement Organization has been offering free schooling to children who scavenge at the site for four years.

Her status as “Hero of the Year” will be voted on in an online poll at CNN.com/heroes, and she has already been selected inside the top 10, chosen from 3,700 other nominees from 75 countries.

“If I get the most votes selected by the public…I will receive an additional $100,000,” Phymean Nuon, who has already won $25,000 in the contest, told VOA Khmer. “I will use the award money to build a new orphanage center for street children. These children are our next generation, and our country depends on them.”

Phymean Nuon was born in Kampong Cham province and raised along a three-year old niece whose mother had died, at age 15. Most of her family had either been killed under the Khmer Rouge or fled to refugee camps in Thailand, she said.

Phymean Nuon worked hard to stay in school, she said, realizing the importance of education, before finding work with UN agencies.

She established her own organization in 2002 after watching a group of children fight over a barbecue chicken bone she had thrown in the trash, she said.

“I remembered how hard it was in my life, to live with the support of a parent,” she said. “I knew that there was something I could do for children who didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. I had to do something to help them get an education.”

“My life is connected to those children who need help,” she said. “Nobody wants to work in the garbage dumps and sleep on the street. I feel very joyful and warm when I see the poor children happy, enjoying themselves, smiling with the hope of the future.”

Please help vote for Phymean Noun so that she could win the CNN fund to continue her work for Stung Meanchey children

Click here or the photo above to vote for Phymean Noun

CNN to give $100,000 to 'hero' on special

Friday, October 10, 2008
By David Bauder AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- A woman who moved to Louisiana to help Hurricane Katrina survivors and a marathon runner who gets homeless people on their feet will be honored by CNN in its second Thanksgiving night "heroes" special.

The awards show on Nov. 27 will give $100,000 to one of 10 individuals selected by viewers through a vote on the CNN Web site. The special is an attempt to honor people who may not make the news, but are doing things to help others, said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide.

The 10 finalists are:

• Anne Mahlum, a marathon runner from Philadelphia who started the "Back on My Feet" program that gets homeless people running.
• Tad Agoglia from Oklahoma, founder of First Rescue Team of America, which goes into disaster sites and helps clean up in the immediate aftermath.
• Liz McCartney, who moved from Washington to St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans to help Hurricane Katrina victims rebuild.
• Maria Da Silva, a Los Angeles nanny who founded and finances the Jacaranda School for AIDS orphans in her native Malawi.
• Viola Vaughn, a Detroit native who retired to Senegal and whose tutoring of her grandchildren led to a program providing education for many other girls.
• Maria Ruiz, of El Paso, who regularly helps poor children in Juarez, Mexico.
• Yohannes Gebregeorgis, who returned from the United States to his native Ethiopia to start a program offering library books to children.
• Phymean Noun, a Cambodian genocide survivor who lives in Toronto and has opened schools and provided health services to children in Cambodia.
• Carolyn LeCroy, a former prisoner from Norfolk, Va., who started The Messages Project, which films messages from prison inmates to their families.
• David Puckett, a Savannah, Ga., man who provides prosthetics and other medical equipment to poor people in Mexico.

Phymean Noun: One of CNN top 10 Heroes for 2008, Please vote for her

Surviving a genocide

CNN Hero Phymean Noun recalls growing up as a child during the Pol Pot regime.

Click here to vote for Phymean Noun

Phymena Noun nominated as CNN Top 10 Heroes of 2008 for providing free schooling for children in Stung Meanchey trash dump

Phymean Noun (Photo: CNN)

Click here to vote for Phymean Noun

CNN reveals Top 10 Heroes of 2008

(CNN) -- For Liz McCartney, selection as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008 could not have come at a better time.

"With the recent storms in Texas and southwest Louisiana, we have experienced a sudden drop in volunteers," said McCartney, whose St. Bernard Project helps Hurricane Katrina survivors rebuild their homes just outside New Orleans, Louisiana.

"While other areas need help, this recognition is letting the American people know that the New Orleans area still matters," McCartney said.

The diverse group of honorees includes a Cambodian activist who offers free schooling to children who work in Phnom Penh's trash dump; a Georgia prosthetist-orthotist who provides limbs and braces to hundreds of people in Mexico; and a Virginia woman who tapes video messages from incarcerated parents for their children.

CNN's Anderson Cooper announced the 10 honorees Thursday on "American Morning."

"Our Top 10 CNN Heroes are proof that you don't need superpowers -- or millions of dollars -- to change the world and even save lives," Cooper said. Watch Anderson Cooper name the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008 »

CNN launched its second annual global search for ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary deeds in February. The network has aired weekly CNN Hero profiles of those people, chosen from more than 3,700 nominations submitted by viewers in 75 countries.

A panel made up of world leaders and luminaries recognized for their own dedication to public service selected the Top 10. The Blue Ribbon Panel includes humanitarians such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Jane Goodall, Kristi Yamaguchi and Deepak Chopra.

"What an incredible group of people and how difficult it was to select only 10," said Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a panel member.

Archbishop Tutu added, "They all deserve to win. Thanks for saluting these remarkable human beings."

Each of this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes will receive $25,000 and will be honored at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," airing from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on November 27.

Hosted by Cooper, the Thanksgiving night broadcast will culminate with the announcement of the CNN Hero of the Year, selected by the public in an online poll that began Thursday morning. iReport.com: Tell us about your hero

Continuing through November 19, viewers can log on to CNN.com/Heroes to participate in the poll. The person receiving the most votes will receive an additional $100,000.

