By Justin Head
The Evening Tribune
Mon Nov 24, 2008
Hornell, N.Y. -
For about three years Drew McDowell has given up a life of luxury in the United States to live in the third world city of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. And although he misses the United States, he doesn’t have plans on returning permanently in the near future. He is too busy running the two schools he created.
McDowell, a 1988 Avoca High School graduate, traveled to Thailand and Vietnam as a tourist in 2006 and ended going on a tour of Cambodia —the tour changed his life forever.
McDowell was brought to an orphanage that had children in terrible conditions. He saw children with rotten teeth, without shoes, dirty, desperately needing attention. He was shocked by the amount of young girls that were prostitutes in the region. He had an epiphany that he could change lives — and now he does.
“My heart is also constantly breaking from the tragedies. You meet these kids and see them very eager to learn, constantly laughing and playing games, smart and beautiful, and then you find out that their families want them to drop out of school to work so they can earn money to provide food,” said McDowell in an email.
After his visit, McDowell worked with a friend of his to become the project coordinator of a Village Earth program called the Cambodian Education Project. This project, which McDowell create from scratch has helped hundreds of children receive education, health services and attention.
“Village Earth is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable, community-based development around the world by providing innovative training, consultation, appropriate technology information, and project support services,” according to its Website.
“I was overwhelmed by the poverty and condition of life there,” said McDowell, adding, “I decided that I wanted to improve their lives. I began to think of ideas about what I could do.”
McDowell moved to Cambodia in the spring of 2006 and began working in the orphanage he had toured until he learned the staff was corrupt and wasn’t doing enough to help the children. The orphanage had a bad reputation and did not receive much funding. The children danced for tourists to get money and this disgusted McDowell. He began telling people the truth about the orphanage and his life was threatened.
“After six months, the orphanage director’s nephew, Lucky, who is in the military, called me to a meeting, which had to be translated. He was furious, and listed complaints of his suspicions that I was telling donors not to give to them, which was true, but he didn’t know anything really, though his intuition was right. He made threats to me and said I wasn’t to ever come back. I was scared to death, and left the country two days later for one month,” said McDowell in an email.
The Evening Tribune
Mon Nov 24, 2008
Hornell, N.Y. -
For about three years Drew McDowell has given up a life of luxury in the United States to live in the third world city of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. And although he misses the United States, he doesn’t have plans on returning permanently in the near future. He is too busy running the two schools he created.
McDowell, a 1988 Avoca High School graduate, traveled to Thailand and Vietnam as a tourist in 2006 and ended going on a tour of Cambodia —the tour changed his life forever.
McDowell was brought to an orphanage that had children in terrible conditions. He saw children with rotten teeth, without shoes, dirty, desperately needing attention. He was shocked by the amount of young girls that were prostitutes in the region. He had an epiphany that he could change lives — and now he does.
“My heart is also constantly breaking from the tragedies. You meet these kids and see them very eager to learn, constantly laughing and playing games, smart and beautiful, and then you find out that their families want them to drop out of school to work so they can earn money to provide food,” said McDowell in an email.
After his visit, McDowell worked with a friend of his to become the project coordinator of a Village Earth program called the Cambodian Education Project. This project, which McDowell create from scratch has helped hundreds of children receive education, health services and attention.
“Village Earth is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable, community-based development around the world by providing innovative training, consultation, appropriate technology information, and project support services,” according to its Website.
“I was overwhelmed by the poverty and condition of life there,” said McDowell, adding, “I decided that I wanted to improve their lives. I began to think of ideas about what I could do.”
McDowell moved to Cambodia in the spring of 2006 and began working in the orphanage he had toured until he learned the staff was corrupt and wasn’t doing enough to help the children. The orphanage had a bad reputation and did not receive much funding. The children danced for tourists to get money and this disgusted McDowell. He began telling people the truth about the orphanage and his life was threatened.
“After six months, the orphanage director’s nephew, Lucky, who is in the military, called me to a meeting, which had to be translated. He was furious, and listed complaints of his suspicions that I was telling donors not to give to them, which was true, but he didn’t know anything really, though his intuition was right. He made threats to me and said I wasn’t to ever come back. I was scared to death, and left the country two days later for one month,” said McDowell in an email.
The threats didn’t stop McDowell and his passion for helping children though.
McDowell found a shack-converted to a schoolhouse nearby that was going to close down because an American man that founded had disappeared. No one knows what happened to the man, but McDowell bought all of the desks for $80 and took over the rent which was $30 a month.
“I bought a whole school for $110,” said McDowell with a laugh. He named that school the Aziza School.
He has since created a second school called the Lakeside School because of popular demand. The schools serve about 200 students from the ages of 6-20 at all different educational levels.
McDowell said people who donate to Village Earth can see the results of their donations. He has a blog on a Website that is updated monthly and Village Earth provides records of how the money is spent. They pay teachers $1.50 an hour to teach classes and McDowell pays for his own expenses.
“If I died now I could say that I lived a full life. Cambodians from all kinds of backgrounds; poor, wealthy, young and old, are constantly thanking me for coming to their country to help children, and have helped me in more ways than I can count,” said McDowell in an email.
McDowell said he has placed 15 students with good jobs and looks forward to helping more in the future.
Cambodia became a troubled region during the Vietnam War in the 1970’s. The United States bombed Cambodia for years while a radical group called the Khmer Rouge took control of the country. They enslaved common people in rural work camps, executed intellectuals and destroyed anything foreign or modern in the country. They banned books, money and medicine which has had a ripple effect on modern development in the country. It is estimated that the Khmer Rouge killed nearly two million people during its bloody rain of terror.
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