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Learning from the past....

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Today we try to add a little perspective to why we are here and the work we are doing.  Our project this week sees us working with the Tabitha Foundation, where we will be building houses for 6 families. Tabitha Foundation is one of many NGOs working in Cambodia and it is one we have been associated with since 2007.  Before we can complete the build, we need to be part of an orientation session.  Mr Heng provided us with this orientation as Janne (Tabitha Founder) is busy with the Nokor Tep Hospital now that it is open to provide services to the public.  Many years ago, Mr Heng provided us with one his first orientations and to see the positive change in his confidence to run these sessions is fantastic. To continue our journey of perspective, we travelled to Tuol Sleng (often referred to S21).  Tuol Sleng is the Genocide Museum and was the prison camp in which many thousands of Cambodians were housed and tortured prior to them being taken to the Killing Fields to meet their deaths.
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Angkor Wat

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Thousands of years of history and one day to explore the "essentials"!  The temple of Angkor Wat is one of almost 2000 temples that exist throughout Cambodia.  The Angkor Wat temple is located within the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park site just out of Siem Reap (about 7km from the centre of town).  The site is listed with UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and is one of the seven wonders of the world.  It covers approximately 163 hectares in land size.  Originally a Hindu temple, the temple is now Theravada Buddhist. It's a big ask to get people up and about at 4:30am in order to be at the complex before sunrise, but that was our task.  It was made easy by this fantastic team who have been eager to participate in everything put before them.  On board and with Park passes in our hands we moved into position for the rising of the sun.  The morning was a beautiful one - quite cool and with a slight breeze.  The crowd was reasonably sized and the ever popular selfie stick had
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Green Gecko - a project with a difference?

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Liz, Kate and Tania - three names of three amazing people!  Along with a range of additional staff and volunteers that see Green Gecko as the family unit that it is.  Green Gecko provides whole of family support.  They support a total of 32 families - the families of the original kids that Tania and Rem helped.  Fourteen years after it began, Green Gecko has seen the original Gecko kids grow up, graduate from High School, enter University and get married and begin families of their own.  The parents have learned new skills and are now in a position to financially and emotionally become the backbones of their families once more.  This project is innovative in that it does not take new children into the program - it supports the same families all the way through.  The anticipation is that the current model will reach the end of its life cycle within the next few years.  That doesn't mean it won't exist - it means it won't exist in its current form.  We will watch and see how
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