ACTIVIST GETS DEGREE

MORE honours have been bestowed on Siem Reap’s landmine activist Tun Channareth who, in 1997, was chosen to accept the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Now the US regional newspaper North West Asia Weekly reports that Channareth, who works at the Jesuit Service Centre in Siem Reap, will travel to the US to accept an honorary doctoral degree from Seattle University at its graduate commencement ceremony on June 12.

Seattle University president Stephen Sundborg told the newspaper: “Mr Channareth has reached out with compassion in service to other landmine victims while working tirelessly to rid the world of these insidious weapons.”

Channareth was nominated for the university honour by professors whose students had worked with him during a recent learning tour in Siem Reap.

To assist Channareth’s work, the students helped raise $2000 for rural education and health projects.

Channareth told the paper:

“The real winners are people around the world who are threatened daily by landmines and cluster bombs.

“The congratulations should go to Seattle University students, faculty, and staff, because they see these global issues and take leadership action.”

HEDGE FUND CHARITY

SIEM Reap-based Angkor Hospital for Children is set to become a beneficiary of a charity set up in 2006 by Asia’s hedge fund industry.

Bloomberg reported that the charity, Returns Invested in Children and Education (RICE), is stepping up efforts to raise money for kids, including the sick in Cambodia and those in India’s brothels.

Bloomberg reported that Asia-focused hedge funds attracted more than $3.6 billion in net new capital in the first quarter, taking the industry’s assets to $88 billion.

Peter Douglas, a RICE director who is principal of Singapore-based GFIA Pte. Ltd. said: “It’s a successful industry that generates a lot of cash and a lot of the profitability of the industry comes because it’s here in Asia. There’s a genuine need to give back and a means to do so.”  Hong Kong-based Tessa Boudrie, who monitors projects focused on children and education for the charity, told Bloomberg that RICE is considering allocating more funds to Siem Reap’s Angkor Hospital for Children, which provides paediatric care and education for Cambodian health workers.