Accounted for: Ben Nhem was surprised to receive an Order of Australia medal in the Queen's Birthday honours. Fairfax Media.
BY KYLIE STEVENS
10/06/2008
BEN Nhem, an orphaned teenager when he arrived in Australia with his younger brother from Cambodia in 1983, has received an Order of Australia medal in the Queen's Birthday honours.
It was for his tireless work with the Cambodian community in Australia.
'`I thought it was only for big guys like government ministers who would get this kind of award,'' Mr Nhem, an accountant of Rooty Hill, said.
``Some years ago, I never knew what the Queen's Birthday Honour was all about.
``Later on, when I understood what it meant, I thought to myself that I would not dare to dream about it.
``This award means so much to me.
``I feel more at home in Australia than in Cambodia these days.''
Mr Nhem formed CambodiaWatch Australia in 1997 to lobby for improved human rights in Cambodia. The group, now the Cambodian Network for Peace and Reconciliation, also raises funds to build wells in poor villages.
Mr Nhem also formed the Cambodian Ex-War Orphans Support Group and was on the Khmer Community of NSW committee for many years.
He was 10 when his father was killed by the communist Khmer Rouge in 1977, two years after it took over Cambodia at the end of the Vietnam War.
Mr Nhem was sent to prison not long after for stealing rice to eat.
He escaped and found his mother and sister dying from hunger and overwork.
Two years later, Mr Nhem and his brother, aged 8, walked 100 kilometres barefooted to Thailand where they were picked up by international aid workers and put into a Red Cross camp for orphans. They became state wards when they arrived in Australia and lived at the Burnside Home in North Parramatta.
Mr Nhem attended Ashcroft and Canley Vale high schools, studied at university, and has had his own accounting practice for 10 years.
``I have never seen any generous country in the world like Australia, and the Australian people,'' he said.
BY KYLIE STEVENS
10/06/2008
BEN Nhem, an orphaned teenager when he arrived in Australia with his younger brother from Cambodia in 1983, has received an Order of Australia medal in the Queen's Birthday honours.
It was for his tireless work with the Cambodian community in Australia.
'`I thought it was only for big guys like government ministers who would get this kind of award,'' Mr Nhem, an accountant of Rooty Hill, said.
``Some years ago, I never knew what the Queen's Birthday Honour was all about.
``Later on, when I understood what it meant, I thought to myself that I would not dare to dream about it.
``This award means so much to me.
``I feel more at home in Australia than in Cambodia these days.''
Mr Nhem formed CambodiaWatch Australia in 1997 to lobby for improved human rights in Cambodia. The group, now the Cambodian Network for Peace and Reconciliation, also raises funds to build wells in poor villages.
Mr Nhem also formed the Cambodian Ex-War Orphans Support Group and was on the Khmer Community of NSW committee for many years.
He was 10 when his father was killed by the communist Khmer Rouge in 1977, two years after it took over Cambodia at the end of the Vietnam War.
Mr Nhem was sent to prison not long after for stealing rice to eat.
He escaped and found his mother and sister dying from hunger and overwork.
Two years later, Mr Nhem and his brother, aged 8, walked 100 kilometres barefooted to Thailand where they were picked up by international aid workers and put into a Red Cross camp for orphans. They became state wards when they arrived in Australia and lived at the Burnside Home in North Parramatta.
Mr Nhem attended Ashcroft and Canley Vale high schools, studied at university, and has had his own accounting practice for 10 years.
``I have never seen any generous country in the world like Australia, and the Australian people,'' he said.
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