Going all out for a good cause

Seventeen years ago, Peter Carrette was making a documentary with his mate, Jack Thompson, in Cambodia. He awoke on a rattling train with a young girl sleeping on him and gave her a balloon, which she played with for an hour, before she passed it out the window to another poor kid when the train stopped.

“They just have no idea about possession and jealousy,” Carrette said. “Then this girl adopted me. She just followed me everywhere.”

He’s since adopted them and his organization, Krousar Thmey, (‘New Family’) oversees 77 facilities including blind and deaf schools, shelters for homeless women and orphanages.

When Carrette photographs some of the world’s most famous faces, magazines pay him directly into the charity’s account. Thompson’s public speaking and TV appearances often carry the same deal.

“Every dollar we raise is spent on the children,” Carretee says. “We’re trying to convince the Australian Government to take containers of essentials to Cambodia. At the moment, they go over there with empty planes. But that hasn’t happened yet.”

In a time where refugees are banished or locked up, it’s a reminder that Australians can’t simply rely on governments for humanitarian causes.

Information at www.krousar-thmey.org