LEARNING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: Hamilton Hayes shows where a new school will be built in Cambodia with the help of Bellingham Cambodia Rural Schools Project. Hayes helped start the Bellingham group last June. He also gives talks to schools to help American students learn about students in Cambodia. MAME BURNS HERALD PHOTO

Michelle Nolan, For the Bellingham Herald

Hamilton Hayes says he learned almost by accident how he could make a difference in the lives of impoverished children half a world away. Now he wants as many Whatcom County residents as possible to realize that, too.

Hayes is chairman of the Bellingham Cambodia Rural Schools Project, which is raising money to build a school in Cambodia in conjunction with American Assistance for Cambodia. A software product manager and a Bellingham resident since 1999, he was touched by the plight of Cambodian children while on vacation in 2003.

FIND OUT MORE

What: Bernie Krisher, a journalist-turned-philanthropist, will speak about building Cambodian schools and about victims of the child sex trade. Krisher, formerly with Newsweek magazine, is the director of American Assistance for Cambodia. When: 2 p.m. Saturday. Where: The Whatcom Educational Credit Union annex, across the street from the credit union at 600 E. Holly St. Details: E-mail the Bellingham Cambodia Rural Schools Project at bcrsp@biztran.com, or call Hamilton Hayes at 756-8060.

Question: How did you become interested in the challenges facing Cambodian children?

Answer: My wife (Gloria Harrison) and I were on a vacation in Asia and we wanted to see the ruins of Angkor Wat, near the center of the ancient Khmer civilization. Even before we landed, we were reading about the three children's hospitals created by Dr. Beat Richner. We had heard things were bad, but it sunk in that we were going into an area that had extreme challenges for the people.

Q: So you felt compelled to visit one of his hospitals?

A: Yes. We visited in the Siem Reap province. It was all spur of the moment. They really are in a very desperate situation, facing malaria, AIDS, dengue fever and other diseases. When we were going into temples, kids would just surround us, trying to sell souvenirs to help their families survive.

Q: How did you specifically become interested in schools in Cambodia?

A: When we asked what the No. 1 problem facing Cambodia was, we were consistently told education. I expected to hear about corruption, or disease, or land mines. When the Khmer Rouge killed more than 2 million people in the 1970s, they basically killed everyone who was educated and they destroyed the infrastructure. The people are still trying to recover from that. The country has a literacy rate of about 35 percent for Cambodians over the age of 15.

Q: What struck you about the villages?

A: We were told that in most villages, the teachers don't even get paid. Most villages don't have electricity or running water. We've learned that about 3,000 villages in Cambodia have no schools.

Q: When you got back home, what did you do?

A: I started doing more research. I was talking with my accountant and learned she had adopted a Cambodian child. She put me in touch with The Overlake School, near Woodinville, which built a private school in Cambodia.

Q: And you learned more about the financial needs?

A: The Asian Development Fund, formerly part of the World Bank, will match funds for the actual building of schools, so $13,000 in donations is enough to build an entire three- to five-room school costing $26,000. More than 250 schools have been built throughout Cambodia. We are No. 253, in Preah Vihear province in north-central Cambodia.

Q: What's your immediate financial goal?

A: The goal of our Bellingham Cambodia Rural School Project is to raise $18,000, with the other $5,000 - over and above the basic $13,000 - going for equipment, computers, solar paneling and teachers. We have collected more than $8,500 and we want to start construction as soon as possible. We're doing talks to service clubs and we're planning two benefit concerts March 12.

Q: This obviously has become a passion for you.

A: I call it "learning to make a difference." My personal crusade is for us as individuals to learn how to live in the world, how to create a caring world. It's through our actions we will teach others, including our political leaders, how to transform the world so we don't have so many conflicts, and so we don't have genocide.

Michelle Nolan is a freelance writer. For questions or story ideas, contact Neighbors editor Dean Kahn at dean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2291.

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