ABOUT
SUNRISE CAMBODIA

Learn about our history, how we got started, and how far we've come in the fight to give Cambodia's most vulnerable children a chance at a better future.

MISSION & HISTORY.

Sunrise Cambodia is an organisation with a focus on Cambodia’s most vulnerable children and the communities in which they live.

Cambodia’s turbulent political history turned a once peaceful nation into a violent battlefield, leaving the country’s good-natured people on the brink of despair.

The civil war of the 1960s and 1970s coincided with the US carpet bombing on the Cambodian countryside, devastating communities and prompting widespread poverty. Shortly after, a brutal genocide instigated by radical communist leader, Pol Pot, saw over a quarter of the population (more than 2 million people) systematically murdered – a barbaric act where he sought to advance his political ideologies of revolution and eradicate the educated.

More than 40 years later, the deep loss of an entire generation is still widely profound.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS.

Sunrise Cambodia first lent a helping hand in the early 1990s. It was then when fifty-year-old Geraldine Cox was adamant to help a group of displaced war orphans living in appalling conditions close to the Cambodian-Thai border. Pol Pot’s brutal regime had claimed the lives of their parents, and Geraldine refused to turn a blind eye to their need for help.

With very little resources, Geraldine gave everything she could to provide care for the orphans, giving them nourishing food, a safe place to call home, the opportunity for an education and the nurturing love of a mother.

Within a short period, Geraldine was able to build outstanding rapport with the local community. As her charity work expanded, so did her vision, and she aspired to focus on rebuilding lives through sustainable community development.

She overcame every possible obstacle and remained committed to her vision in helping the future of Cambodia.