'Some of the kids are missing an arm or a leg'

Unable to find work in Ireland, Lisa Melville got one with a difference: at the Cambodia Landmine Museum

LIKE MANY of her peers, 24-year-old Lisa Melville from Knocklyon in Dublin has left Ireland in search of work and other experiences. Unlike many of her peers, she is currently volunteering for the Cambodia Landmine Museum Relief Centre.

The museum, north of the famous temples of Angkor Wat, bears harrowing testimony to the horrific fate this country has endured since the rise of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Hundreds of people lose limbs every year to the unexploded ordnance left behind after decades of conflict.

The museum was founded by Aki Ra, who spent years laying mines when he was a child conscript with the Khmer Rouge and then the Vietnamese Army, before using his knowledge to set about demining villages and rural areas once peace was restored.

What began as a collection of explosives and mines he had defused grew into a museum highlighting the dangers posed by the estimated six million landmines that render huge swathes of the Cambodian countryside no-go areas.

Aki Ra now leads a team of certified Cambodian deminers, and the Cambodia Landmine Museum Relief Centre includes a school and residence for disadvantaged children, many of them mine victims, in which Melville teaches. The charity has also helped set up and run a number of other schools in Cambodia.

As a recognition of his remarkable work in the country, Aki Ra was nominated for a CNN Hero Award.

Here, Melville discusses her work with the Cambodia Landmine Museum, and the benefits of volunteering abroad.

“After graduating in psychology from Maynooth, I temped for 18 months with AIB, but after that I couldn’t find a job. As I really wanted to work abroad, I went through an agency called Bunac, which organises volunteer programmes and work visas.

"I'd been to Thailand before, but not Cambodia, but a friend had been here and that persuaded me to come. I had read First They Killed My Father, so was aware of the history, but when I visited the Killing Fields at Phnomh Penh, it brought everything into context. Knowing that aspect of the country's history helps you to relate.

“I knew there was a landmine problem, but didn’t know the figures until I got here. It’s astounding when you realise the scale. It’s going to take a long time to clear them. Maybe with more recognition there would be more funding and more teams out there demining.

“Aki Ra hasn’t been around much recently, because he’s been having interviews and arranging his visa to the US, and when he’s not doing that he’s out in the field demining. I imagine it’s quite overwhelming for him to go from just doing what he does for the sake of it to being internationally recognised for his achievements.

“All this attention is positive though. I’m sure he’s very grateful for the exposure, which will hopefully encourage more people to donate to the museum and school, and also to come and visit and recognise the work that he does.

“We’re really looking forward to the ceremony itself. It will be on early in the morning here. It feels like a bit of history in the making. There’s a buzz about the place, with CNN here to film for the awards show, and an Australian film crew recently here too.

“The day starts early, with a long drive to the school about 25 miles north of Siem Reap, but it’s beautiful scenery, so it’s a nice commute, and you always see something interesting, like pigs on the back of a motorbike or 10 children on top of a truck.

“You see kids at the side of the road, and families that are so poor, but they’re waving and smiling at you. When people are being so positive and smiling, it’s very hard to be in a bad mood. It’s infectious, you can’t help but smile and wave back.

“The people here are lovely, they just come up and talk to you, they want to know where you’re from, always asking a load of questions, making conversation. At the start I was kind of suspicious until I realised that people are genuinely interested in you. It’s not something you get at home, so it’s refreshing.

“I’m away for a year altogether. After this I’m going to Melbourne but I’ve really got a taste for the volunteering. Whatever you put into it, you get more – it’s so rewarding, it’s a great feeling seeing the children learn things.

“Some of the kids are victims of landmines, missing an arm or a leg. They just get on with it, you can’t underestimate them. You don’t notice those disabilities, because they don’t let it affect them, they’re always laughing and smiling.

“It makes you realise how any problems you might have are minor in comparison, because if they can just get on with things . . . you can easily get on with the problems in your life that are trivial in comparison.”

For more information on CNN Heroes, see heroes.cnn.com. For more information about Aki Ra’s work, see cambodialandminemuseum.org