Noeum Samuth

The Founder of HSPCCO          

Noeum Samuth (born Phnom Penh 7 July 1959), also known as ‘Luckyman’, has an extraordinary history.

On 17 April 1975, when Samuth was 15, the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia and forced everyone then living in cities (including Samuth’s family) into villages in the countryside to conduct hard labour. Conditions were harsh: people suffered from fever, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition. Many thousands starved to death, and hundreds of thousands were brutally murdered.

One day in 1976 as Samuth was trying to find food for his family, the Khmer Rouge discovered that his father was a former governor and army commander. On his return, Samuth discovered that his father, mother, brother and sister had been taken into the forest and shot dead.

To escape the Khmer Rouge and certain death, Samuth and 29 other members of the village fled towards Thailand. Only seven survived, the rest were killed by landmines. Samuth still bears injury scars from exploding mines, but survived.

However, unlike in the movie ‘The Killing Fields’, as soon as the surviving seven made it across the Thai border they were imprisoned by the Thai authorities. After eight months’ incarceration, having heard their stories the Red Cross finally persuaded the Thai authorities to release them.

Samuth and other exiles were offered political asylum by the USA and by Australia, but he chose to stay in the camp to care for refugees and to assist in the reconstruction of Cambodia when peace finally returned.

In 1979 Cambodia was invaded by Vietnam, and again huge numbers of Cambodian refugees fled to Thailand. Between 1977 and 1979 Samuth was trained by and worked for The Red Cross at a refugee camp near the border. Continued Vietnamese bombing of the camp killed many refugees, and eventually the camp was abandoned and relocated.

1980-86 – worked with health education in ARC hospital in a refugee camp

1987-92 - worked in a blood donation program and a dental clinic

1992 – repatriated to Cambodia by the UN

1993 – worked for UN in the 1993 Cambodian elections

1995-98 – worked for human rights organization

1998 – following a coup in Cambodia and yet another exodus of refugees, Samuth volunteered to work in another refugee camp in Thailand

1999 – repatriated to Cambodia by UNHCR

Noeum Samuth’s life work has been to help poor children orphaned by the Khmer Rouge. The HSPCCO organization has been funded by his own resources and efforts, through offering private dental services to rich people, from charity work and from donations. He has taken no salary.

“I teach the students about human rights so they will understand the difference between right and wrong. My aim is when they leave school they will get a good profession and understand how important it is to be honest and caring about their country and the Cambodian people, so that the atrocities of our recent past do not repeat themselves.” – Noeum Samuth, 2006