HOF030: Dim MEAS

Dim Meas was forced to leave his life as a Buddhist monk behind when the Khmer Rouge invaded his country. His life drastically changed when the Communists apprehended him and ordered him to work in the fields. During that time, often famished, he would sneak out at night to catch crabs to eat. The penalty, had he been caught was death, which was the fate of some of his countrymen.

After the war, he reunited with his family and remained in a refugee camp in Cambodia. His family had communicated with his brother in Canada who encouraged them to find a way to reach the Khao-I-Dang refugee camp in Thailand, in order to ensure their chances of migrating to Canada.

His family made their way to the Khao-I-Dang camp and had to sneak into it under cover of night to avoid robbers and the camp guards.

He remembers arriving in Canada during the dead of winter and being hesitant to step out of the apartment because of the intense cold. He also remembers seeing a skunk for the first time and wanting to play with it, which did not turn out very well. Today, he enjoys spending time with a great number of family members in Ottawa.

Tags: , ,

Note to Researchers

A consent form was signed by each of the interviewees whose videos are posted here on the website. They have each consented to making the video available to the public and they have consented to the use of the contents of their videos by the Hearts of Freedom project researchers. Consent is not available to external researchers to quote or publish from it. Researchers interested in the subject have the opportunity to view a documentary film, Passage to Freedom which has been completed and is available through a distributor https://www.mcintyre.ca/ Researchers from the project are in the process of completing a full length book based on the interviews. Once this book is available researchers will have the opportunity to review it and to refer to it for research purposes.