Deborah Groves is happiest helping the Cambodian people, particularly the local children of Prasat Char village.14 January 2008
By Angie Kay
Deborah Groves sat down with a magazine recently and read about how some in our western society are now bleaching their eyeballs to match their sparkling whitened teeth.
Surrounded by extreme poverty in the Cambodian home she has lived in since 2005, the Coast photographer was at a loss to reconcile the two realities.
“I couldn’t understand it,” Deborah, 42, said. “I just couldn’t believe it. I rarely get to see a women’s magazine and someone had brought a couple over for me to Cambodia.
“In the past I had always enjoyed reading magazines but I just put that one down and went back to work.”
Work for Deborah now focuses on helping to empower her new neighbours in the Prasat Char village in Siem Reap province in the mid-north-west of Cambodia with her charity Helping Hands Cambodia.
In less than two years she has helped them to build a bridge, which improves work opportunities for the villagers; build a school, which gives 300 children a rudimentary education and which features the only toilet in the village; as well as constructing water pumps to provide clean drinking water.
Much of the last 12 months has been focussed on establishing a new eye treatment program which has saved the sight of numerous villagers, a “full bellies” breakfast program for students at the school and the “work for a bicycle” program.
“Every household in the village has now earned a bike,” Deborah says, brimming with pride.
“We don’t just give them a bike; they have to work for it. It costs them $5 and they have to work for Helping Hands for a day doing things in the village. If they can’t afford the $5 they can earn the bike by working for four days.
“The effect of a program like this is not only that they get a bike which they can use to go to work or high school in Siem Reap, but it also enhances their dignity and I am proud of that.
“We are not turning them into beggars. We want to facilitate them helping themselves. We want to help train up the younger people so they can become leaders in their village, because they are the hope for the future of the country.
“It would be so easy to just go in there and see a family needs some new clothes and give them to them, but that doesn’t give them dignity because they then come to feel they have to rely on other people.”
Bringing about such extraordinary transformation was the last thing Deborah expected when she went on a tour to Cambodia in 2004.
At the time she was running a successful wedding photography business in Currimundi, but “I felt I needed to make some sort of change”.
“I went for a two-week tour, saying I could settle back into life as a wedding photographer or I would come back more disgruntled. I came back more disgruntled.
“Everyone thought I was crazy but I kept thinking that I was more than just a business. The poverty impacted me the most and I felt I could do something about it. The way they live was just so primitive.”
So Deborah now combines her passion for photography, her driving need to bring about lasting, positive change and her rather extraordinary people skills to make the difference.
She still takes her photos but now they are of the sights and people of Cambodia and they are sold to tourists in hotel souvenir shops, book shops, galleries and airport galleries, with the money going back into her Helping Hands charity, which last year became a registered non-gov-ernment organisation in Cambodia.
“The photos help to raise money but they also help to raise awareness of the issues,” Deborah said.
“There was one tourist who bought some of my photos and then when they got back home, they sent me a $500 donation, which goes a very long way here. It costs us $5 for a consultation as part of the eye treatment program.”
As well as large-scale projects, Helping Hands has helped to set up a number of villagers in their own small business, supported families with sick relatives, paid for surgery for a burns victim and funeral costs for another villager, as well as setting up a seed bank to allow all villagers to have access to vegetable seeds.
In a country besieged by poverty, frequently inept government and still wavering under the shadow of thousands of unmapped landmines scattered through the countryside, it can be dangerous.
“It is very different to the lifestyle we have here,” Deborah said during a recent visit with family on the Coast.
“You have to be sensible because stuff does happen but as a westerner you are less likely to be robbed at gunpoint because they know if they are caught the punishment will be much worse.
“And because of the landmines you do have to be careful where you walk. There are still people in Cambodia being blown up by the landmines.”
But Deborah is not one to focus on the negatives, instead steering the conversation back to the positive work being done in Prasat Char.
In the last 12 months, Helping Hands has increased its staff from just Deborah and a villager Chanti, who has become her invaluable offsider, to now include four staff at the school, two staff in a shop selling the photos to tourists and an American volunteer.
And there are plenty more plans to expand the work done by the organisation with stated aims which include finding more ways for villagers to earn an income including making crafts to sell, having all children in the village attend school and educate the adults on issues from health to agricultural practices.
“In other words our aim is to get them to become more self-reliant and look after themselves instead of being recipients of charity,” Deborah said.
