Kickstarter

From 1975 to 1979, Cambodia suffered one of the most devastating periods of genocide in history at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. During this time schools were abandoned, books destroyed, and those involved in the educational system or even perceived to be educated at all, were killed. The lasting effects of the Khmer Rouge are still felt today as the process of rebuilding the country’s education system have been painfully slow. Today more than fifty percent of the population in Cambodia is under 21 years old. The population lacks a formal education system, particularly in the poverty-stricken countryside.

Manin Keo is a sixteen-year-old girl from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. When Manin was nine, her father died of AIDS. Two years later, she lost her mother from the same disease. Suddenly orphaned, Manin and her siblings moved in with their grandmother and drug addicted uncle. The children were forced to work at the local garbage dump, picking through trash ever day to make enough money to support their uncle’s drug habit and to get food for themselves and their grandmother.

I met Manin in March 2007 on a visit to the Center for Children's Happiness and the garbage dump in Phnom Penh. The then thirteen year old Manin told me her dream to go to University in the UK to study medicine and become a doctor so that she could return to Cambodia and help the other children there. I decided there and then to start documenting Manin's journey as an inspiration to other children in her situation and to show the opportunity that education can give a child.

And now it's about to happen! she has been accepted at Atlantic College school in Wales. I have been documenting this amazing journey for four years and am looking to raise $5,000 to help complete the documentary and to help with some of her school fees in the UK.