In late 2015 I was approached by St Paul’s Greenhouse, which is an incubator program focused on social innovation at the University of Waterloo, with a film project that really piqued my interest. I quickly learned about an interesting social venture called Landmine Boys that was doing innovative work in landmine diffusion, and immediately wanted to get involved. During the Christmas holidays I travelled halfway across the world to Cambodia where I documented prototype testing and attempted to address the social issues these invisible remnants of war still have on Cambodian society, decades after devastating conflict.
It wasn’t until I was on the ground in Cambodia that I met Landmine Boys co-founder Richard Yim in person.
It wasn’t long after we began speaking to each other (maybe five minutes) that I became totally inspired. It was hard to ignore his incredible passion and drive for making Cambodia a safe place to live for future generations. During my two weeks in Cambodia we both quickly developed a mutual respect and admiration for each other’s process and craft, which helped motivate us when times got tough. There is still so much work to be done on the ground in Cambodia, but Richard’s incredible passion in tackling the issue of landmines leaves me with hope for the future. Expect big things from the Landmine Boys.