From a life as a travel agent to running a philanthropic Fair Trade shop, Fairly Cambodian, Kerrie Meehan shares her gift experiences including a Cambodian water blessing and gift buying for a Buddhist friend…
1. The best gift I ever received was…a water blessing from a monk in Cambodia.
2. The top gift on my wish list is…a donation from a mystery individual so I could set up a school in Cambodia.
3. The best gift I have ever given were some pens, magazines and toiletries to a sewing school in Cambodia.
4. The hardest person I have ever had to buy a gift for is…a Buddhist friend. She doesn’t attach any significance to material goods.
5. The best last-minute gift is…something fair-trade, so your gift is helping the individual who made it.
Kerrie Meehan runs Fairly Cambodian, a fair trade retail store in Healesville in Victoria’s Yarra Valley – an enterprise that sells beautiful hand crafted goods made by Cambodians. Kerrie was a travel agent who travelled the world for her job. It was only when she visited Cambodia that she was struck by the country’s tragic history, beautiful people and uphill struggle to rebuild what the Khmer Rouge destroyed. She is determined to improve the lives of the Cambodians she knows, by selling their goods on their behalf, spreading their news, telling their stories, and ultimately giving their children an education and therefore a future. You can buy from Fairly Cambodian from anywhere in Australia via her online shop, www.fairlycambodian.com/shop and sign up to the Fairly Cambodian Facebook Page.
