The past week in class we had two guests, Tammy and Charlie, from ‘ABC’s and Rice, an organization in Cambodia that furthers children’s education. Tammy’s story is inspiring and shows how anyone can make a difference. Her approach to the organization and education children has important characteristics. She is extremely flexible and creative with her goals and how she reaches them. As she was telling us about her organization it seems they are constantly evolving and ready to address the root problems in order for them to be as efficient as possible. She admitted that there were problems as far as debriefing which I found an important problem that many may not consider in this field. It’s important to help others but that does not mean you can ignore your own health and issues.

Charlie works with the network of NGO’s in the region creating sports programs. Of course food and shelter is important and the main concern for those helping and those receiving the aid, however the luxuries are also important part of life. These people not only deserve to eat and have a home, they deserve to live beyond survival. It reminded me of one of our previous readings where shelter inhabitants mention they have no luxury of sleeping in ever. Being able to spend the morning in bed and having time to decompress and have fun with sports are important for mental health that many take for granted. The lack of such luxuries can really take a toll on a person’s overall health.  Many people we’ve studied do not have access or time for these luxuries. As a class we have discussed many of the governmental aid programs and various organizations help that are focused on survival. Charlie’s approach to helping provided additional perspectives to consider that humans deserve survival and some luxuries.

This speaker also showed insight to the international hunger and homelessness discourse. This class has focused primarily on the United States homelessness issues. By Tammy’s response to questions and references to Cambodia’s history (particularly that of war and genocide it seems that homelessness that occurs in other countries has their own set of causes and discourses that may not apply in the U.S.

Check out her organization’s website at  http://abcsandrice.webs.com/aboutus.htm