Back to the very beginnings… but first, we can’t repeat it often enough – fucking grand Fabulous People of Tepardey Village… We returned to the village, around an hour away from Siem Reap town, and the people who made our first campaign “Mothers+Heroes” what it is today. A wonderful piece of mutual efforts which makes me indescribable proud of the cast and every single heart who shared their blood and love for it. We returned to show them what they created. Unfortunately one of my favorite visuals, Sooy, can barely see anymore, but we laughed a lot together about the sillyness of the modern world and how she got in her age on that poster… because she is beautiful, like all the other elders, kids, dogs, chickens – beings. And because they feel ashamed, because they dont think they are worth a drop of ink or attention we showed them different. I had to fight with tears during my short talk. And I do now again and hopefully always. Tears of pride but also tears of restless anger, that I have not the power to change everything NOW and the world doesnt see. An older woman can be blind, but a wolrd can be reigned by ingnorance.
We showed the clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IuLL2MjBzM I think over 10 times. They couldnt get enough of their smiles, some of them first didnt even realize that it´s them in this video. The stickers, flyers and posters with them on it and knowing that the people of this village dont only work to help themselves with this, but also slowly understand that they are helping their people, Cambodian people, is that glimpse of happiness I saw after in their eyes…
I hope this pride we feel for their being, the respect I feel for their fight for life but also acceptance of life, which taught me so much here in Cambodia, I hope we can someday find a way to translate. Yesterday it was a start. We saw their smiles and their surprise when they realized EVERYONE in the world can see you now, your smiles and your beauty. I hope we can show so much more.
We love you people.
We have nothing than gratitude and respect for you.
Thank you Cambodia.
And there will be more… soon we start a small sponsorship for three kids, parents left to Thailand. We will not expose any images or names. We just do it. If you want to support this sponsorship, you are welcome to buy our products. If you dont, our commitments stand, we do it anyway. Though the more supporters we have, the more commitments we can enter.
