Thursday, November 3, 2005

Women PeaceMakers Program

"Teaching Peace after the U.S. bombs and Khmer Rouge Genocide in Cambodia's still Fragile State"

Conversation with

Thavory Huot of Cambodia

IPJ Theatre

12:30-2:00pm

A survivor of three decades of civil war, genocide and domestic violence, Thavory Huot, from Phnom Penh, Cambodia is the Program Manager of the Peace Education and Awareness Unit of the Working Group for Weapons Reduction (WGWR), which works to reduce weapons, promote peace and non-violent problem solving, strengthen the capacity of high school teachers, pedagogical trainers, teachers-in-training and civil society and strengthen the capacities of Cambodian civil society to build a peaceful and safe country. In the 1970s, Thavory witnessed the death of most of her family under the brutality of the Khmer Rouge. During those years, Thavory was forced into manual labor and built dams and irrigation channels; and transplanted, ploughed, and harvested rice. After the Vietnamese invasion in 1979, Thavory survived by teaching for food for almost a decade. In the 1990s, she became the Project Coordinator of the Buddhist Association of Nuns and Lay Women where she worked to empower women on national reconciliation and to heal the wounds of many years of war and genocide. Thavory is the mother of three adult children, two of her own and an adopted nephew, all of whom she says serve as inspiration for her tireless efforts to make peace in her scarred country. Thavory states, "I would never want my children to suffer the way I did." Domestic violence, including assaults with a deadly weapon, is common following years of conflict, and Thavory has worked in various projects against such violence since 1998. Thavory has never stopped meeting challenges in her life. For example, she taught English and French in her free time not only for food but also to help Cambodian children. She promises not only to tell her story but to take home everything she learns from this experience with other peacemakers.