It has been a busy year in Cambodia and we want to thank all of you for your tremendous help in making it as successful as it has been.

As you may know, our NGO (non-governmental organization) is the only all-Khmer demining NGO in Cambodia completely funded by volunteer donations. When we began this journey, in 2008, we wondered if we could have the impact we wanted.

We are. And it has happened only because YOU have made it so.

In 2010:

■we cleared 7 villages
■we built and support 2 village schools and pay the teacher monthly
■we removed 153 mines and UXOs
■we put 4,695 people back on land that had been killing them
We began the year with 15 deminers.

We ended the year with a team of 25. Twenty-five dedicated men and women who work 25days of every month making Cambodia safe for its people. Khmers working for Khmers.

We work in what we define as 'low priority' villages. These are villages with mine fields 1 - 10 hectares in size, who have suffered death and dismemberment from these fields for years. But because they are small fields, they have not yet reached 'the top of the list'.

These are the places we work. These are the people you are saving.

We judge our success not on how many mines we can clear, but on how many people we can effect, how many lives we can change, and how many villages are now more self sufficient than they were before CSHD arrived.

If villagers are afraid to use a field because it is killing them, it matters not if that field has 1 mine left, or is infested with 1,000 mines. That land is not being used. Most of this country is rural. Most of the population are farmers. Without usable land, they cannot feed their families, and must rely on the charity of other nations to survive.

CSHD, through YOU, is changing this nation!

Our budget runs around $9,000 per month. We pay our deminers $150 - $250 per month. The average income in Cambodia is just over $40 per month. Our second largest expense is fuel. Third is food and fourth is medical expense. If someone gets ill, they are cared for, and the cost is absorbed by CSHD. Malaria, dengue fever, and snakes are some of the every day threats we face. All our deminers are provided with anti-malarial medication daily. Later this month all will receive flu shots. We have a full time medic on site at all times.

Equipment, replacement costs for obsolete and broken equipment, and maintenance vary by month depending on what breaks and how bad the access roads to the villages we clear.

Your donations have kept us in the field. Without you - people die, and that is NO exaggeration.

Earlier this year Aki Ra was chosen by CNN as one of the 10 CNN Heroes of 2010. 10,000 were nominated from over 100 countries. This honor has helped greatly in raising our profile. Many of you receiving this email heard about Aki Ra's work from CNN. If you didn't see the show, it will be re-broadcast on Christmas Day in the US and Europe and Christmas Eve in Asia. Check your local listings for the time.

As the end of the year is approaching, our friends in America can make a final tax free donation to our sister charity in the US, the Landmine Relief Fund. Just click on the PayPal button.

Many of our friends have made donations to our work in lieu of Holiday gifts this year. If you would like to make a donation in some ones honor, let us know and we will acknowledge it to your friends.

And please...NO donation is too small. Together, we can all make a difference. You can be part of the solution to a huge problem. And all you have to do is take that 'one small step'.

Thank you all for your continuing support.

Bill Morse

Aki Ra
www.Landmine-Relief-Fund.com
www.CambodianSelfHelpDemining.org

'No man is an island...any man's death diminishes me for I am involved in mankind. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls...It tolls for thee.' John Donne

Another Big Supporter of Aki Ra

Valley business aids one of
CNN's ‘Heroes'

Debra Gruszecki •
The Desert Sun • November
25, 2010

America is thankful for its heroes.

And tonight when CNN televises its “Top 10
Heroes,” Debby Alexander, proprietor of Peabody's
Café & Bar, will quietly celebrate the good works of
Aki Ra and the role the Palm Springs restaurant
played to help his cause.

Ra, a former child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, has
dedicated his life to detonating and dismantling the
landmines he once placed in Cambodia.

For Alexander's part, Peabody's held three separate
fundraising events — at which Cambodian art and
donated items from Palm Springs businesses and
small hotels were sold — with longtime customer
Bill Morse to raise $22,000 for the landmine relief
fund.

