Pals in Vietnam & Cambodia

This is Yvonne's post about their unexpected visit yesterday -
What a morning!
Two days ago we saw a young lady enter the hotel wearing a polo top with Community Development Group on the back. We approached her and asked if she knew where we could donate a moon boot. (Yvonne broke her foot in 4 places 7 weeks ago!)
This morning we met with Rachana in the hotel lobby. She directed a tuk tuk so we could donate the moonboot I had brought with us - just in case!
We had no idea where we were going.
Eventually we stopped at a compound that had banners outside with slogans to ban landmines.
Rachana took us into an open meeting area where we sat down and along came 1 lady and 3 gentlemen.
The lady is an 85 year old Australian from Brisbane. Her name is Sister Denise Coghlan a Catholic nun.
The man in the wheelchair is Tun Channareth who we discovered is Rachana's father. He lost both legs in 1983 while he was a soldier.
They along with another 15 are the people who are running the Metta Karuna Reflection Centre, which is an interfaith centre where anyone is welcomed to spend time seeing the challenges of Cambodia through the eyes of the poor. They have dormitory style accommodation and many groups go there, including school groups from around the world.
They are active in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the cluster munition.
In 1997 the ICBL won the Nobel Peace Prize and the coordinator Jody Williams along with Tun Channareth were presented with it.
What an honour that we were fortunate enough to talk with him and Sister Denise and were able to hold the Nobel Peace Prize in our hands. (Apparently it contains approximately $USD10,000 of gold.)
The people from the Centre continue to make low cost wheelchairs, visit communities and help victims of landmines, disabled and the poor.
We were very touched by their openness and compassion.
Yvonne and IanMeer informatie