Unable to turn a blind eye to the poverty facing a Cambodian family, Warrnambool's Burchell family decided to make a difference. KATRINA LOVELL reports.
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Detouring off the well-worn tourist trail can turn a holiday into an adventure of a lifetime and for one Warrnambool family it turned out to be life-changing – not just for them but for Cambodian children and families.
About seven years ago when the Burchells accepted their tuk-tuk driver’s invitation to visit his home in Taksenkangbloug Village they met a family whose circumstances were “confronting”. The meeting was coincidental, but it had a major impact on them.
The family’s situation meant that six of their young children were forced to beg at the nearby Angkor Wat temple, a tourist site which attracts over two million visitors a year and adds $60 million to the economy.
The Burchells returned to Australia, but the memory of those children prompted them to do something to help.
That something ended up being creating the Taksenkangbloung Community Centre which offers free English lessons, Khmer catch-up tuition, drives children to the nearby public school, provides food and clothing for those who need it, and creates jobs for locals.
“I guess why we started the centre was to get that family off to school if we could. That’s what they said they wanted,” Ms Burchell said. “In doing that we figured for not much more money we could potentially help more people in a similar situation.”
During last month’s school holidays Ms Burchell, an Indonesian teacher at Warrnambool College, took a group of students to visit the village with a focus on responsible tourism – a topic that has been in the media spotlight recently following an Australian Government crackdown on Cambodian orphanages. “The centre is not an orphanage and it never will be. We fight to keep families together. We also try to give people a sense of hope through education,” she said.
Despite being told what to expect, the students were still struck by the stark reality of poverty in Cambodia. “When I pictured the village, I imagined it off a movie or something. I didn’t expect it to be be like a jungle and rubbish lying all around,” Grace Szegi, 15, said. April Worden, 16, said: “It smells so bad. It’s not very nice. There were animals that weren’t fed walking everywhere but the people seemed so friendly.”
The stilted houses scattered throughout the jungle are the size of an average Australian bedroom. Made of bamboo and timber, they house up to 15 people. There are no beds, pillows or linen, just a bamboo mat to sleep on. Cooking is done outside in clay pots over small fires. “They don’t have power, most of them don’t have toilets, most of them don’t have running water,” Ms Burchell said. Teek Josy, 15, said that he was so impressed by how grateful and hardworking the kids were despite their circumstances.The students said the experience helped them to not take things for granted.
While they hit it off straight away, it was on their last day at the centre that the bond between the Warrnambool and Cambodian students became really evident. They played games, braided each others’ hair, danced to music together and laughed. “When it was time to leave, no one was ready to say goodbye. We ended up staying much later,” Ms Burchell said.
The trip was bittersweet for Ms Burchell. While visiting Angkor Wat with the group, she was heartbroken to come across the children from the family that had originally inspired them to open the centre back at the tourist site begging for money.
“They were doing really well at school and then there was a few health issues in the family and one-by-one their dad pulled them out of the centre and sent them back off begging,” she said. “When they pulled that first kid out – it was just one at first - several tourists would have seen a boy looking sad and dressed in rags begging for money and their sense of compassion might have prompted them to give him some.
“He would have taken it back to his family which kind of validated pulling all of the other kids out.
“Many tourists believe such gestures are charitable. If they knew that just behind that line of trees the kids were being fed, they were being taken to school and they were being prepared for a much brighter future for their family, would they still have given that money?
“So now, because of whatever happened that day, and whatever money that little boy was given by some kindhearted but misguided tourists, the six kids that we started the centre for are back to where they started.
“I guess you have to focus on the positives. They had three years of education they may otherwise not have got.”
Ms Burchell said the centre’s doors would always be open to the children if they wanted to ever return. “It can be very saddening and you can feel very helpless, but mostly it is so rewarding,” she said.
One of the success stories the students heard during their trip was of two 13-year-old girls that the centre has been helping since it opened four years ago – they recently skipped grade 6 and are going straight to high school.
One of the girls scored in the top two per cent of graduates from the large public school she attends and she now has her sights set on becoming a teacher.
Ms Burchell said that when the girl first came in contact with the centre, she wasn’t able to attend school because she was the primary breadwinner for her family of nine. Each day she collected discarded bottles and cans at Angkor Wat to sell to recyclers.
With just a little bit of assistance, Ms Burchell said, that girl was now able to change the destiny of her whole family. “I think that alone makes it worth it,” she said.
What started as a plan to help just one family, ended up as a much bigger project. “It just kind of happened. We didn’t set out to do it,” Ms Burchell said. “We just wanted to have this family under a tree learning and pay for a tuk-tuk to get them to school but when we went over there to sort that out, one thing led to another and we took out a long-term lease on some land.”
Local builders constructed the schoolhouse which consists of a concrete slab with bamboo walls, toilets and basic kitchen. “Another part of our philosophy is creating jobs for local people. We don’t want to just hand out money, we want people to earn their money and feel a sense of self-worth,” Ms Burchell said.
“We have room out the front for playing sport under some trees, and out the back we’ve got a few projects we’re working on to get some money coming in. We still rely solely on sponsors, donations and fundraisers to keep the centre going but we hope to create a steady sustainable income through projects eventually.”
The Lions Club of Warrnambool has funded a mushroom growing project which is slowly starting to pay its way. A small-scale duck-breeding business has also commenced.
“Sometimes we get very close in terms of running out of money,” Ms Burchell said. “Sponsorship of as little as $5 or $10 a month adds up and makes all the difference.”
The centre employs a director and three staff from the local area. “We pay people fair wages. There’s no point paying people less because that defeats the whole purpose.”
Ms Burchell and her mum and sister put countless hours into keeping the centre operational. The registered charity has recently created a board to help with the administration work, and this week the centre increased the numbers in its fully-supported program to 19 students.
The centre offers different levels of support, so as well as those that are fully supported, there are more than 30 others who access the centre just for the English lessons. Given that tourism is the major industry in Siem Reap, the Burchells hope the English lessons will help the children have a bright future.
In its latest intake, the centre has focused on younger children and included four prep-aged children in the program. “A lot of the kids that we’ve helped go to school were 11 or 12 when they’ve started prep. It’s never that nice when you’re in with younger kids and feeling self-conscious,” Ms Burchell said.
“Through the centre we support them in ways they most need, whether that’s buying books and uniforms or extra tuition.
“We have a shower they can use. We wash their uniforms so they’ve always got something clean to wear, and make sure their bellies are full.”
For more information or to support the centre go to taksenkangbloung.org