Vichuta Ly (53)
Survivor of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia

the girl with the blue dictionary

Vichuta Ly was nine years old when she first experienced the terror inflicted by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Her father was arrested. She never saw him again. Her family was driven out of their home town of Phnom Penh to the countryside. All of them, Vichuta included, were forced to work as labourers in the paddy fields. At age twelve, Vichuta was forced to join a training programme for child soldiers. She was indoctrinated and learned how to use weapons. Vichuta said: “You had to ask permission if you wanted to see your relatives. But you couldn’t do that once every few days, because they would call you lazy. And lazy people did not deserve to live.”

In 1979 vichuta escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand. There, she met Anne Watts, a British nurse working for Save the Children. Watts took Vichuta under her wing and gave her a blue British dictionary that she still has to this day. Vichuta said: ‘We translated word by word, often medical words like ‘pain’ or ‘belly’. I learned English quickly, and Thai, too.’ They are still close friends. Vichuta credits Watts and Save the Children with showing her the importance of giving back.

At least 1.7 million people – about a quarter of the population – became victims of the Khmer Rouge’s brutal regime. They died of starvation, exhaustion and illness, were systematically tortured and killed. From Vichuta’s family of 35, only five survived the years of terror.

Vichuta later moved to Canada through a refugee relocation scheme and became a lawyer. Two decades on she returned to Cambodia and campaigns for women’s and children’s rights.

‘Some people call me crazy. Our entire family was killed here, why would I go back? But I said: the people here are not Khmer Rouge. They are victims, like myself. Survivors, like myself. I came here for my people, and I can do something useful here.’