Friendship a potent cure for Cambodia’s troubles
Scott Rankin, recipient of the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal. Photo: Jason Sammon, Frankston Leader
Scott Rankin (Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal, 2004)
Friendship was as important a factor as dealing with landmines in Scott Rankin’s work to help rebuild war-shattered communities in Cambodia.
Scott was the manager of an AusAID-funded project, ‘Rebuilding Local Communities in Battambang Province’ in Cambodia, in which Australian volunteers assisted communities where large-scale resettlement of refugees was occurring. Secure land tenure plays a significant role in economic development giving people the confidence to make investments in their land and community.
The Battambang Province has only been free from conflict since successful peace negotiations between the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian Government in 1996. People were anxious to return home and resume their normal lives, but found that infrastructure had been destroyed.
Landmines were widespread, kidnappings were common, and the Khmer Rouge still stalked the villages by night. At personal risk to his own safety Scott’s task was to go out into the Cambodian rural community, assess the needs of the villagers and match this to the availability of trained Australian volunteers.
Volunteers spent two years ‘in country’ becoming immersed in the Cambodian culture. Scott, a Khmer speaker, says that Australians in the field often found they could work with villagers of widely-differing political allegiances for the good of the whole community. One of the keys to success was the friendship arising from a shared sense of humour.
‘The result of sharing a laugh was that we formed real and lasting friendships – it wasn’t just a matter of aid dollars,’ he says.
In 2004 Scott received the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal (Cambodia Clasp) for the outstanding humanitarian work he performed. This medal honours people who render humanitarian service overseas in hazardous situations such as war zones, peacekeeping operations, natural disasters or civil strife.
See: Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal
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