Cambodia Quick Facts

The new Social Work Department seeks to train professionals to address these multiple legacies of war and genocide. They are a generation of young people who will help steer Cambodia out of its period of darkness.

Be a part of the UW/RUPP Partnership for social change in Cambodia. Your financial contribution, donation of time or resources will have an enduring impact.

• The Need for Social Workers and Social Justice Remains
• All but 7 of the 17,000 prisoners detained at  the S-21 interrogation center were executed. Kaing Guek Eav (aka “Duch”), the former S-21 director was found guilty of crimes against humanity and grave breaches to UN Geneva Convention on July 26, 2010 – over three decades after the atrocities occurred.

  For more information, see
  http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/16/cambodia.khmer.rouge.verdict/index.html
  http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/07/26/pkg.rivers.duch.verdict.cnn

• The Kingdom of Cambodia, or Kampuchea is the size of the State of Missouri with a population of approximately 14.8 million of whom 33% is below the age of 15.
• The Angkor Wat temples are a UNESCO World Heritage Site built between 9 and 14 A.D.
• Between 1969 – 1973, the U.S. illegally dropped an estimated 550,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia and more than a million people were killed or wounded, in contrast to 3,900 tons dropped during the infamous Dresden bombing in WWII.
• Many of the bombs remain unexploded; even recently an average of 2 injuries/deaths occurs each day from unexploded ordnance making Cambodia have the highest per capita rate of amputees in the world.
• April 17, 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh and drove its population out of cities into the countryside with a plan for a utopian agrarian society.
• Between 1975-1979, an estimated 1.5-2 million people or ¼ of the country’s population died due to starvation, disease, forced labor, torture and genocide. The film “The Killing Fields” highlighted this period.
• At the end of 1979,
  • only about 300 people with a college education remained alive;
  • only 45 out of 450 doctors remained alive;
  • over one million refugees camped on the Thai border; and,
  • there was no currency, no public transportation, infrastructure for communications, and virtually no electricity.
• Over three decades after this horrific period,
  • Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in the world;
  • 35% of the population lives on $.45 per day;
  • only 41% have access to safe drinking water;
  • it has the highest rate of infant mortality in the region;
  • 64% of Cambodians are estimated to have tuberculosis;
  • life expectancy for males is 59 years and 65 years for a female;
  • 2/3 of 3rd graders not proficient in grade level reading and math;
  • 1 in 4 women aged 15-49 report having experienced an incident of domestic violence;
  • Cambodia is a sending, receiving and transit country for human trafficking with over 100,000 women and children being trafficked; and,
  • over 50% of 7-14 year olds are estimated to be working;