Scott Neeson left Hollywood to save children rooting in Cambodia's garbage dumps

Scott Neeson, a former head of 20th Century Fox International, cares for more than 1,000 Cambodian children and their families. (Gemma Harris/Cambodian Children’s Fund)

He sold his mansion, Porsche, and yacht and set off for Cambodia to provide food, shelter, and education to destitute children.

By Tibor Krausz, Correspondent / August 10, 2012

The Christian Science Monitor

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Scott Neeson's final epiphany came one day in June 2004. The high-powered Hollywood executive stood, ankle deep in trash, at the sprawling landfill of Stung Meanchey, a poor shantytown in Cambodia's capital.

In a haze of toxic fumes and burning waste, swarms of Phnom Penh's most destitute were rooting through refuse, jostling for scraps of recyclables in newly dumped loads of rubbish. They earned 4,000 riel ($1) a day – if they were lucky.

Many of the garbage sorters were young children. Covered in filthy rags, they were scruffy, sickly, and sad.

Clasped to Mr. Neeson's ear was his cellphone. Calling the movie mogul from a US airport, a Hollywood superstar's agent was complaining bitterly about inadequate in-flight entertainment on a private jet that Sony Pictures Entertainment, where Neeson was head of overseas theatrical releases, had provided for his client.

Neeson overheard the actor griping in the background. " 'My life wasn't meant to be this difficult.' Those were his exact words," Neeson says. "I was standing there in that humid, stinking garbage dump with children sick with typhoid, and this guy was refusing to get on a Gulfstream IV because he couldn't find a specific item onboard," he recalls. "If I ever wanted validation I was doing the right thing, this was it."

Post story leads to relief for impoverished young girl

Theng Sreyleak talks to Post reporter Khouth Sophak Chakrya. Photo by Meng Kimlong

Friday, 16 March 2012
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

Twelve-year-old Theng Sreyleak has had a tough life for a young girl – she was born HIV-positive in 2000, lost both parents when she was only three, and on January 3 suffered another blow when she was forcibly evicted from the controversial Borei Keila site along with her aunt and grandmother.

Caught up in one of Cambodia’s more controversial land disputes, Theng Sreyleak and her younger sister had settled in Borei Keila with her aunt and grandmother after her parents had died, and life wasn’t easy.

Her aunt and grandmother did their best to support the two girls by selling religious items in O’Russey market, and she was offered anti-retroviral medicine from the National Pediatric Hospital.

Theng Sreyleak was also getting some schooling and was in grade-five while her sister was in grade-nine.

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."

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

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.