When CNN taped its all-star annual tribute in the
Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Alexander was
one of 13 people to get an invitation from Ra and
Morse to attend the red carpet event featuring
Jessica Alba, Renee Zellweger, Marisa Tormei, Aaron
Eckhart, Demi Moore and Halle Berry as presenters.

“It was a real thrill,'' she said.

“When Renee Zellweger came out and introduced
Aki, he spoke before this big crowd with limited
English,'' Alexander said.

“He spoke about his wife dying last year, and how
much she had helped him. It got emotional.”

Alexander was able to see Morse for a few minutes
as well.

He and his wife, Jill, moved to Siem Reap, Cambodia,
last year to help Ra get international certification
and a license from the Cambodian government to
legally remove landmines that once were deactivated
with a stick.

Morse also helped Ra get a $100,000 grant to buy a
truck and assemble a rapid response team that can
respond to villagers who find mines.

Ra, who sometimes placed up to 1,000 landmines a
day in the 1980s, has not only cleared more than
50,000 of the estimated 6 million explosives the war
left behind. Ra has also cared for dozens of children
who have been maimed by mines.

“I got to see Bill for a minute before he and Aki Ra
flew back to Cambodia,'' Alexander said.

“I got to meet other people who have helped the
landmine relief fund. While at the taping, I also got
to meet Richard Fatoussi, who is making a film
about Ra.”

Alexander said that film, “The Perfect Soldier,'' has
just been presented to judges of the Palm Springs
International Film Festival.

The CNN show will be televised at 5 p.m. today.

Peabody's Cafe, 134 S. Palm Canyon Drive, will be
closed tonight for the holiday and this simple
reason: Alexander has a date with the TV.

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20101125/BUSINESS/11240374/Valley-business-aids-one-of-CNN-s-8216-Heroes-

CNN Heroes Broadcast Schedule

CNN – Domestic (U.S)

Thursday 11/25/10
Showbiz Tonight @ CNN Heroes (Pre-Show)
(CNN & HLN)
7pm ET / 4pm PT
12am ET (Sat) / 9pm PT

“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
(CNN ONLY - All Airings)
8pm ET / 5pm PT
10pm ET / 7pm PT
1am ET (Sat.) / 10 pm PT

Friday 11/26/10
Showbiz Tonight @ CNN Heroes (Pre-Show)
(CNN & HLN)
3am ET / 12 am PT

“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
4am ET / 1 am PT

Saturday 11/27/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
8pm ET / 5pm PT
11pm ET / 8 pm PT
2am ET (Sat) / 11pm PT

Sunday 11/28/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
8pm ET / 5pm PT
11pm ET / 8 pm PT
2am ET (Mon) / 11pm PT


CNN International

Thursday 11/25/10
(Initial Global Broadcast)

ET Buenos Aires GMT & London Europe/Africa
8pm 10pm Fri 1am Fri 2am

Abu Dhabi New Delhi Hong Kong
Fri 5 am i 630am Fri 9am

Friday 11/26/10
(CNNI Exclusive airings)

ET Buenos Aires GMT & London Europe/Africa
5am /4pm 7am/6pm 10am/9pm 11am/10pm

Abu Dhabi New Delhi Hong Kong (PT)_____
2pm/Sat 1am 330pm/ Sat 230am 6pm/Sat 5am 2am/1pm


CNN Espanol

Thursday 11/25/10
(Initial Global Broadcast)
8pm ET

Saturday 11/27/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
7pm ET

Sunday 11/28/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
9pm ET

Update From LA

Aki Ra and I landed in LA exactly 24 hours from the time we left Siem Reap. A long long trip, but worth every minute.

Wednesday we went shopping and Aki Ra bought some things he couldn't get in Cambodia....mainly a good pair of jungle boots. He's breaking them in now for the taping thursday nite..

This evening CNN had a private party for the 10 Heroes and a few of us 'extras'. What an amazing group of people CNN chose. With a very small staff, they started reading the nominations the day after last year's show ended. From over 10,000 they chose 25. A Blue ribbon Panel chose the Top 10. I refuse to say finalists because this not a competition.

