Our Story
The human story behind our mission
In 2012, Australian Weh Yeoh found himself in one of the most remote parts of Cambodia. He met a boy whose name was Ling.
Ling has cerebral palsy, damage that occurs in a young brain around the time of birth. As a result, he had problems speaking to the point where his language wasn’t clear at all and he struggled to be understood.
Despite being 10 years old at the time, he had never been to school and couldn’t read, write or bathe himself. He was completely dependant on his family, destined to earn an income through begging.
Those around him labelled him “chqoot” – a Cambodian word translated as “stupid”, but when Weh met Ling for the first time he could see that he wasn’t stupid. Perhaps he just had a problem with communication?
Using volunteers from Australia, Weh was able to organise basic training in speech therapy with Lin's community worker, Phearom - and bit by bit, Ling’s language started to improve until he was able to communicate with his family.
After months of hard work, Ling’s speech had improved so much that he was able to start school for the very first time.
A year later Weh visited Ling to see how he was doing and was elated to discover that Ling wasn’t just participating in school, he was excelling and coming second in his class.
From once living in isolation, unable to communicate with those around him, Ling now jokes that he has “too many friends” and continues to thrive.
Through his work, Weh soon discovered that there are thousands of children in Cambodia just like Ling who live isolated lives because they simply cannot communicate.
It is estimated that 1 in 25 Cambodians need speech therapy, and yet there are currently no Cambodian speech therapists in the country, and until 2019 there was no government policy addressing the issue.
In 2013, OIC Cambodia was established to tackle Cambodia’s overwhelming need for speech therapy services.
OIC Australia supports the work of OIC Cambodia through fundraising and awareness campaigns. Together we will build the foundations that will establish sustainable speech therapy services in Cambodia.
If you would like to lean more about the history of OIC Australia, please see our Timeline