Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Soul Survivors gives voice to the women and children who stayed in Cambodia after the genocide (1975-1979), when nearly two million people died from execution, starvation, or disease. It includes the stories of two refugees who came to the US as orphans, returning as young adults to help their country. These engaging personal narratives reveal that hope and kindness survived the darkest period of Cambodia's recent history. Sixty-four photographs draw the reader into contemporary Cambodia to witness the survivors' courageous work to rebuild their lives, families, and culture in one of the poorest nations in the world. Soul Survivors includes a chronology of Cambodian history, a map, and an index. Additional chapters describe the Khmer Rouge, the role of the US, the landmine situation, and the Buddhist peace movement.

SYNOPSIS

Soul Survivors gives voice to the women and children who stayed in Cambodia after the genocide (1975-1979), when nearly two million people died from execution, starvation, or disease. It also includes the stories of two refugees who came to the US as orphans, returning as young adults to help their country. These engaging personal narratives reveal that hope and kindness survived the darkest period of Cambodia￯﾿ﾽs recent history.

Sixty-four photographs draw the reader into contemporary Cambodia to witness the survivors￯﾿ﾽ courageous work to rebuild their lives, families, and culture in one of the poorest nations of the world. Soul Survivors includes a chronology of Cambodian history, a map, and an index. Additional chapters describe the Khmer Rouge, the role of the US, the landmine situation, and the Buddhist peace movement.About the Author

Carol Wagnerhas been working to end violence and heal the wounds of war for the past fifteen years. As the former director of a peace center located in the San Francisco Bay Area, she started programs in conflict resolution and race relations. She works with women￯﾿ﾽs organizations in Cambodia and Vietnam and has led educational tours to those countries. Her efforts include marketing handicrafts made by landmine victims and poor women and raising funds for many humanitarian projects such as a women￯﾿ﾽs revolving loan fund, scholarship programs, and medical clinics. She was a UN-trained observer in Cambodia￯﾿ﾽs 1998 election.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Judy Ledgerwood

These are the stories of survivors at the Khmer Rouge regime, but also survivors of war, of corrupt governments, of poverty, of hatred, of racism. It is in the details of their lives, as a teacher, a dancer, a doctor, ￯﾿ﾽthat one finds great heroism. The book is important because it is about the best of what it means to be human.  — Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University

Susan Cook

On the eve of a judicial reckoning for the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, Soul Survivors provides a painfully human face to the Cambodian genocide. The book effectively demonstrates the political, economic, and psychological links between the destruction of Cambodian society carried out in the 1970s and the suffering experienced by so many Cambodians today. — Director, Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale Center for International and Area Studies

David Chandler