Things to see & Do - Siem Reap, Cambodia
Cambodia Landmine Museum - Siem Reap
The Cambodian Landmine Museum was established in 1997 by ex-child soldier Aki Ra. After years of fighting he returned to the villages in which he planted thousands of mines and began removing them, by hand, and defusing them with homemade tools.
The idea for a Relief Facility came around when Aki Ra saw many children wounded by landmines and those in extreme poverty. He brought them to his home, where he and his wife raised them as their own, alongside their own children. Originally, all of the children at the facility were landmine victims. Today the facility cares for children who suffer from a variety of difficulties.
In 2008 he established a formal demining NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD). CSHD is a separate NGO and apart from the Museum. They clear landmines throughout the country.
The Relief Facility houses over 2 dozen children from small villages in Cambodia. The children are enrolled in public government school to continue their education. The Facility also has its own school building to enrich the children’s education with a computer lab, a library, English language classes, a playground, and a staff of 14. The Relief Facility accepts volunteers to help teach English, work in the Museum and assist in the office. Please see the Volunteer page to learn how to become a volunteer.
OUR MISSION
The Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Center serves to educate the public on the dangers of landmines, and in addition it supports and educates at-risk and landmine affected youth that reside in the Relief Center. This home was created so that it might serve as a place of healing for bodies, hearts and minds. We believe that love, support and education are the essential means to secure a better future for the children that live here and our visitors.
GOALS
- To tell the story of landmines in Cambodia through the perspective of Aki Ra, our founder, who was suppressed into the Khmer Rouge Army as a child soldier, and spent his youth fighting in the wars that ravaged his country for nearly 35 years. Landmines impact the country’s past, present, and future.
- To show the world that, no matter who you are, whatever your background, your education, you can make a difference.
- To support a Relief Center and School for at-risk village children so that they can have access to education, food, and shelter.
THE MUSEUM
At the museum we focus on educating our visitors about the dangers of landmines, where they came from, who laid them, how they work, and their presence in Cambodia. One mine means one life impacted and those odds are still far too high in Cambodia.
HOURS OF OPERATION
7:30-17:30 all days of the year
COST
Adults – 5.00 USD
Children under 10 – Free
Cambodian citizens – Free
GUIDED TOURS
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 0900 – 1500 (English and Japanese)
For large groups we recommend you contact the Museum ahead of time.
Your tickets, donations and shop purchases allow us to:
– pay all our employees fair salaries
– care for the children in our charge
– clear landmines in Cambodia
– build schools in villages that have no access to education
– build wells and provide hygiene programs in small villages
2 restaurants (not associated with the Museum) are located outside the Museum, and we highly recommend them
LOCATION
The Museum is approximately 25 km north of Siem Reap (30 minutes by tuk tuk), just 7km south of the Banteay Srey Temple complex in Angkor National Park.
On your way to the museum, you will travel through beautiful countryside villages, rice paddies and have the opportunity to take breathtaking photographs of locals working their fields. You can also shop outside the hussle and bussle of town, finding handicrafts made locally. The Landmine Museum offers tourists and Cambodians the chance to see (safe) landmines up close, understand how they work, and what they can do to help rid Cambodia and the world of their continuing threat.
Map of Cambodia Landmine Museum
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