JAMES

James is a tuk tuk driver living and working in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Riding with James is more than just  transport; it’s an experience. It starts when he gathers everyone around the tuk tuk for a ‘family’ photo, then shows you a brief slide-show of his other passengers from that month on his camera. James is the kind of guy you need in a big, dirty city like Phnom Penh: whether you want art supplies, Mexican food, cosmetics, a massage or a decent cup of coffee, James will know where to find it. “When you ride with James you are always smiling,” he says.

When James was thirteen years old the Khmer Rouge came into power in Cambodia. For James, this meant he was totally separated from his family and placed in a different province to look after a field of cows. The Khmer Rouge was a communist government that, on the surface, stood for equality; but in reality was a brutal regime that orchestrated a mass genocide of any educated person who could potentially be a threat to their complete control. Within this period James’s parents and two of his siblings were either murdered or died of starvation- James doesn’t know.

A hard childhood is the reality of most adults in Cambodia. Despite this, James found himself a wife and worked during the day as a motor-taxi driver. Moto- taxi drivers are a step below tuk-tuk drivers; they earn less money because they can only take a maximum of two passengers. Tuk-tuks are $880 dollars to purchase. For a moto-driver - who earns one dollar for a small trip and needs to provide for his family - saving enough for a tuk-tuk could take a life time.

When James invited us to his house to meet his family and have a drink he started raving about a Scottish boy named Martin, who is now a doctor living in Melbourne with his girlfriend. He met James when he was a boy on holidays in Cambodia; they became friends and exchanged emails. James had saved $20 to buy himself a tuk-tuk and Martin’s family sent him the remaining $860. They also support him with $300 a year.

I can tell you that their home was not much, but James couldn’t be prouder of his situation and the fact that he can work and his daughter can attend school. James was given an opportunity for his family to escape the unjust options that poverty forces many people into, such as sex-slavery, the drug trade or having to send your children out to work -denying them opportunity for education. He wanted more than anything for me to email Martin’s parents and tell them that I had met him and his family, in the home that they have supported him to have.  

James still has a younger sister who he regularly goes and visits. He is incredibly thankful to his customers because, the way he sees it, they are allowing him to have a house for his family and to send his daughter to school. Although many Khmer people are not thankful for the many western tourists who come to Cambodia and abuse Cambodia’s poverty, James has had a positive experience from our abundance. What Cambodia needs is not for more money to be thrown at it and then lost in corruption, but for people to have an opportunity to work: to have a choice to work in an industry that is not damaging to the country or its people.  Schooling in Cambodia is very expensive, and James works long hours to ensure his daughter can get an education.

James’ favourite story is how his daughter rides her bicycle at 6am every morning two hours to school so one day she can have the opportunity to work in a sustainable industry. James’s hope and genuine desire to have a relationship with his customers teamed with his Canadian baseball cap and prompt chauffeur skills  is why his saying rings true: “When you are riding with James you are always smiling”



LUKE 12:48

MILLI

This is Milli. She has a voice that makes you melt and a particular fondness for pop songs by Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. She lives what some would call a simple life, amongst the beautiful Pacific Islands in the city of Suva, Fiji.

I've been to Fiji several times and I’ve always thought of life there as simple and relaxed. It's an uncluttered paradise, free from our Western ambitions of success, productivity and material gain. Fijians don’t have much, but maybe it’s because they don’t need much. This is attractive for Western tourists: people flock there for holidays and are warmly welcomed and served by the friendly Fijian people. They go on village tours and gain insight into a laidback lifestyle that, unlike our society in the West, is built on community and dependence upon each other. 

During my most recent visit to Fiji, I had the opportunity to work with Milli on a chicken farm in Suva. It is a small business that helps run a women’s rehabilitation centre called Homes of Hope, which begins healing in mistreated women and teaches them life skills to help them become independent and to raise their children. Milli had recently graduated from the program. Getting to know Milli was getting to know a side of Fiji that isn’t advertised in travel magazines or seen inside a resort.

In Fiji's relaxed village settings, the mistreatment and oppression of women can be easily hidden, and for Westerners on a village tour it is easy to turn a blind eye. But working in Fiji I realised that cases of forced prostitution, incest and domestic violence against women are simmering just below the surface. These women have been lied to about their worth, about love, about sex and, in some cases, have been treated like dogs. They now have children they don’t know how to relate to and sometimes don’t even want.

 

The sexual exploitation of women in Fiji was a huge surprise to me. Although Milli’s story isn’t as shocking as some I heard, it is much more common.  When Milli found out she was pregnant to her boyfriend (the man she thought she was going to marry) he abandoned her. Not only that, but for cultural reasons her family disowned her. “Here in Fiji when a young single girl gets pregnant they are not accepted by their family or community,” she says. "My mum and dad said horrible things about me and told me to move out. I wanted to commit suicide, because it was my only option."  Milli’s story speaks for hundreds of young women who’ve found themselves pregnant, lost, and totally alone.

This is where Homes of Hope comes in. The program teaches women like Milli basic life skills about working, parenting and becoming independant. Importantly, it also offers counseling to restore their self-worth and help them discover that they are precious and loved. A lot of women like Milli have been lied to by men and treated as sexual objects and this has left them confused and disillusioned about the true meaning of love. This can make it hard for them to interact with and genuinely love their children, especially given the circumstances they have been born under.

 “When girls have been rejected by their families for being pregnant, the hatred they have towards their families they often take out on their children,” Milli says. “Every time I see my daughter I say “I love you” so she knows that she is appreciated by me.”

When I first came to Homes of Hope, I was overwhelmed by the womens’ stories of sexual and emotional abuse. But what became even more overwhelming was the change in girls when they realized that they are not worthless but that they are valued and loved. With the help of the program Milli has gone from a desperate girl on the verge of suicide to a beautiful young mother who glows with hope for her and her daughter’s future.

 

“While growing up I never knew this term “hope”… until the time when I was hopeless and was about to commit suicide”, Milli says. “Now that idea of being hopeless towards me and my daughter has turned out to be the opposite.”




For more information about Homes of Hope Fiji go to: www.hopefiji.org/

TIRZAH ELIZABETH LISTER

Tirzah is like a drug. She makes me so happy. The intensity of beauty coming from this little girl is a rush.  She has a talent for smiling , it would give any regular person a constant head ache from using too many muscles for so long.

She recognizes me now, I find this surprising for some reason. A scream of excitment as she runs to the door, to give me the happiest hug from the tinniest little arms has left me confused. Despite only having a little over a year to learn, she's got the love that people work their lives trying to attain or reattain. Maybe love isn't something we learn, maybe it's something we loose.

             I CAN'T EXPLAIN IT                                      Ecclesiastes 3:11