Marie in Cambodia with Danish Church Aid: Focused On the Job, Dressed For Warm Temps and a Delight To Be Around!

Owning it.

La Belle Marie was sent on a bit more meaningful trip than Mary who went to St. Petersburg to promote Daisy's costumes and Carlsberg beer. Marie went to Cambodia with the patronage of her charity DanChurch Aid, the charitable branch of the state church. Wonderful! Religious people are serious about their aid and making sure that there is limited overhead and maximum impact. Living the Gospel indeed. This ain't MoreMore's religion! Marie is promoting the work that her home team does throughout the world building on existing partnerships, relationships and projects, instead of trying to set up random reasons to visit The Poors like sissy-in-law. Marie has enough sense not to take an expensive point-and-shoot camera with her to the more downtrodden corners of the globe and awkwardly get folks to try and smile (very revealing that Yrma would only consider a photo in which one is smiling to be the only one that is worthy of being taken). This is not for Marie's profile or profit, except to understand better how she and DanChurch Aid can better help those in need.

Video: YouTube

Photo Gallery: BT

Photo Gallery: Joachim et Marie Blog

Article: Sjællands Nyheder

Princess Marie's First Work Day in Cambodia

Princess Marie met with some street children in Cambodia on her first day on the job as a patron of DanChurchAid, the outreach arm of the state church.

Princess Marie played table tennis with a smiling 13-year-old street urchin who, like 800 other street children get education, food and social contact in the organisation Friends' day center in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

During the visit, the princess also toured an auto repair shop, where a group of boys were training to be mechanics, and she put her head down in the engine of a Toyota to get a sense of what the boys were messing around with.

"This is my first visit as a patron of DanChurchAid, and it's hard, but also exciting. It's one thing to read about it at home, and quite another to be on site and see it in reality", says Princess Marie. She continues, "It is terrible to see how many children live on the streets of Cambodia. But the organisation Friends, which DanChurchAid supports, can help to give them a brighter future."

"The children learn to cook, read and write. They learn to create their own business so they can fend for themselves. It's pretty exciting."

Princess Marie also visited a hairdressing and beauty class, where laughing and happy girls, many of whom have been forced into prostitution, now have the time to fix hair and paint nails with each other. The princess asked about the girls' dreams for the future. And a conservative answer is "I want to open my own business".

The princess later struck up a conversation with the leader of the center in French and got reports of the disabled children at the centre and in the impoverished Cambodia.

The organization Friends, which operates day care centre for 800 street children, is a DanChurchAid partner in Cambodia.

 

 

 

 

 

Photos: Samrang Pring/Scanpix, Erica Pineros, Danskfolkekirkens Nød, Hanne Juul/Billed-Bladet