We’ll take a trip back to Cambodia for this article and what Ponheary Ly has in common
Ponheary Ly
with another Cambodian we’ve written about – Aki Ra the mine clearer – is her focus on the welfare of children. Every family in Cambodia has tales from the reign of the Khmer Rouge and Ponheary Ly is no exception. She lost thirteen members of her family during Pol Pot’s rule and following the demise of the Khmer Rouge Ly, her mother and her six siblings were on their own.
Finding a job as a teacher in 1982, Ly worked with fellow teachers to help provide books for schools and education for those children who couldn’t afford it. Primary education in Cambodia is free but uniforms, books and transport to schools are not and Ly recognised that many children living in poverty could just not afford to be educated.
A gifted linguist – Ly speaks five languages – she became an Angkor tour guide to earn more money in the 1990s as the first tourists were beginning to arrive. It was while she was working here that she began to notice the many children begging at the temples, not to mention the children she saw in the countryside who were not being educated at all.
She used her wages and tip money to donate to local families to enable them to go to school and it was a chance meeting in 2005 which propelled the charity work to the next level. Lori Carlson was an American tourist, guided round the temples by Ly, who began to take an interest in the cause and, on return to the States, set up a fund to help Ponheary Ly in her work.
Lori Carlson
Eventually Carlson moved to Cambodia permanently to help run the charity and it now supports some 2000 children in four schools in one of the poorest areas of Cambodia. Because of the extra income from the United States, children now receive uniforms, medical checks and breakfast; the older ones sometimes get bicycles for transportation. Teachers wages are also occasionally supplemented to ensure a more consistent teaching experience for the children.