The fate of Cambodia shocked the world when the radical communist Khmer Rouge, under its leader Pol Pot, seized power in 1975 ofter years of guerrilla warfare. The Khmer Rouge revolution turned Cambodia into grisly killing fields, as the Pol Pot regime murdered or starved to death an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians over the following 3 years. The war lasted about 17 years, and Pol Pot finally lost control of his army in the 1990’s. Peace has reigned in Cambodia since 1998.
The United Nations, together with the Cambodian Government, has tailored its own Millennium Development Goals to specifically meet the needs of Cambodia’s poorest and the first six objectives are to: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal, nine-year, basic education; promote gender equality and women’s empowerment; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. In Mondul 3 Village, on the outskirts of the tourist town of Siem Reap, the top six Millennium Development Goals for Cambodia read like a checklist for the needs of the village’s impoverished inhabitants.