Mengly Quach, who escaped the genocide of the Khmer Rouge by taking refuge in Thailand, stopped in the border town between Italy and France, where he donated 5,000 euros to the local Caritas. After graduating in medicine in the United States, he returned to Cambodia where he invested to help those most in need.
Phnom Penh () – Refugee, doctor and, finally, philanthropist: these are the adjectives that best sum up the story of Cambodian Mengly Jandy Quach, one of the members of the delegation that recently visited Pope Francis at the Vatican and who then he continued towards Ventimiglia. There Quach gave local Caritas a donation of 5,000 euros to carry out projects in favor of migrants who are stranded in the border town between Italy and France. With him were present the Buddhist monk Saint Sochea (who, after listening to the stories of the local workers, added a contribution of 500 euros, a significant amount for a monk) and Fr. Will Conquer, missionary of the MEP (Missions Etrangères de Paris) in Cambodia.
“I am very impressed by the work they do,” Qualch said, speaking to Maurizio Marmo, president of Caritas Intermelia. It warms my heart and reminds me of the experience that I, my family and millions of Cambodians had in 1975”. Born in 1969, the doctor-turned-philanthropist narrowly escaped the Khmer Rouge genocide, which killed an estimated 1.5 million Cambodians. “I fully understand what it means to try everything to get across the border,” Quach continued. There were antipersonnel mines and they greeted us with machine gun fire, but we treated the same”, he said, referring to the massacre of Vietnamese and Cambodians that occurred in the dangrek mountainson the border between Thailand and Cambodia, in 1979.
The displaced were exhausted by hunger after three years of communist rule and tested by the fighting against Vietnam, which had meanwhile invaded Cambodia. To prevent them from crossing the border, the Thai army had planted anti-personnel mines around the refugee camps and was shooting at asylum seekers trying to cross the border.
Only after a second escape attempt did Quach and his family make it to a refugee camp in Thailand before being resettled in California, USA in 1984. After earning a medical degree from UC Berkeley and various academic jobs, in 2002 Quach decided to return with his wife and two daughters to Phnom Penh, where he initially worked as a public health consultant. A few years later, in 2005, he founded MJQ Education, which today is the largest education network in Cambodia, with 17,000 students and 1,750 employees. “I can’t forget my past and that makes me want to give something back to society. From a refugee camp I was resettled to the United States after the war, where I lived off the charity and kindness of the United Nations. The others were kind to me and now it’s my turn to return the gesture, ”he explained in an interview.
In 2021, for his services to those in need, he was awarded the honorary title of Neak Oknha by the King of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni. After starting a few charitable projects where all profits were initially reinvested in humanitarian aid, Quach became a full-fledged businessman and writer. Today he owns some companies in different sectors and in the last four years he has written a series of books ranging from autobiographical stories to poetry and essays in which he explains his business ideas and corporate social responsibility.
