Cambodia: A Journey of Kindness and Generosity
December 4, 2024
Sister Mai Nguyen-Doan is a member of the fourth cohort of the Mercy Global Action Emerging Leaders Fellowship. In September, she completed the first immersion, which was to Cambodia. She reflects on her experience and the generosity and kindness of the Cambodian people .
I feel privileged to have be selected as one of the ten fellows in Cohort Four of the Mercy Global Action Emerging Leaders Fellowship (MELF). It is a twelve-month program that started in September 2024-2025. In addition to a number of components that we are expected to do during the program, there are also three ten-day international immersions in Cambodia (September 2024), New York (March 2025) and Dublin (August/September 2025).
Cambodia is not very far from my original homeland, Vietnam. However, I did not know much about Cambodia and could not speak the language, except I learnt some basic Khmer before the trip. In addition to the ten-day program, I arrived in Cambodia a few days before the program started with another Fellow to visit other parts of Cambodia, such as Phnom Penh and Battambang. These extra few days seemed to be another immersion for me as well.
The ten-day program in Cambodia was very well structured and planned. However, we had to cancel and change our plans at times due to the weather, nevertheless the “Host” Sr Denise Coghlan, and the MELF Team re-organised and re-adjusted the programs very quickly to enable us to complete the full program.
I cannot speak Khmer, but there was no obstacle communicating and interacting with the local people, as most people speak English adequately well and we could also use sign language. The people always greet you with a beautiful smile and lovely gentle gestures. Nevertheless, the more I love the people, the sadder I felt when witnessing their living situation and hearing their past and current stories. One of the most challenging experiences for me was to see school aged children working instead of going to school.
Through the MELF program, I had opportunities to visit significant places in Cambodia which broadened my understanding of the country and its rich history. I am aware that certain aspects of history left considerable impact on the country and its people. As part of my personal visit to other areas of Cambodia, I was privileged to accompany one of the Ursuline Sisters in Battambang for her Sunday routine visit to the local people where the sister provides a small package of essential cooking ingredients. The people being visited seem to know when the sister visits and they prepare some fruits from their garden for the sister to bring home to her community or to give to people she meets after the Sunday mass. On the one hand, this gives us a picture of the living situation of the people in certain parts of the country, on the other hand, this gives us a picture of a generous and kind community.
Besides their kindness and generosity, the people are also very trusting. We were invited to go out for lunch before we left for Seam Reap where we met with the rest of the Fellows. Our car was parked a short distance from the restaurant, we were advised that we could leave our suitcases and other belongings in an open backed ute. I walked away with an uneasy heart, but I came back with amazement and admiration that everything was still there. If each one of us is willing to share our resources like the people of Cambodia, we would not have people living in hunger in our world. If we could create trust for one another, we would all live in a peaceful world. May we be reminded of these great examples to make changes in our lives for our people and our world.
Messages to: mai.nguyendoan@mercy.org.au
In September, the MELF participants were featured on a Zoom from Cambodia where they talked about their experiences.