Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Hey everyone!!!  Cambodia is another stop on the September 2010 World Race.  Cambodia marked with a dark past full of oppression and fear.  God is bringing a new hope to this country that his people are longing for.

  • Cambodia is 181,035 sq km which is slightly smaller than Oklahoma
  • Population: 14,494,293
  • 90% of the population is Khmer, 5% is Vietnamese, 1% Chinese, and the remaining 4% is “other”.
  • 96.4% of the population is Buddhist, 2.1% is Muslim, and other is 1.5%
  • Cambodia’s flag is the only flag to incorporate a building on it, the Angkor Wat temple.
  • Cambodia has 17 airports, of which only 6 are paved.
  • Cambodia is home to Angkor Wat, a temple built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century.
  • Originally a Hindu temple dedicated to the God Vishnu,Angkor Wat is now a Buddhist temple.
  • The Angkor Empire reached over much of Southeast Asia and reached the pinnacle of it’s rule between 10th and 13th centuries.
  • In 1863, Norodom, the King of Cambodia, placed the country under French protection and it eventually became part of French Indochina in 1887
  • Cambodia gained it’s independence from France     on November 9, 1953.
  • The Khmer Rouge communist regime took control of the capital, Phnom Penh in 1975.  As a result at least 1.5 million Cambodians died from execution, forced hardships, or starvation under the communist leader, Pol Pot.
  • In December 1978, the Vietnamese invaded and drove the Khmer Rouge out.  This began a 10-year occupation for the Vietnamese, and started a civil war that lasted for almost 13 years in Cambodia.
  • The 1991 Paris Peace Accords established  democratic elections in Cambodia and a ceasefire, that was not immediately respected by the Khmer Rouge.
  • The remaining elements of the Khmer Rouge regime surrendered in early 1999.  Some of the leaders are still awaiting trial.
  • Like Thailand, Cambodia is a source, destination, and transportation country for human trafficking.
  • Many argue that the cause and rise of human trafficking in Cambodia is a result of the economical effect of the Khmer Rouge regime.
  • The Ministry of Social Affairs and Youth Rehabilitations discovered that about 76 % of those who were trafficked and were recovered had come from families who owned their land.  93 % owned their house and had no debt on the land or house, and 47% stated that their mother was the facilitator of their trafficking.