Michael Huber
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rwgmaMeLIg To Be Deter- Mined kartaMgBiBN’BIRbeTskm<úCa An Exhibition from Cambodia The International Tour 2008 The UN Palais de Nations, Geneva, Switzerland 2009 - 2014 Germany, Kosovo, Slovakia, UK, Ireland, USA, Thailand, Australia A United Nations resolution declared 2005 as the International Year for Sports and Physical Education. It called for governments and international sports bodies to assist developing countries in building sports capacity owing to sport’s ability to foster values essential to social cohesion and intercultural dialogue. Sport, particularly the formation of athletic infrastructures such The Issue as the CNVLD’s league, has been recognised for making a huge contribution to economic and social development. Following the surprise success of the Cambodian National Team’s Silver medal in the 1999 Bangkok FESPIC games, history was made in Sydney 2000 when the first-ever Cambodian national team to participate in the Paralympics managed to defeat the host nation, Australia. Sport’s ability to facilitate intercultural dialogue was beautifully illustrated when the Cambodian The legacy of the landmine lives on in Cambodia. Between 2 and 3 million mines remain scattered across the Cambodian team quickly became the media stars of the entire Paralympic games. The CNVLD subsequently set their objective to countryside and cause up to 1,000 civilian casualties per year. This has given Cambodia the dubious distinction of having become the top-ranked disabled volleyball team in the world. the worldís highest percentage of amputees per capita. Over 70 percent of the disabled athletes who participate in the Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled) (CNVLD) are landmine survivors. The Cambodian squad has gone on to compete in the 2001 World Organisation of Volleyball Disabled (WOVD) World Cup in Slovakia, FESPIC in Korea 2002, and the WOVD World Cups in Greece (2003) and Canada (2005). In 2007, Cambodia The landmine problem traverses geographical boundaries. Worldwide, thousands of civilians are injured or killed annually. hosted the World Cup. The country’s first international sporting event in decades, it was a resoundingly popular competition The global campaign to eradicate landmines achieved an unprecedented coup with the 1997 Ottawa Treaty to Ban Landmines, that attracted thousands of spectators. which was signed by Cambodia but sadly not by nations such as the United States. Eleven years on, landmines remain a pervasive problem. Cambodian organisations such as the CNVLD play a key role within the international community by The national team is now ranked Number One in the Asia-Pacific region and Number Three in the world. using their grassroots experience to advocate against this most insidious and cynical of weapons. The living legacy of landmines, the amputees, are an asset -- not a hindrance -- to Cambodia. Although disability traditionally brought social stigma, it is now the athletes with a disability who are at the vanguard of Cambodia’s sporting development. Christopher Minko Secretary General of the CNVLD Their athletic achievements have been lauded in the national Khmer media. The CNVLD also has a high international profile owing to the success of its program. The effectiveness of its approach has earned it “ Best Practice ” status by the Swiss Academy of Development (SAD) and a UNESCO International Fair Play Award. In 2008 it was also recognised by the Nike – Changemakers competition as one of 16 global finalists. The CNVLD’s innovative approach to sport and development has attracted the attention of the international media, including CNN, ESPN and the Washington Post. Good publicity leads to widespread popularity - the CNVLD’s players have been dubbed ‘The Harlem Globe Trotters of the Ban Landmines movement’ and this goodwill and visibility have been used to implement real change. Sport can be seen as a symbolic blueprint of social values and cultural norms. It can generate behavioral changes and encourage values that are crucial to the processes of individual and collective socialization. On an individual level sport not only improves physical well-being, but also influences personal competencies such as self-confidence and leadership skills. At a collective level, sport can build social capital such as creating of tolerance and trust between or within communities and thereby strengthen group identities. Sport has massive potential for sustainable development, peace-building activities, and social and cultural integration in developing and transitional nations. The CNVLD provides a perfect illustration of a “ best practice ” model using sport Chris Minko was educated in Australia and Germany, and came to development from a background in the Arts, exhibition design and in large-scale event management. within development. In countries like Cambodia where conflict has left a tangible mark, the rehabilitative and reconciliatory Working in Australia, on amongst other things, the AFL, he then became involved in organising cultural exchanges between ASEAN nations and Australia. “Throughout my