Come to Cambodia with me

In March next year, I’ll be visiting a country that holds a very special place in my heart – Cambodia. If you want to learn more about the work ActionAid is doing to  end poverty in Cambodia, and elsewhere around the world, I suggest you  join me.

It was the first country I had the privilege of living in outside of Australia and it’s where my kids spent their early years growing up.

It’s also a place where I met amazing people – from King Sihanouk himself, to inspirational women in rural villages fighting for their rights.

Cambodian boy proudly sits on top of his family's rice harvest in one of ActionAid's development areas.

For five years, I also managed a team of 500 incredibly committed people working for the Mines Advisory Group, clearing landmines to stop people losing their legs, or worse.

What you’ll find if you visit Cambodia is that the people are always welcoming, always willing to help in whichever way they can, and nearly always smiling.

As you’d imagine, I spent a lot of my time in the countryside and indeed probably a little more than I would have liked to sometimes.  The roads were amazing then, National Route 10 that linked Battambang and Pailin was more a bunch of potholes joined together than a road and it used to take us three hours to drive less than 100 kilometres. I haven’t been on that road for just under 10 years and I guess that it’s changed a bit since then, but then again, maybe not.

What I do know, is that some of the things I love about Cambodia won’t have changed.  The Cambodian countryside is quite possibly the most beautiful in the world.  Because the country is so flat it seems that you’re looking at rice paddy after rice paddy filled with lines of Sugar Palm trees which seem to go on beyond the horizon.

A farmer supported by ActionAid Australia (as Austcare) harvests rice.

That’s why I’m so excited to return. It’s also why I’m excited that a group of ActionAid supporters (yourself perhaps?) will be joining me.

In March next year, ActionAid is running a 10 day trip which includes cycling though the countryside, visiting Angkor Wat, visiting my old home town of Phnom Penh and best of all spending several days at one of ActionAid’s current projects, working along side the local community, sharing their hardships, their progress and their joy first hand.

At the risk of sounding like a hack tourist operator, I’ve got to say it’s going to be an amazing experience.

If you’re interested in joining me in, you can find out more at our Cambodia First Hand Experience website.