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CLMMRF
Box 197
Bayfield Ontario
Canada, N0M 1G0
voice:
519-565-2684
email: click here |
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ORGANIZATION BIOS
“I WANT TO MAKE MY COUNTRY SAFE FOR MY PEOPLE.”
-Aki Ra/Founder The Landmine Museum
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Aki Ra – National Project Manger
The CLMMRF NGO
Aki Ra is a former child conscript of the Khmer Rouge Army. He survived his
formative years by fighting with each of the various factions who fought in
Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge Revolution of 1975. As a child soldier, Aki
Ra soon developed deadly first-hand experience with mines and weapons of all
kinds. He spent well over a decade laying mines and booby traps made from
almost every explosive ordnance deployed during those long years at war.
In 1994, Aki Ra joined the United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia
(UNTAC) and received formal training as a de-miner. After working for UNTAC,
Aki Ra continued to clear mines and UXO (un-exploded ordnance) devices in
communities around the country. By 1998 he had acquired an impressive number
of de-commissioned casings from various mortars, mines, and artillery
shells. To date it is estimated that Aki Ra has cleared over 50,000 mines
and has been documented by dozens of filmmakers and journalists from around
the world.
Aki Ra has since completed further de-mining safety and explosives
certification from the International School of Explosive Engineering (ISEE)
in Salsbury, UK. The ISEE is one of the most highly recognized de-mining
training schools in the world. Aki Ra continues to clear hundreds of mines
per year. This museum houses a tiny fraction of his de-mining efforts. |
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Bou Senghourt (Hourt) – Administrative Director
The CLMMRF NGO
In 2000,Bou Senghourt travelled with some classmates from her school to
visit the Landmine Museum in search of a Japanese man she heard was
responsible for doing many wonderful things to help clear landmines from her
war-ravaged country. When she could not find him, Hourt asked a young Khmer
man that was showing tourists around the museum if he knew of this man. The
Khmer man smiled at her for a moment, rather taken by the beautiful young
woman. After a few minutes of conversation he revealed to her that he was
the “Japanese” man named Aki Ra (How Aki Ra got his Japanese name is a long
story!). Within a year Aki Ra and Hourt had fallen in love and were married.
Today, Hourt and Aki Ra have two children and share their home at the museum
with young landmine amputees who are supported by the NGO. Hourt spends most
of her time seeing to the health and welfare of the children who live under
the care of the CLMMRF while also managing to balance tending her own
household and raising two boys of her own. She is a mother to a very unique
and special family. Hourt is also responsible for the operation of the NGO’s
school, dormitory, and health clinic,and is in charge of overseeing the
day-to-day operation of the Landmine Museum. |
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Richard Fitoussi – International Project Manager
The CLMMRF (NGO)
Canadian photojournalist, Richard Fitoussi, met Aki Ra for the first time
in April of 2000 while photographing him de-mining near Poi Pet. At the end
of their meeting Fitoussi asked Aki Ra if he had a dream for the future now
that the war had ended. Aki Ra responded by saying he wished to one day have
a “real” landmine museum NGO so that he could continue to clear mines around
his country. Fitoussi returned to Canada to realize Aki Ra’s vision of a
landmine free Cambodia. He spoke at schools and service clubs across North
America, fundraised, and developed an NGO mandate that embraced Aki Ra’s
dream. Over the course of seven years, while Fitoussi worked to find donors
to finance the project, he also implemented diplomacy strategies that helped
to provide international support for the organization.
In addition to holding the positions of the CLMMRF’s founder in Canada and
International Project Manager in Cambodia, Working in conditions of human
suffering has motivated him to seek hope in places that are often the
darkest. During his second tour in Afghanistan in the spring of 2006,
Fitoussi survived a Taliban roadside bomb attack that killed four Canadian
NATO soldiers whom he was travelling with. He plans to work with the CLMMRF
in the future and continue to photograph conflict in an effort to raise
global awareness about war. |
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Asad Rahman & Olivia Lorge
Landmine College Fund Program Managers
Asad Rahman & Olivia Lorge are Wildland Firefighters in the United States of America. Asad has been passionately fighting fires since 1985 and traveling internationally for almost as long. Olivia's involvement in fighting fires initially started during her voluntary two year commitment to AmeriCorps* National Civilian Community Corps, in 1995. She returned to wildland firefighting in 2001 and has done some freelance writing. Asad & Olivia share a common ethos, that all human kind shall have the right to a life of respect and dignity.
Asad Rahman and Olivia Lorge traveled to Cambodia together in 2005, in search of a young street boy Asad had met years before in Phnom Penh. The boy had left such an significant impression in Asad's heart, that he could not forget him. It was through pure happenstance or as some would say, fate, that Asad & Olivia found the boy residing in Aki Ra's Landmine Museum, nearly 150 km away from where they first met. This chance meeting with the boy, a landmine survivor, inspired a dream to help children in Cambodia attain a higher education. In 2006 The Cambodia Landmine Kids College Fund was initiated with the intent to help the children at Aki Ra's Museum have the opportunity to expand their learning platform. Through challenging, hard work, dedication and the support of many people internationally, Asad and Olivia have been able to comprise the workings of an education program for the children at Aki Ra's Museum.
On the horizon for Asad and Olivia is the creation of "Project Enlighten," a non-profit organization that will help humanity worldwide while providing continued support to Aki Ra's children at the Landmine Museum. The organization’s mandate is to create funding for a variety of different education and skill training programs. These will include university scholarships, vocational training projects, and micro finance loans to children who finish Cambodian State school curriculum. Funding contributed for the Landmine College Fund will be implemented under the CLMMRF NGO mandate as outlined in the by- laws of the organization. |
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Bill Morse
Mines Advisory Manager
Bill Morse graduated from Kemper Military College in 1968 and Texas Christian University in 1970 with a Bachelor’s degree in Education and majors in education, history and economics. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army, Military Police Corps and served on active duty in 1971 and was honorably discharged in 1985. Bill taught high school in Augusta, Georgia for a number years before he left the teaching profession and entered business.
Bill Morse’s career has been primarily involved with the evolution and growth of small manufacturing companies. Each of his sales positions involved finding and establishing stocking distributors, as well as hiring and managing a group of manufacturer’s representatives and/or a direct salespersons. His responsibilities included the development of new products; the integration of products from acquired companies, a comprehensive marketing program, the hiring and training of both a direct field sales force and a network of manufacturer’s reps to handle specific markets, as well as profit and loss responsibilities. In addition to this Bill Morse has held positions as president and CEO of several companies since and now works as a consultant.
In 2003 Bill was introduced, through a friend, to Aki Ra, an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier taking on the daunting task of clearing all the landmines left in Cambodia. He traveled to Siem Reap to meet Aki Ra and on his return began the Landmine Relief Fund ( www.landmine-relief-fund.com) to support the work of the Cambodian Landmine Museum and its Managing Director, Mr. Aki Ra. To date he has cleared in excess of 60,000 active landmines and IEDs while adopting 25 maimed, needy and orphaned children.
The Landmine Relief Fund charter is to support the work of the Cambodian Landmine Museum NGO. The LMRF became a 501c3 charity in 2004. All the funds received are forwarded to the Cambodian Landmine Museum. With the establishment of the ‘new’ museum in April of 2007 we have moved our work under the umbrella of the Museum Operations and will be sponsoring all of the de-mining activities that Aki Ra will develop in the future. |
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