In alphabetical order, the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008 are:

Tad Agoglia, Houston, Texas --
Agoglia's First Response Team provides immediate help to areas hit by natural disasters. In a little over a year, he and his crew have aided thousands of victims at more than 15 sites across the United States, free of charge.

Yohannes Gebregeorgis, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia --
Moved by the lack of children's books and low literacy rates in his native Ethiopia, Gebregeorgis established Ethiopia Reads, bringing free public libraries and literacy programs to thousands of Ethiopian children.

Carolyn LeCroy, Norfolk, Virginia --
After serving time in prison, LeCroy started The Messages Project to help children stay connected with their incarcerated parents. She and volunteer camera crews have taped roughly 3,000 messages from inmates to their children.

Anne Mahlum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania --
On her daily morning jogs, Mahlum used to run past homeless men. Today, she's helping to transform lives by running with them, and others as part of her "Back On My Feet" program.

Liz McCartney, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana --
McCartney moved to New Orleans to dedicate herself to helping Hurricane Katrina survivors move back into their homes. Her nonprofit St. Bernard Project has rebuilt the homes of more than 120 families for free.

Phymean Noun, Toronto, Ontario --
Growing up in Cambodia, Noun struggled to complete high school. Today, she offers hundreds of Cambodian children who work in Phnom Penh's trash dump a way out -- through free schooling and job training.

David Puckett, Savannah, Georgia --
Puckett started Positive Image Prosthetics and Orthotics Missions -- PIPO -- to provide artificial limbs and braces and care to people in southeastern Mexico. Since November 2000 his mission has helped more than 420 people, free of charge.

Maria Ruiz, El Paso, Texas --
Several times a week, Ruiz crosses the border into Juarez, Mexico, to bring food, clothing and toys to hundreds of impoverished children and their families.

Marie Da Silva, Los Angeles, California --
Having lost 14 family members to AIDS, the Los Angeles nanny funds a school in her native Malawi -- where half a million children have been orphaned by the disease.

Viola Vaughn, Kaolack, Senegal --
The Detroit, Michigan, native moved to Senegal to retire. Instead, a group of failing schoolchildren asked her to help them pass their classes. Today, her "10,000 Girls" program is helping hundreds of girls succeed in school and run their own businesses.

"It is very rewarding to be able to honor these amazing, often unheralded individuals who are making a tremendous difference in their communities and beyond," Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, said. "These stories of selfless achievement deserve to be told, and our multiple platforms around the world allow us to do that."

Saving children from Cambodia's trash heap

Phymean Noun is helping give Cambodian children a chance at a better life.
Children are a large source of labor at Phnom Penh's largest municipal trash dump

Story Highlights

• Children are large source of labor at Cambodian capital's largest trash dump
• Phymean Noun quit her job to give them an education -- and a way out
• Noun spent $30,000 of her own money to get her first school off the ground
• Today she provides 240 children a free education, food and health services

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- Walking down a street in Cambodia's capital city, Phymean Noun finished her lunch and tossed her chicken bones into the trash. Seconds later, she watched in horror as several children fought to reclaim her discarded food.

Noun stopped to talk with them. After hearing their stories of hardship, she knew she couldn't ignore their plight.

"I must do something to help these children get an education," she said she told herself. "Even though they don't have money and live on the sidewalk, they deserve to go to school."

Six years after that incident, Noun is helping many of Phnom Penh's poorest children do just that.

Within weeks, she quit her job and started an organization to give underprivileged children an education. Noun spent $30,000 of her own money to get her first school off the ground.

In 2004, her organization -- the People Improvement Organization (PIO) -- opened a school at Phnom Penh's largest municipal trash dump, where children are a large source of labor.

Today, Noun provides 240 kids from the trash dump a free education, food, health services and an opportunity to be a child in a safe environment. Video Watch Noun and some of the children who attend her school »

It is no easy task. Hundreds of them risk their lives every day working to support themselves and their families.

"I have seen a lot of kids killed by the garbage trucks," she recalls. Children as young as 7 scavenge hours at a time for recyclable materials. They make cents a day selling cans, metals and plastic bags.

Noun recruits the children at the dump to attend her organization because, she says, "I don't want them to continue picking trash and living in the dump. I want them to have an opportunity to learn."

Growing up during the Pol Pot regime, Noun faced unimaginable challenges.

"There were no schools during Pol Pot's regime," she recalls. "Everyone had to work in the fields. My mother was very smart. She told them that she didn't have an education. That was how she survived. If they knew she was educated, they would have killed her."

Noun's mother died of cancer when Phymean was 15. Phymean's aunt fled to a refugee camp, leaving her young daughter in Phymean's care.

"When my mom passed away, my life was horrible, " says Noun. "It was very sad because there was only my niece who was 3 years old at that time." Yet Noun was determined to finish high school. Video Watch Noun decscibe the hardships of life during the Pol Pot regime »

That dedication paid off, and after graduating she spent the next decade working with various aid organizations.

"I tell the children my story and about the importance of education," she said. "I'm their role model."

Some of the children who attend her school continue to work in the dump to support themselves and their families. Without an education, she said, these children would be vulnerable to traffickers or continue to be caught in the cycle of poverty.
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"We are trying to provide them skills that they can use in the future," Noun said. "Even though we are poor and struggling and don't have money, we can go to school. I tell them not to give up hope."

Noun has even bigger plans for them. "These children are our next generation and our country depends on them. They are our future leaders."