capacity of sport is highly apparent. Sporting programs like the CNVLD are an effective way of furthering the physical, career, in all fields I have worked in, I have placed an emphasis on the involvement of the disadvantaged”. psychological, social and economic rehabilitation of landmine survivors, former soldiers and other victims of war. Arriving in Cambodia in 1996 as an Australian Volunteer International (AusAID) with a mandate to work with Cambodian disability groups in order to generate awareness – both intra and internationally – of the insidious root cause of disability in Cambodia: Landmines. He has been working towards these aims with the CNVLD for the past 12 years using the unique power of team sport to foster social cohesion and civil society development. Minko has been working on this exhibition as a labour of love for the past 10 years and is a firm believer in showcasing, via this exhibition, to the international community, a new positive and unique perspective of Cambodia, an internationally recognised leader in landmine clearance and landmine survivor rehabilitation programs. “ Cambodia remains one of the top three nations most affected by the proliferation of landmines and UXO, after Afghanistan and Angola ” John Vink was born in Belgium in 1948. He studied photography at the fine arts school of La Cambre in 1968 and has been a freelance journalist since 1971. He joined Agence Vu in Paris in 1986 and won the Eugene Smith Award for his work on Water in Sahelí that same year. Between 1987 and 1993 he devoted his energies to a major work on refugees in the world. He became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1997. He first visited Cambodia in 1989 and has used the kingdom as his base since 2000. Besides documenting the social and political John Vink situation and the Khmer Rouge tribunal, he is working on a major essay about land issues in Cambodia. Luke Duggleby Luke Duggleby is a British freelance photographer based in Bangkok, Thailand. Born in 1977 in the north of England, Luke completed a photography degree from the UK and then immediately left the UK for Asia. Ever since he has photographed cultural and social issues throughout the continent. In 2003 he joined OnAsia, an Asian specialist photo agency, and regularly undertakes assignments for some of the world’s most respected publications and NGOs. In 2006 and 2007 he was ‘Highly-Commended’ and ‘Commended’ for his portfolio in the Travel Photographer of the Year Award; in 2006, he also won the Environmental category in Canada’s prestigious Banff Mountain Photography Award. In 2008 his first book project, “The Invisible Side of Paradise”, which he has been docmenting for the last five years in a remote mountainous region of southwest China, will be published in Italy. “ Sport has a unique power to effect positive, sustainable social change ” Hacky Hagemeyer “ Sport can be a low cost and effective means to foster positive health and Hacky Hagemeyer was born in 1961 in Schotmar, Germany. In 1992 he founded ‘Transparent’, a photography agency well-being for persons in Cologne, Germany. He spent over a decade as a freelance photographer covering conflicts in Yugoslavia, Eritrea, Algeria, with a disability ” Congo and Rwanda for numerous international publications. In 2002 he had his first solo exhibition, ‘Looks on Eritrea’, which travelled to Eritrea, Yemen and France. In 2005 he initiated the Edelweisspiraten Festival in Germany to commemorate the activities and music of the anti-Nazi youth movement, ‘Edelweisspiraten’. The project won the History Award in 2006. He has also produced various film documentaries, such as ‘Gregor Gysi’with the director Maik Bialk. His work on various photo and video documentaries includes ‘Tsunami - One Year After’ for NGOs in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Since 2006, he has also worked as a video trainer for GTZ, a German government organisation, in the United Arab Emirates. “ 70% of the CNVLD athletes are amputee survivors of the Landmine ” Michael Huber Michael Huber was born in Germany in 1954. He studied mechanical engineering, received a degree in occupational safety and currently works at the Hospital of the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Since he got his first camera at the age of six, photography has been his passion. Besides travel and event photography, he has worked for the CNVLD for almost a decade; his photographs and stories about sports for the disabled have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. Armed Art by Don Bosco Cambodia / Val Sutherland Cambodia’s weapon destruction program Photographs by Chhor Sokunthea The sculptures and furniture on display have been fabricated by the students of the Don Bosco Technical School Phnom Penh under the supervision of Australian Business Volunteer Mr Val Sutherland from scrap metal officially provided through the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia’s weapon destruction programme. A League of Their Own “You look at these athletes who, 6 to 10 years ago, were mostly beggars in the street,’’ says league founder Chris Minko when I meet him in late 2006.