Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia
Author Bhavia Wagner is the founder and director of Friendship with Cambodia.

Soul Survivors gives voice to the women and children who stayed in Cambodia after the genocide (1975 — 1979), when nearly two million people died from execution, starvation, or disease. It includes the stories of two refugees who came to the US as orphans, returning as young adults to help their country. These engaging personal narratives reveal that hope and kindness survived the darkest period of Cambodia’s recent history.

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About the Book

Soul Survivors

Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia

by Bhavia C. Wagner

Photography by Valentina DuBasky
Foreword by Jack Kornfield

Published by Wild Iris Press, Eugene, Oregon 2002
ISBN 978-0-9753951-0-3, paperback, 258 pages,
64 photographs, $16.95

Soul Survivors gives voice to women and children who survived the Khmer Rouge’s secret genocide and the two decades of civil war that followed. The moving personal narratives document the lives of twelve people who stayed in Cambodia after the genocide when nearly two million people died between 1975 and 1979 from execution, starvation or disease. And it includes two refugees who came to the US as orphans, returning as young adults to help their country. Coming from diverse backgrounds, including a farmer, a teacher, a Buddhist nun, a landmine victim and a women’s leader, the survivors’ engaging accounts demonstrate the strength and goodness of the human spirit.

Additional chapters describe how the Khmer Rouge came to power, the role of the US in Cambodia, the problem of six million landmines, the Buddhist peace movement, and how to help women and children in Cambodia. Soul Survivors includes a chronology of Cambodian history, a map of Cambodia and an index. Sixty-four photographs draw the reader into contemporary Cambodia to witness the survivors’ courageous work to rebuild their lives, families and culture in one of the poorest nations of the world.

“The eloquence of their stories and the heartbreak they depict become ennobling because of the spirit that carries them. They are stories that have to be told, that have to be held up to the light of humanity. In their extraordinary way, Bhavia Wagner and Valentina DuBasky have entered the heart of sorrow to bring forth this spirit and let it speak to us.”

Jack Kornfield
Author and Buddhist Teacher
Spirit Rock Center