Outreach

Cambodia Project

While we make it our business to “move mountains” in the Pacific Northwest, sometimes lending a helping hand can help people half-way around the world. The employees of H2 began their “Cambodia Project” to help a former client turned missionary, Keat Kove, who wanted to make a difference in one of the 20th century’s most ravaged countries: Cambodia. Robin Hulce began his construction career in Hawaii and spent many years working with Keat. Keat had escaped from Cambodia in 1975 by emigrating to America and starting over. Many of Keat's friends and relatives were among the millions of Cambodians who fell in the killing fields. In Hawaii, Keat began developing residential communities and became a very successful entrepreneur. Yet his heart led him to return to the land which had suffered so mightily under the communist dictator Pol Pott in the late 1970’s.

After returning to Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 1994, Keat founded The Cambodian Mission Outreach (CMO) to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Cambodia. He opened a chapel and now a pre-school. You can read more about the work of The Cambodian Mission Outreach at http://www.cambodiachurch.org/

Many men want to work in Cambodia, but they lack the tools and the capital to get things going. In October 2007, Robin purchased this tractor for a man named Nak so he and other men could earn a living and support their families as well as support their church located on a small, coastal island. While this tractor seems tiny compared to H2’s large equipment, this tractor will allow one man to do the work of twenty in this third world country.

In October 2007, Robin went to Cambodia with his daughter Jessie to learn more about The Cambodian Mission Outreach and to assist with the arrival of the new tractor.

H2 Construction found another way to help. Nak is a gifted teacher and speaker who needed major dental work. Robin was able to get the work done at 1/3 the price in America. Wow! What a difference.

The employees of H2 are thankful to be playing a role in the rebuilding of Cambodia today and hope to continue this effort in the years ahead. H2 now contributes 1% of all project revenues to The Cambodian Mission Outreach. If you would like to find out ways that you can help the CMO, please call us at (541) 821-3299.

The Killing Fields

The Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh and took power in 1975, changing the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot. They immediately evacuated the cities and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century. They also discarded Western medicine, with the result that hundreds of thousands died from starvation and disease because there were almost no drugs in the country.

Estimates vary as to how many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime, ranging from approximately one to three million. Hundreds of thousands more fled across the border into neighboring Thailand.

After the brutality of the 1970s and the 1980s, and the destruction of the cultural, economic, social and political life of Cambodia, it is only in recent years that reconstruction efforts have begun and some political stability has finally returned to Cambodia. The stability established following the conflict was shaken in 1997 during a coup d'état, but has otherwise remained in place. Cambodia has been aided by a number of more developed nations like Japan, France, Canada, Australia and the United States, primarily economically. Money raised in schools and community groups in these countries has gone towards the rebuilding of infrastructure and housing. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia)