Email: KimberlyC@kpsplocal2.com
via Khmer NZ
Five million landmines are buried in rural parts of Cambodia. About 400 people are hurt or killed every year, Bill Morse said.
A valley couple gives up all of the comforts of home and moves to Cambodia to help educate children and, literally, clear landmines.
After living there for a year, they're back to talk about what they've seen.
This story strikes a chord with me because I am Cambodian American.
Cambodia is a country that is still healing today. It has been plagued with decades of war, fighting and genocide.
As many as two million people, or twenty percent of the population, were killed during the Cambodian genocide which ended not too long ago in 1979.
Cambodian people were tortured, killed, put into labor camps by the Khmer Rouge, an extremist rebel group that overthrew the existing government and took power.
"It's very much the same as what happened in WWII with the genocide," Jill Morse said. "The government in power turned and started killing its own people."
You can still see signs of war in the battered country. There is an estimated number of five million landmines buried in remote villages.
Bill and Jill Morse, from Palm Springs, moved to Cambodia in 2009 after meeting Aki Ra. Aki Ra was a child soldier, drafted into the Khmer Rouge, who helped lay landmines. He later started an organization to clear them.
Bill sold his business to start Landmine Relief Fund, a non-profit that clears landmines, and started working with Aki Ra.
He tells me 400 people are killed or hurt by exploding landmines each year and he wanted to help. In fact, he felt it was his duty to help.
"I've always believed one person can make a difference," Bill said. "The U.S. did a lot of bombing in Cambodia (during the Vietnam War). We were responsible for a lot of what happened over there and a lot of the things that created the situations that exist over there (now)," he said.
His wife, Jill, a former school teacher, left the comforts of an American classroom to teach English to Cambodian orphans. Electricity and water are a luxury there but the trade has been worth it.
"To see their improvement each day, they know a little more each day," she said about how rewarding her work is.
Surprisingly, Jill says the genocide is rarely talked about where she teaches.
"It's something they've been living with and don't want to bring back those old memories," Jill said.
Jill says the villagers are more interested in learning English, a language that will help them with trade and tourism and hopefully lead to a better future and far away from the past.
If you want to hear more or find out how you can help, Bill and Jill Morse are speaking at the Tolerance Education Center in Rancho Mirage Thursday, August 26, 2010. The presentation starts at 6:30pm and is free. For more information, call: (760) 328-8252.
Bill and Jill Morse won't be in the valley for long. They'll head back to Cambodia where they spend eleven months out of the year.
Even though they've given up the comforts of home, they say their work is well worth it.
"This is an actual landmine?" I ask pointing to a small, circular wooden container that doesn't look threatening at all.
"This (is a Russian landmine that) was found in Cambodia," Bill replied.
If accidentally triggered, the explosive can kill someone, Bill says. Five million landmines are still buried in rural areas of Cambodia.
Bill Morse, and his wife Jill, work with the Landmine Relief Fund, a non-profit organization, with 27 de-miners who find explosives and disassemble them.
As dangerous as it sounds, Morse says it's not his team that has to worry. The farmers, trying to make a living, and schoolchildren, taking shortcuts, are most at risk.
"You know when you walk to school, you can only walk the path someone has walked before," Bill said.
Many explosives were left behind by the Khmer Rouge, an extremist communist group that overthrew the existing government and took power. The Khmer Rouge was responsible for killing roughly two million people during the Cambodian genocide from 1975-1979.
Sophin Sophary, who grew up in Cambodia during war time, works with the LRF. She remembers fellow villagers killed by hidden landmines when she was just six years old.
"I saw many people die, especially when I walk(ed) to school," she said. "When I was young, I heard lots of fighting in my village. It's still haunting Cambodia(n) people."
It's stories like this that push the Bill and Jill to do what they do.
"I've always believed one person can make a difference," Bill said.
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