SATURDAY, JULY 3Since D&P is Caritas Canada, we had a special interest in visiting Caritas Cambodia. During our visit, Rattana Kim, Executive Director of Caritas Cambodia, described to us the significant progress made in the last twenty years including food security, community health, care for people with HIV/AIDS, service to prisoners, gender promotion, building inclusive communities, emergency response and rights-based advocacy. Caritas Cambodia currently operates in 9 provinces and supports village associations in three hundred villages.
In the afternoon our skilled driver, Narin, wove in and out of a sea of overloaded motorbikes and tuktuks on our way to Maryknoll Cambodia and our meeting with Leonor Montiel. Leonor told us about her work providing prevention and care services for the poorest people living with HIV/AIDS. Leonor works in a mission team of 20 staff- sisters, priests and lay missionaries. Later, she took us to visit a hospice where HIV/AIDS patients are being cared for as well as an area by the Mekong River where ethnic Vietnamese Catholics live.
We ended the day by joining the Maryknoll community for Mass, where we enjoyed the joyous singing of a large international congregation. We learned today that Cambodia is primarily a mix of Buddhist and Hindu faiths with only a small Catholic population. Instead of shaking hands during Mass, people bow according to Cambodian tradition.
Stay tuned for our travel stories as we make our way to Siem Reap tomorrow!
by Robin Adeney
1 comment:
It sounds like this is going to be a very worthwhile experience to learn about the kind of development work that takes place... and maybe the political and ideological complexes that accompany overseas work.
Can you tell me more about what's being done in the area of 'gender promotion'? What kind of work is being done? Is it being approached from a model of gender plurality or from one of gender binary? Do 'inclusive communities' include people who identify as queer? These questions are on my mind as Pride takes off in Toronto this weekend.
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