From a life in rubbish to a life in rugby

18,500km into our 18 month bicycle journey, we stumbled across one of the most courageous and heartwrenching stories to date. It comes from a remarkable education and welfare centre in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

After the horrific suffering of the Cambodian people throughout the Pol Pot regime (Khmer Rouge), the country was brought to its knees and life for many millions became a daily struggle between life and death.

Thousands of children and families were left to live and feed off the scraps of food at huge rubbish dumps, and to scavange whatever reusables they could find amongst the broken glass, syringes and rotting waste. If there was ever any doubt as to the destruction caused by the regime, you might find suggestion in their radio broadcasts to the people “To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss”.

Many of the estimated 2.5 million victims of the genocide were educated, city dwellers, the brains behind business, and often nutritionally the healthiest sector of society. Over 10 years of slaughter, the national average height dropped by a staggering 10 cm, a difference that takes around 100 years of human evolution to gain back.

We were unsure what rugby story could be found in a country that was effectively born in 1980, the Khmer Rouge’s “Year Zero”? The findings were nothing less than inspirational.

The rugby journey began in 1995 when a French couple visited Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Christian and Marie-France des Pallières witnessed children living and working through the rubbish dump and decided that something needed to be done. Starting only by feeding these children, they returned to France to raise awareness of the situation and began collecting donations to assist with their work.

Their footage was so dramatic that support was immediate, and soon they were able to turn some of their wider dreams into realistic projects. By 1996 their project “Pour un Sourir d’Enfant” (for the smile of a child) officially commenced and today the centres provides housing, healthcare, nutrition, education and support to over 6,500 children and their families.

One early student of this scheme was Ratana Pich.

As a young boy, Ratana grew up with his family, living and working on the rubbish dump in Phnom Penh. He attended the local shool each morning but in the afternoon worked with his family shifting through piles of hazardous refuse and waste. By the age of 16, his family could no longer afford the loss of income and he dropped out of education to begin a full time struggle for a lowly income.

In 1998, on one of his many visits to the dumpsites, Christian himself stumbled upon this boy, and personally brought him into the centre. Ratana was now 17 years old, and had already spent 12 years of his life working on the dumpsite. He spoke only Khmer, and had a very limited education. At an age where many people cease education, Ratana’s journey was just about to begin, and he progressed through PSE to learn English, French and complete further education studies in a Business course.

It was through rugby however, that he found his greatest opportunity yet.

“I saw some boys throwing around a funny shaped ball, and the man who was teaching them was French,” he said.

“I thought, I must understand this game! It must be important if a French man is teaching it!”

After joining the first training at PSE, Ratana learned about the sport and where it was played and realised that rugby was something that might lead him to further opportunities in life. He loved the teamwork that the game required, and although the game was a lot more physical than his beloved football, he was surprised at how much he enjoyed playing and became quickly hooked.

Rugby soon become a second family to many like Ratana, and after graduating through the scheme, they formed a senior PSE side, continuing to train under the guidance of the overseas volunteers. By 2005, they were experienced enough to form a national side almost entirely from PSE, and travelled to face Macau as an undercard fixture to Hong Kong vs Korea.

The little Cambodian boys from the dump took to the field weighing an average 35kg less per player than their opponents, and for 60 minutes held their heavier opponents at bay, before finally succombing 46-7 conceding most tries in the final 20 minutes. Despite losing, the team left the pitch to a standing ovation from a Hong Kong crowd who had rarely witnessed such effort and spirit.

It was a successful trip and in 2006 the PSE Garudas entered a Khmer side into the Angkor 10s, led by Ratana Pich. Only two years on and the team were good enough to bring home the trophy.

Ratana Pich is now 29 years old and has played in every single international fixture for his country, captaining the side for the past few years. Now he is looking to the future generations of national players and jokes that he is “getting too old and slow”, although, like most of the Cambodian team, he doesn’t look a day older than 17. Now with a wife and baby daughter, Ratana is working back at PSE and is therefore contributing to the same centre that set him free from a life of poverty.

After another 10,000km of pedalling, we will begin a 50 day tour of schools and rugby clubs in New Zealand to display a collection of rugby stories and exhibits from around the world.

For us, there will be few tales more inspirational than the courage of a small boy who turned a life in rubbish, into a life in rugby.

Check out Jodie and Tom’s ride to the Rugby World Cup in the name of charity: www.CyclingToTheRugbyWorldCup.com