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February 14, 2005

To Whom May It Concern

Beginning with the Vietnam War through today, my loyalty and empathy for the ethnic minority Hmong of Laos and the Montagnards of Vietnam and Cambodia has remained strong. But as the years pass the plights of these hill tribes worsen and their futures grow dimmer.

My organization, Refugees International (RI), first began helping the Montagnards of Cambodia in 1999 when those on the Thai border were repatriated by UNHCR to their homelands in Mondolkiri and Ratanakiri Provinces of northeast Cambodia. They were among the very last Indochinese refugees to be repatriated and RI stepped in to assist the most vulnerable. There are just over 100,000 Montagnards in these two provinces which by far are the most impoverished in the country. These hill tribes are marginalized politically and their resources and land are being expropriated. They are powerless and 75% are illiterate.  Formal education and enlightening their youth in peaceful ways to advance their people is crucial to their survival.

It was in Cambodia in early 1999 that I first met Tommy Daniels, a very dedicated humanitarian and former U.S. Special Forces officer who served with  indigenous ethnic minorities during the Vietnam War. In 2002 his charity, Cambodia Corps, Inc. (CCi), was finally granted a non government organization (NGO) license by the Cambodian Government and we've crossed paths often in Cambodia. With three small grants and considerable personal expense, he took over a government homeless child shelter in Mondolkiri which houses 160-180 mostly Montagnard children. He's greatly improved the lives and morale of these previously neglected and malnourished children.

The CCi objective is to educate 1,200 homeless children to provide the hill tribes of Mondolkiri with an educated infrastructure.  This will greatly buttress their people's capacity to deal with the threats against their traditional ways of living and natural resources which they've protected since the beginning of time.  One seventh of these graduates will be employed in a ten-year Village Development Program to considerably reduce their 75% illiteracy rate, provide primary and lower secondary education, and teach a range of public health and peaceful community action subjects.

In 2003 the CCi College Scholarship Fund enabled three shelter high school graduates to enter universities; they're now sophomores.  Two more joined them in 2004 as freshmen and eleven others are in a Teachers Education program.  Several more were eligible for college but CCi did not have sufficient funds.

The CCi child's shelter is quite small and can only accommodate 180 children and adolescents, only a small portion of the Mondolkiri orphan and homeless child population.  Unless Tommy can acquire the funds to expand the shelter, it will take until the Year 2083 to achieve the goal of 1,200 high school, college, and teachers education graduates.  Per capita, 1,200 provides an infrastructure of one graduate for every five rural families or an average of twelve for each of the 98 villages.  The outside world is rapidly overcoming these people therefore it is essential that the CCi program be expanded as quickly as possible.

The CCi program also requires operating funds.  Unfortunately our funds are restricted for assessments of developing refugee crisis situations around the world.  Both myself and RI president Ken Bacon have visited the CCi child's shelter in Mondolkiri and highly endorse the program. I am prepared to describe in greater detail the important difference that CCi is making for the Montagnards in Cambodia.

Sincerely,

Lionel A. Rosenblatt
President Emeritus
Refugees International
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