Author Bhavia Wagner

Bhavia Wagner has been working to end violence and heal the wounds of war for the past fifteen years. As the former director of a peace center located in the San Francisco Bay Area, she started programs in conflict resolution and race relations. She works with women’s organizations in Cambodia and Vietnam and has led educational tours to those countries. Her efforts include marketing handicrafts made by landmine victims and poor women and raising funds for many humanitarian projects such as a women’s revolving loan fund, scholarship programs and medical clinics. She was a UN-trained observer in Cambodia’s 1998 election. Ms. Wagner currently resides in Eugene, Oregon.

Details of Bhavia Wagner’s Work in SE Asia

VISITS TO SOUTHEAST ASIA

  • 2003 to 2010 — Led five Responsible Travel Education Study Tours in Cambodia
  • 1998 — UN International Observer in Cambodia’s national election
  • 1994 — Led Educational Tour to Vietnam and Cambodia for Global Exchange
  • 1992 — Led Women’s Issues Study Tour in Vietnam, NGO meetings in Cambodia
  • 1991 — Citizens’ Diplomacy Trip to Vietnam, visited Cambodia

HUMANITARIAN PROJECTS STARTED IN SE ASIA

  • Student Sponsorship Program, Women’s Self-Help Groups, and more through Friendship with Cambodia
  • Scholarship program for Vietnamese girls
  • My Lai Women’s Revolving Loan Fund
  • University scholarship program for women in Cambodia
  • Support for three medical clinics in Vietnam
  • Marketed crafts from programs for Cambodian widows and landmine victims

ORGANIZING AND EDUCATION ABOUT SE ASIA IN THE UNITED STATES

  • Founded the non-profit humanitarian aid organization Friendship with Cambodia
  • Author of Soul Survivors — Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia
  • Created Indochina Support Groups in Madison, WI and San Francisco, CA
  • Gave public talks and wrote articles about Cambodia and Vietnam
  • Hosted speaking tour for Dith Pran of the movie The Killing Fields
  • Facilitator at two Indochina NGO Conferences in Washington, DC

Photographer Valentina DuBasky

Since 1991, when she first visited Vietnam and Cambodia with a peace delegation, Valentina DuBasky has worked to bring understanding about the long-term effects of war on communities, and the process of recovery from violence, to audiences through her photographs. In 1994 she returned to Cambodia where she produced “To Plant Seeds to Gather Wood,” a traveling educational exhibition of photographs about the landmine crisis. Ms. DuBasky traveled to Cambodia as an official observer of the 1998 national election. Her widely exhibited paintings are represented in numerous public and private collections. She is the recipient of grants from the Polluck Karasner, Ariana, and Gottlieb Foundations. She resides in New York City.

Ms. DuBasky’s photographs are available for exhibition and she gives talks about her work in Cambodia.