Cambodian Hero With Texas A&M Ties CNN’s “Hero Of The Week”

http://tamunews.tamu.edu/

via Khmer NZ

July 30, 2010

CNN’s “Hero of the Week” is Aki Ra, a Cambodian whose land mine museum has ties to Texas A&M University. Ra is being featured this weekend on the network’s various stations.

Ra and his Self Help Demining organization have cleared about 50,000 mines and unexploded weapons since 1993. The Cambodian Land Mine Museum in Siem Reap, Cambodia, was Aggie-designed and partially funded by members of the Texas A&M student chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, who held a fun run and a T-shirt sale to raise money for the project.

Footage from a documentary about Ra titled “A Perfect Soldier” premiered Thursday on CNN, CNN International, CNN Breaking News and CNN Espanol. Footage will be shown as part of the CNN Hero story, airing several times Friday and over the weekend, then being re-broadcast later in August.

Scheduled airings (adjusted to Central Time) are:

Friday (July 30): 1-2 p.m. on CNN, 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight on HLN; and 7 p.m. on CNNI.

Saturday (July 31): 9 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. on CNN; 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. on HLN.

Re-runs are schedule on Monday (Aug. 2), Tuesday (Aug. 3) and (Aug. 8).

For more details, go to http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html . Future updates as well as behind-the-scenes video updates, pictures, and commentary from the filmmakers will be posted on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Perfect-Soldier/10150094017135644 .

Aki Ra’s website for his project is http://www.cambodianselfhelpdemining.org/ .

Texas A&M architecture student involvement in the Cambodian project began in fall 2003, when Richard Fitoussi, director of the Cambodian Land Mine Museum Relief Fund (CLMMRF), requested student designs for a new facility to replace the existing museum. Texas A&M architecture design studios participated and the design by students of Julie Rogers, a senior lecturer in architecture who has a special interest in Southeast Asian art and architecture, was chosen for the project. Rogers’ group of students consulted with professional architects on the design.

The museum site was dedicated in April 2007.