Why Cambodia?

In my seventieth year, I realize how “beholden” I am to many individuals, some I knew well and others who were anonymous to me. Despite my life-long self-determination and pulling-myself-up by my own bootstraps, I have also learned how indebted I am to those who cared for me along the way.

Nowhere was this more apparent than when I was a scholarship student. For eight years, including college and graduate school, Mr. Warren Corning of the American Foundation supported my education. After I had demonstrated my pluck at age sixteen by hitchhiking through Europe and finding my own schooling in an English boarding school, Mr. Corning thought I was worth an investment. And when I nearly flunked out of college in my freshman year, he commented, “Look Fred, I’m here not just for the money, rather I’m here to think through life with you when there are really tough times.”

Mr. Corning’s genuine interest in me as a human being made all the difference in who I am today, and why I founded the Cambodian Arts and Scholarship Foundation. After being on the end of receiving, I found the need to create that magic for others. Life in its mysterious way opened a path 10,000 miles away in Cambodia. A voice said, “Fred, work here with these Cambodian young people. You don’t need to know their name in the beginning. Find the ones who are ready for assistance and who will carry on the tradition of rebuilding their country.” And so, I began.

Some folks have asked, “Why aren’t you working in Somalia or Afghanistan or along the poorest streets of our own Chicago?” My answer is, “I wasn’t called there.”

So what’s my biggest worry about the process of being beholden? I am concerned that we keep our promises to the young people of Cambodia to be there for them in the long run. Putting a child in school isn’t for a month or a year. Our contributions imply continuity.

On the front lines in Cambodia I am asked, “Lokta, (Grandfather), if I work hard, can I go to high school, please?”

“Yes,” I promise, again making myself beholden. “We’ll find a way.”

- Frederick Lipp