St Margaret’s Church’s Reverend Victor Adams with Maree Hogan.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Maree Hogan’s adventures in Cambodia over the past few years have seen her do just about everything you could imagine.
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It goes without saying that her trips, organised by the agricultural charity Cows for Cambodia, are somewhat unlike her other regular overseas trips.
“Usually, they’re a little bit more luxurious,” Maree said.
“You go to Cambodia and you know you’re going to be ear-tagging calves, vaccinating cattle, swabbing goats, and, yes, plucking big fat toads out of tanks.”
While such an adventure might not be for the faint of heart, Maree has come away from her experiences with a profound sense of fulfilment, knowing she has made a difference.
“That’s what we’re giving the Cambodians: hope — by helping them in sustainable ways,” Maree said.
“And not just financial handouts that you see the governments giving them, but giving them an animal that’s going to help them on the land, building homes to put people in so they have a better quality of life, and helping the schools, so children are educated, and they understand that the world is coming to them, and they want to be able to respond to it.”
Recently, Maree gave a presentation of her most recent two trips to an enthralled audience at St Margaret’s Church, Cobram.
Maree Hogan gave a talk at St Margaret's Church in Cobram about her experience in Cambodia.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Maree’s presentation covered aspects of Cambodian life, including building a home and the spiritual customs involved, the giving of rice sacks, a trip to a crocodile farm, a floating village and a school where Maree taught.
She has garnered a deep respect for the Cambodian people through her time there.
“I think the first thing was the friendliness and respect the people have — not just for visitors, but for one another,” Maree said.
“They’re very polite. They don’t express a need, but from the standard of living we have, we believe they have a need. And it’s so easy for us to step in, whereas they’re just going from day to day.”
Her interest in Cows for Cambodia was sparked in 2020, when she heard about the organisation through the ABC’s Landline program.
On the day of Maree’s talk, St Margaret’s Church raised about $400 from its collection box.
“The money will go towards things like exercise books and pencils, rulers and rubbers. There’s a bit of a drive on at the moment to buy a printer for the school, so the teachers can use that to prepare work for classes.”
Just outside the tourist capital of Siem Reap lies the Chambok Future School, where Maree taught an English lesson to a class of eager children.
“It has 640 students on its books, and they’re only in class for one hour per day, so those children can be fed through four classrooms,” Maree said.
Cows for Cambodia is an agricultural charity program that aims to break the poverty cycle in one of the world’s poorest nations.
The charity works to provide rural families with a cow calf, and has, since 2016, offered tours to people who would like to help teach English classes, vaccinate calves and build homes.
Maree will return there again in November. By then, she hopes to have collected even more items of stationery and perhaps a printer to gift to the school students.
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