Among the many minority groups who live in Cambodia are the various hill tribes who have called this region home for many hundreds of years.  These groups, approximately 2 percent of the Cambodian population, are not ethnic Khmer, and thus speak different languages than their lowland counterparts.

Some of these languages now have alphabets, developed by Bible translators, so they can be written and read but education in schools is in Khmer. Unsurprisingly less than 10% of tribal adults in Mondulkiri are literate in Khmer. This effectively limits their communication with government, business and employers. Consequently they’re less able to secure their rights or take up better employment opportunities. Too often they suffer unjust treatment from those who take advantage of their vulnerability.

These tribes of Cambodia were originally called phnong or samre, meaning savage. In the 1960’s the government began calling them Khmer Loeu (Highland Khmer), apparently to create unity between the highland tribal groups and the lowland Khmer. However most hill groups have very different cultures compared to lowland Khmers, with different customs, survival strategies, religions and appearances.

The Khmer Loeu hill tribes, comprising thirteen distinct minority groups, lived for centuries without regard to country borders, often in communities spanning both Cambodia and the neighboring countries of Laos and/or Vietnam. This was made possible by the isolation and ruggedness of the terrain, making political boundaries difficult to control, and because there was little interest in the area by lowlanders.

The Vietnam war and subsequent chaos and political fall-out catastrophically disrupted their lives. As peace returned they tried to retain their identity, but the modern world is encroaching, and they find themselves in danger of losing access to the land they have lived off, and their way of life. They require help at spiritual, social and educational levels to gain the confidence and knowledge they need to stand up for themselves, survive and succeed in the modern Cambodia.