Tomorrow is rehearsal and Saturday the big day.

Aki Ra is having fun. But he does miss the kids. I had my wife, Jill, gather Amatak, Mine and Metta together and call Papa this evening from the Museum. When he left and told Metta (almost 3) he was going to America, she said...'the mine field'?

Well, outa the mouth of babes..............

Gonna try and get some sleep.....

Babu from the jungle.

OFF TO LA LA LAND

Aki Ra and I leave in 8 1/2 hours for the CNN Tribute Show filming in Los Angeles.

Gonna be a lloonngg trip:

5 hours from Siem Reap to Seoul
9 hour layover in Seoul
11 hours from Seoul to LA

We get in Wednesday morning. CNN was good enough to get us there a bit early so we could recoup some.

Aki Ra doesn't know it yet, but the kids from the Museum are coming to the airport to see him off. They spent the day making a big sign that says

GOOD LUCK AKI RA

OUR HERO

He still doesn't quite know what he's in for. But I've told him he doesn't need to do anything, this is all being done for him and the other 9 Heroes.

Don't forget to vote, again. Voting continues until the 18th.

Be sure and watch us on CNN on Thanksgiving nite (Thursday 25 November) at 8pm EST/PST.

Wish him luck and learn from him and all the other Heroes that it doesn't make any difference who you are, what you have, or how old you are....YOU can make a difference.

More from Hollywood......

Babu in the Jungle

A Day in the Life

Tonight I was sitting in my hotel room watching television when I got a phone call from Aki Ra. We’d spent the day getting his visa at the US embassy in Phnom Penh and running errands in town. We’d finished a phone interview with Voice of America at 8pm and he and a friend finally got a chance to go to his favorite restaurant in town and have Chinese dumplings. I went back to the hotel to get some rest.

At 9:45 he called me. While eating dinner one of the waitresses had collapsed on the floor. She couldn’t move or speak. The owner simply picked her up and tossed her out the door, telling her if she couldn’t work, she couldn’t stay.

Aki Ra went outside, picked her up, got a taxi and took her to a clinic down the street. When I got there she’d been there 30 minutes. Seems she had been working long, long hours and had collapsed from exhaustion. The doctor had treated her, given her some medication and she was recovering. When I got there she sat up, crying, and thanked Aki Ra for his help.

Aki Ra had called one of her friends, who came to the clinic to be with her. She got her prescription filled, we paid the $7 bill and Aki Ra was taking her home to rest.

He’d had a serious conversation with the restaurant owner also.

He was bewildered that anyone would toss a human being into the street like a bag of garbage. He’s going to check on her the next couple of days while he waits for his visa to be prepared.

He'd never met her before in his life.

Makes me even happier I nominated him as a CNN Hero.

Babu

CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY

Been a real hectic couple of weeks here. Last month Aki Ra got nominated as a CNN Top 10 Hero and things have started to take off.

CNN arrives next week to do some more filming. We'll be working at the Museum, in the mine field and around Siem Reap.

Then on the 16th of November Aki Ra and I travel to Los Angeles for the taping of the Tribute Show for 2010. It will be taped at the Shrine Auditorium and broadcast on Thanksgiving night at 8pm EST/PST on CNN.

This has been a real labor of love for me. I nominated Aki Ra, not really expecting him to be recognized. We've struggled for so long to get the Museum up and running, to get the demining team in the field, and to get people to recognize the problems that still exist...I just figured that my little submition would get shunted aside.

Then when he was chosen as one of the 25 to be featured on the website and promoted on TV I was just amazed.

At that point I really thought maybe we had a chance to tell the world about the work this guy and his friends are doing. When he made the 25, I felt confident he could make the 10.

Now it's up to you.

The 'winner' ( a really bad term) will be chosen by on-line voting. The winner last year got 2,500,000 votes.

You can vote for Aki Ra at: http://heroes.cnn.com/vote.aspx

And you can vote more than once.

Thank you CNN for recognizing my hero as one of your heroes.

Babu out