By Angie Kay
Deborah Groves sat down with a magazine recently and read about how some in our western society are now bleaching their eyeballs to match their sparkling whitened teeth.
Surrounded by extreme poverty in the Cambodian home she has lived in since 2005, the Coast photographer was at a loss to reconcile the two realities.
“I couldn’t understand it,” Deborah, 42, said. “I just couldn’t believe it. I rarely get to see a women’s magazine and someone had brought a couple over for me to Cambodia.
“In the past I had always enjoyed reading magazines but I just put that one down and went back to work.”
Work for Deborah now focuses on helping to empower her new neighbours in the Prasat Char village in Siem Reap province in the mid-north-west of Cambodia with her charity Helping Hands Cambodia.
In less than two years she has helped them to build a bridge, which improves work opportunities for the villagers; build a school, which gives 300 children a rudimentary education and which features the only toilet in the village; as well as constructing water pumps to provide clean drinking water.
Much of the last 12 months has been focussed on establishing a new eye treatment program which has saved the sight of numerous villagers, a “full bellies” breakfast program for students at the school and the “work for a bicycle” program.
“Every household in the village has now earned a bike,” Deborah says, brimming with pride.
“We don’t just give them a bike; they have to work for it. It costs them $5 and they have to work for Helping Hands for a day doing things in the village. If they can’t afford the $5 they can earn the bike by working for four days.
“The effect of a program like this is not only that they get a bike which they can use to go to work or high school in Siem Reap, but it also enhances their dignity and I am proud of that.
“We are not turning them into beggars. We want to facilitate them helping themselves. We want to help train up the younger people so they can become leaders in their village, because they are the hope for the future of the country.
“It would be so easy to just go in there and see a family needs some new clothes and give them to them, but that doesn’t give them dignity because they then come to feel they have to rely on other people.”
Bringing about such extraordinary transformation was the last thing Deborah expected when she went on a tour to Cambodia in 2004.
At the time she was running a successful wedding photography business in Currimundi, but “I felt I needed to make some sort of change”.
“I went for a two-week tour, saying I could settle back into life as a wedding photographer or I would come back more disgruntled. I came back more disgruntled.
“Everyone thought I was crazy but I kept thinking that I was more than just a business. The poverty impacted me the most and I felt I could do something about it. The way they live was just so primitive.”
So Deborah now combines her passion for photography, her driving need to bring about lasting, positive change and her rather extraordinary people skills to make the difference.
She still takes her photos but now they are of the sights and people of Cambodia and they are sold to tourists in hotel souvenir shops, book shops, galleries and airport galleries, with the money going back into her Helping Hands charity, which last year became a registered non-gov-ernment organisation in Cambodia.
“The photos help to raise money but they also help to raise awareness of the issues,” Deborah said.
“There was one tourist who bought some of my photos and then when they got back home, they sent me a $500 donation, which goes a very long way here. It costs us $5 for a consultation as part of the eye treatment program.”
As well as large-scale projects, Helping Hands has helped to set up a number of villagers in their own small business, supported families with sick relatives, paid for surgery for a burns victim and funeral costs for another villager, as well as setting up a seed bank to allow all villagers to have access to vegetable seeds.
In a country besieged by poverty, frequently inept government and still wavering under the shadow of thousands of unmapped landmines scattered through the countryside, it can be dangerous.
“It is very different to the lifestyle we have here,” Deborah said during a recent visit with family on the Coast.
“You have to be sensible because stuff does happen but as a westerner you are less likely to be robbed at gunpoint because they know if they are caught the punishment will be much worse.
“And because of the landmines you do have to be careful where you walk. There are still people in Cambodia being blown up by the landmines.”
But Deborah is not one to focus on the negatives, instead steering the conversation back to the positive work being done in Prasat Char.
In the last 12 months, Helping Hands has increased its staff from just Deborah and a villager Chanti, who has become her invaluable offsider, to now include four staff at the school, two staff in a shop selling the photos to tourists and an American volunteer.
And there are plenty more plans to expand the work done by the organisation with stated aims which include finding more ways for villagers to earn an income including making crafts to sell, having all children in the village attend school and educate the adults on issues from health to agricultural practices.
“In other words our aim is to get them to become more self-reliant and look after themselves instead of being recipients of charity,” Deborah said.
Donations can be made at the St George Bank: The details are: account name: Helping Hands Cambodia; account number: 419 526 714; BSB: 114 879.
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