Profile

People often ask me “What does Awareness Cambodia mean to you?” My reply goes something like this. In the midst of the beautiful Khmer culture I have seen some terrible inequalities. I think of the vulnerable children who lost out in the ‘lotto of life’ – children born into a country ravaged by war, casualties of an education vacuum, crippled by endemic poverty and victims of on-going exploitation.
I believe these children deserve our protection. I believe these children have a right to have their basic needs met. In fact, I have a dream that Cambodian orphans – children with seemingly everything going against them – will one day, with the help of people like you and me who have everything going for us, hold senior positions in their country and, by embracing the best of Aussie values, see their nation’s heart, dignity and opportunity effectively restored.

Awareness Cambodia is a vehicle to realising that dream. Together we are making a real difference while devoting special attention to the most vulnerable.
Awareness Cambodia International (our team on-site) provides shelter and care for orphans and protection for abused and trafficked children, together with support for those affected by HIV/AIDS. Awareness Cambodia International works in partnership with the Kompong Speu community to provide medical and educational projects that focus on rescuing, protecting and empowering lives. It makes me proud to lead the Awareness Cambodia team.
If human equality or protection of the innocent is something you value, then I invite you to join this vital cause. In the words of Lyndon B. Johnson, “There are no problems we cannot solve together and very few that we can solve by ourselves”.
Dr Gary Hewett OAM
CEO/Founder
AWARENESS CAMBODIA

Awareness Cambodia is a not-for-profit overseas aid organisation working in partnership with communities to directly assist some of the poorest and most underprivileged in Cambodia.
With the generous support of many around the world, Awareness Cambodia raises awareness and funds for programs hosted by Awareness Cambodia International (our team on-site). These health, education and childhood development programs are designed to help educate and equip up-and-coming generations so they can live healthy and fulfilling lives.
These programs – targeted at the poorest Cambodian province of Kompong Speu – equip future generations with skills and knowledge while also catering to their on-going needs. Awareness Cambodia’s holistic approach to ending the slavery that poverty brings, is seeing a growing number of orphaned children taking up university degrees in fields such as civil engineering, design, architecture, accountancy, English literature, business and economics.

Awareness Cambodia came about in response to the incredible suffering of the Cambodian people after the genocide carried out under the directive of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

In 1995 Gary spent seven days travelling along the Mekong River volunteering his dentistry skills. “I’ll never forget seeing a mother sitting on a rubbish tip under a dirty piece of tarpaulin with a baby at her breast. I could see her pain and fear and sense her hopelessness. While my family was safe at home, warm and well fed, this was the world a woman’s child was born into and probably the one in which her child would die. I wondered how any person could look into the eyes of that child, living in such poverty, and not be moved by the injustice of their situation. But in a moment, it felt that question re-directed towards me. What really matters? How could I return to my comfortable existence and pretend this doesn’t exist? This wasn’t TV, I couldn’t turn the channel; I simply couldn’t walk away and do nothing.”

We see Cambodian culture as an irreplaceable national treasure, and we make every effort to ensure that it is preserved. It is not our policy to ‘Westernise’ Cambodian children, relocate them to other parts of the world or subject them to the indignity and dependency of overseas hand-outs.
Awareness Cambodia’s unique approach embraces education and health as a means of indigenous empowerment. Our team is dedicated to providing sustainable long-term programs which are designed to break the cycles of poverty, abuse, illiteracy and neglect in order to create a ‘better future’ with a sense of hope and opportunity.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt, it’s that ordinary people like us can make a difference. In the words of the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Why not join us in building a better, brighter future for the children of Cambodia.