Former Khmer Rouge Women Discover New Path Through Heifer
by Jeremy Glover
There are remote areas in the highlands of Cambodia, near the Thailand border, where Heifer International projects are helping to heal the psychological wounds of a people who have, until recently, known only civil war and internal strife in their country. Heifer Foundation helps provide long-term support for these projects that do more than just supply livestock and agricultural training. These projects also help heal the wounds of war by establishing an outlet for working with others, learning new skills, and the sharing of knowledge. If you are not familiar with the Khmer Rouge, or Pol Pot’s reign of terror, the briefest history is the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in the mid-seventies, killing 1.5 to 2.5 million people as they enforced their warped version of an agrarian society.
Today, you can visit the Killing Fields memorial site where bone fragments, teeth and clothing dot the paths to the different mass graves and a temple stacked with 9,000 skulls serves as a chilling reminder. In fact, Cambodia experienced civil strife until the mid-nineties, but has since moved forward with tenuous democratic reforms and a mostly peaceful existence as it seeks to join the global economy and the industrialized world. Heifer International has several projects in the highlands area that was known as the last Khmer Rouge stronghold. Former soldiers are now farmers trying to lead a peaceful existence with their neighbors, and look back on their past involvement with the Khmer Rouge as something they were forced to do to survive, not a life that they chose.
One of the successful projects that is helping foster reconciliation and return dignity and a sense of purpose to a people scarred by years of fighting can be found in Parmoy, Cambodia. Sek Samath (left in the photo) and Los Thy (right) are two Cambodian women that have been involved with Heifer International since 2005. Samath was a leader of a Khmer Rouge women’s group that transported ammunition to support soldiers on the front lines during the brutal struggle with internal factions and the Viet Cong. Samath described her life as extremely difficult for many years, as she traveled day and night to the front lines. Her ammunitions group was exposed to diseases in the jungle and had no medicine, leading to the death of many of her friends and comrades. There was rarely any food for her group, so they were forced to scour the jungle for food to eat. Thy was a food transporter bringing rice from the Thailand border to soldiers and their families. One of her duties was to make bamboo booby traps to set up for self-protection as they slept in the jungle at night. They could not grow or cultivate food because of constantly moving to new areas due to the fighting. When asked, Thy showed her skill in wielding an old, rusted machete as she demonstrated how she would set the bamboo traps for enemy soldiers. Both women spent years living in the jungle, frequently going a week at a time with no sleep as they delivered their goods.
It was not a life that either chose, but they viewed their roles at the time as necessary for their own survival and their families as well. After years of witnessing unspeakable violence and not knowing what the next day would hold, they spent the intervening years trying to put their lives back together. Through their involvement with Heifer, both Samath and Thy have discovered a newfound sense of purpose as they have learned to not only provide for themselves, but also teach others in their village and surrounding areas the same life-changing skills. “For myself, after joining Heifer, I gained knowledge on how to raise animals, develop compost, grow vegetables and other technical skills. I was selected by the group as secretary for community and was trained in women’s leadership,” Samath said. “I think both men and women have the same rights in work. We have to relate to each other to work together and have a more harmonious home life.” Samath’s leadership eventually led her to the position of Chief of the Commune Council, a regional governmental body. Thy’s life has changed dramatically since her group became involved with Heifer.
“Before joining, I did not think of others, just myself and my family,” Thy said. “We had no solidarity with other people around here. But after Heifer comes here we form a group and we learn to work together.” She said the community now shares resources and technical skills. Before Heifer came to her village, Thy did not know proper techniques for raising cattle and would let them roam and scavenge for food. Another skill Thy learned was how to grow fruit trees and she now has an orange orchard that earns her additional income. Thy also demonstrated leadership qualities and was asked to run for the position of leader of her village, which she won, and then she was elected to a higher office on the Commune Council, where she is in charge of women and children’s issues. As she reflected on where her life once was and the transformation that has taken place, Thy struggled to hold back her tears. Thy spoke of how she use to have to set traps for enemies, but now she leads people, helping them live better lives by teaching them how to raise their animals and how to grow crops with higher yields. Stories similar to this one are repeated in Heifer’s projects all across the globe. Support from Hope Equity’s endowments will make sure others searching for a peaceful, productive existence like Samath and Thy will have the same opportunities for a sustainable future.
