Australian Story: Aug 17

Tonight’s Australian Story profiles 70 year old Australian Geraldine Cox who weighs up the future of 400 children under her care in Cambodia.

When Geraldine Cox first went to Cambodia as a fun-loving twenty-five year old in 1970 she had no idea of the role the country would play in her future. Working as a secretary in the Australian Embassy she dreamed of ‘swanning around in a black cocktail dress and seducing James Bond types’.

Instead, she’d arrived during the early days of the Vietnam War crossing into Cambodia. Former diplomat and friend Michael Mann remembers that ‘it was like living in a war movie… we used to go down to the river and watch the B52’s drop bombs across the river… they fluttered down like birds and then the ground would move where you were standing. It was surreal.’

In 1996, when Geraldine’s career in the diplomatic corps was over, she returned to the country that had made such a big impression on her to run an orphanage under the auspices of Princess Marie, wife of Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Cambodia was politically unstable and ensuring a safe future for her orphanage involved delicate negotiations with both Prince Ranariddh and Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Today Geraldine Cox runs her own orphanages – she currently has three residential villages, one for HIV children and non-HIV children who have been abandoned by their families after their parents have died of the disease; she has recently been asked by the government to take over two more orphanages; and she runs another non-residential educational and sporting facility. She is responsible for more than 400 children, and has branched into community welfare, early childhood teaching and village infrastructure work.

But having recently celebrated her 70th birthday, and a constant battle for funding, she has concerns about the future for her children. A 2011 UNICEF report that found many children in Cambodian orphanages have at least one living parent has also led to some changes in direction towards community projects. However Geraldine Cox says she will always offer some residential care.

8pm Monday on ABC.