Amanda Prak Sam is surrounded by clients and supporters (from left) Cee Cee Fishburne, 7; Lisa Marshall; Jack Marshall, 15; Beverley Massey; Sam's husband Thoeun Sam; and Trip Fishburne. Photo By: EVA RUSSO/TIMES-DISPATCHMonday, Jul 07, 2008
By BILL LOHMANN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Running for her life, 10-year-old Sokhannah Prak dived into a ditch to hide from Khmer Rouge soldiers and landed atop a rotting corpse.
"I couldn't scream, but it smelled so bad," recalled Prak, who knew she needed to keep quiet or face capture. "I just told myself I couldn't gag."
And she didn't.
The fifth of 10 children, Sokhannah -- whose Americanized, married name is Amanda Prak Sam -- and her family had been forced to abandon their comfortable Cambodian home by the murderous Khmer Rouge. They hid in another village for more than a year before they were found, sent to labor camps and separated from one another. They eventually fled together to Thailand, spending three months wandering barefoot through the jungle with little food and fading hope. Two younger siblings -- a brother and sister -- perished from hunger and starvation.
The rest of the family wound up in a Thai refugee camp and, an answer to their prayers, the United States. In 1981, they landed in Richmond, where church congregations and extended family already here helped provide them a fresh start.
"It stays with me the whole time," Amanda said of her memories of fleeing her homeland. "The suffering. The torment."
Yet, from the moment she set foot in the United States -- "paradise" was her first impression -- she felt an obligation to go back and help those left behind.
"Doing this has always been in the back of my mind," she said. "But I didn't know where to start."
She found a way, and she and her husband, Thoeun Sam, are preparing to make their third summertime visit to Cambodia this month and first under their new nonprofit organization, One Hundred Pounds of Hope. The name comes from the 100-pound bags of rice the Sams distribute to needy families. That much rice will feed a family of four for two to three months, Amanda said.
"The food is really just our way of giving people hope," she said. "To let them know someone cares about them."
The Sams -- she is 38 and he 37 -- quietly financed their first trip two summers ago. They operate a hair salon, Salon Magnolia, in western Henrico County, not far from their home, and when Amanda began talking about their efforts around the shop clients started making donations that allowed the Sams to reach more families last summer.
One of those clients, John Munson, an account cxecutive for Southern Health, helped Amanda formalize her personal mission into an official charitable organization that would give her the ability to raise more money and help more people.
"For me, and for the other people who decided to help her, it's inspirational because Richmond people helped her and now she's helping others," said Munson, a member of the board of directors of 100 Pounds of Hope.
Last year the Sams collected $3,600 from clients, family and friends. This year, operating under 100 Pounds of Hope with a broader fundraising plan, they set a goal of $10,000 and already have exceeded $13,000. Which is good, since the price of a 100-pound bag of rice has more than doubled in the past year (from $18 to more than $40). "The dramatic inflation underscores the need for our help," Munson said.
In future years, with more aggressive fundraising, the Sams hope to build schools in Cambodia and pursue other projects.
Said Munson, "People tend to line up to help Amanda. She's infectious that way."
Amanda had never attended school until she enrolled in the fifth grade at Henrico's Crestview Elementary. She had to learn English, as well as the material she should have picked up during her lost years: colors, shapes and the alphabet itself.
"It was tough," she said.
Middle school was tougher. Kids picked on her, pulled her hair. She remembers spending lunchtimes in the bathroom, which seemed to her to be a safer place than the cafeteria. Lunch only lasted a half-hour, she said, but it "felt like the whole day."
But her lasting impression of those early years in America were the people who helped provide her family a fresh start. The congregation at River Road Church, Baptist had sponsored the Praks' cousins and pitched in to help the Praks get settled as well.
"They've worked so hard to make a way for themselves," said Ann Hays, a member of the church's sponsorship committee who befriended the Praks and has kept in touch with them over the years.
Amanda's father, a teacher, took a job welding shopping carts. Her mother and oldest sister took jobs working as hotel housekeepers. The children also contributed to the household income. At age 13, Amanda worked part time cleaning offices.
For a time, the family squeezed into a three-bedroom home with cousins. Despite the tight quarters, the refrigerator stayed full and the circumstances were "way, way better" than life in the camps, Amanda said.
Believing opportunities might be greater out west, the family moved to California, where Amanda graduated from high school, but found that part of the world "too big and too crowded."
Facing even greater financial hardship, they returned to Virginia. Most of Amanda's family still lives within a few minutes' drive of one another.
Amanda and two of her sisters operated a hair salon on Grove Avenue. She and Thoeun opened Salon Magnolia three years ago.
Right about that time, Amanda and Thoeun, the parents of two boys, Matt, 11, and Alex, 5, were making plans to celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary. Amanda mentioned she'd always wanted to make a mission trip to Cambodia. Instead of giving a gift to each other, she asked, what if they gave a gift to those struggling to survive in their homeland? Thoeun, whose family had come to Richmond from Cambodia in 1985, embraced the idea.
"Let's do it," said Thoeun, a distribution supervisor for Unisource Worldwide Inc.
In the summer of 2006 they traveled to Cambodia, where conditions have improved since the Khmer Rouge regime fell but where poverty and hunger remain major problems. They purchased rice and other food to distribute to needy families they found, primarily in rural areas.
Traveling to Cambodia isn't cheap, but Amanda and Thoeun, who've covered expenses out of their own pockets, are reluctant to simply send money, fearing it wouldn't reach the intended recipients. They estimate they've helped more than 200 families on their first two trips.
For the Sams "to go back and do this is just phenomenal," said Lisa Marshall, a customer and contributor. Her husband, Lem, serves on the board of 100 Pounds of Hope and daughter, Emily, a student at Freeman High, organized a car wash with her schoolmates to raise more than $700 for the Sams' coming trip.
Said Hays, "Their sense of wanting to share and give back is so thrilling. It's so good to know that you helped a family establish and now they've risen up to where they've become the givers."
Amanda remembers her first days in Virginia, when she desperately missed her grandparents, who stayed behind in Cambodia. She would go to sleep early each night so she could dream about them.
"That was the only way I could see them," she said. As it turned out, she was able to visit her grandparents before they died. She is grateful for that and for the sense that her family was among the lucky ones to escape. Which is why as she hands out rice and other food to the needy, she looks into their grateful eyes and sees herself.
"I thank God for the United States," she said. "I thank God every day that I'm here."
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