routeSEasia: Donating blood at the Children's Hospital

Second day in Siam Reap:

Ben and I had went for a second tour to the Temples. This time Daniel wasn't coming as he'd already visit the ones we were about to.

A few days earlier Miguelito read something about donating blood in Cambodia, more in particular in the area of Siem Reap.
I quickly recalled all the misery I had came across these days and was still recovering from the episode with the beggars at dinner time in Phnom Penh.

When travelling around, tourists try to make the most of their time without realising that often in order to do so, they take more then what they give, perhaps forgetting to leave something behind to the local people. Everybody does it with no exception, I do it, some more then others. You get to a place, you take your snapshots, you buy your souvenirs, you produce your rubbish, you kill some nature, you smile at the local people, eventually you talk to them to learn something about them... you may eventually contribute to their economy, but you don't even worry if they are taking or learning anything themselves too... Often not! Very often, specially at the lowest level of the social pyramid, they are just victims, in their own country, of the western visitors.
As far as I am concern, giving peasants a few coins is not the solution, but the sound of giving blood at a Children's Hospital was something that got my attention...

Friends Without A Border
www.fwab.org

I spoke to Ben that morning before we got on the tuk-tuk to the temples and explained him I wanted to stop at the Children's Hospital before. Funny was to see him pulling a card out of his wallet: a blood donor card!
Ben had been blood donor for 10 years. 'Can I come with you or is that a private thing you are doing..?' he asked me sarcastically...
We both laughed and head off to the hospital. It was 10am.