Some folks go to Asia to adopt babies. Lance Rasbridge adopted a
village.
"I was hooked right away," said Mr. Rasbridge, an anthropologist
who lives in Old East Dallas. "I fell in love with the country and
the people. It just felt so right to be there."
So right that Mr. Rasbridge has returned to Cambodia each year
since his initial visit in 1996. He left June 11 for his most
recent visit to Lak 62, a village of about 50 families in the
Battambang province.
He has established a school in the village and a woodworking
apprentice program for young men. For the last three years, he has
raised money to help remove land mines that surround Lak 62.
"He is our hero," said Paul Thai, a spokesman for the North Texas
Cambodian community who works with Mr. Rasbridge on the Landmine
Removal Campaign.
"It's not often that you will find someone who works so hard for
people they barely know," said Mr. Thai, a sergeant for the Dallas
Police Department. The Cambodian immigrant came to the United
States in 1979, leaving behind a brother who was injured by a land
mine.
"Lance worked tirelessly for the refugees," he said. "He even took
the time to learn our language. I can't say enough good things
about him."
So why would a stranger with no ties to Asia spend much of his life
helping Cambodians in North Texas and overseas?
"The question is not why," said Mr. Rasbridge before departing for
Cambodia. "The question is how could I not?"
In late 1984, the Pennsylvania native came to Dallas to study at
Southern Methodist University. He earned his doctorate in 1991 in
applied anthropology, focusing on infant feeding among resettled
Cambodians in Dallas.
"This was when Dallas was at its peak with the resettlement
program," said Mr. Rasbridge. While working with the refugee
population, he helped organize the Dallas County Refugee Outreach
Program with Parkland Health and Hospital System in 1992. The
program provides health screenings for newly arrived refugees as
mandated by the federal government.
"Rather than waiting for the refugees to show up at the hospital,
we take the clinic to them, setting up offices in an apartment
complex where they are being relocated," said Mr. Rasbridge, who
coordinates patient visits through refugee agencies.
"Through the prescreening, we can catch health problems before they
become a medical crisis," he said.
Through that interaction, Mr. Rasbridge heard stories about
Cambodia. In 1996 - "on just a whim" - he decided to see the
country for himself.
When he arrived, he paid for a motorcycle tour, and the driver took
him to Lak 62. He told Mr. Rasbridge that the refugee village was
filled with people brought in from Thai relocation camps that were
closing.
Mr. Rasbridge went right to work.
In 1998 he helped organize the Cambodia Outreach Program, which
aids thousands of people displaced by Vietnam's invasion of the
country in the late 1970s.
A school was one of his first priorities, and in 1999 the Elizabeth
School - which is named after his mother, a retired kindergarten
teacher - took in its first students. More than 400 have attended
since.
But the school - one of only a few in the province - could not help
the older children. So in 2002, Mr. Rasbridge persuaded a
shopkeeper to accept three orphaned boys as apprentices, and the
Neang Nuan Woodworking Apprenticeship program was born.
Now Mr. Rasbridge, who pays for his trips himself, is focusing his
attention on land mine removal.
In 2001 he teamed up with the Dallas Peace Center and the United
Nations Association in Dallas to raise money to help clear
Cambodian minefields.
In the last two years, the Landmine Removal Campaign in Dallas has
raised more than $42,000, but this year the group netted less than
$8,000.
Mr. Rasbridge said that his efforts are a mere "drop in the bucket"
when he considers the work that still needs to be done there. But
his wife, Diane Sumoski, said that her husband's "work may not
affect a lot of people right now, but what he does changes people's
lives."
"Of course I worry about the danger," said Ms. Sumoski, a partner
in the law firm of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman and Blumenthal. "But
I try not to dwell on that. I do get to talk to him every few days,
and I try to track where he goes - that makes it a little easier,
knowing where he is."
For more information about Mr. Rasbridge's work, or to make a
donation, go to www.cambodia program.org or call the Refugee
Services of North Texas at 214-821-4883.
E-mail ewu@dallasnews.com