Adelaide's Geraldine Cox finds a world of meaning caring for orphaned children in Cambodia from 1990s
Geraldine Cox with children at a Sunrise Children's Villages orphanage in Cambodia.
Image courtesy Sunrise Children's Villages
Geraldine Cox, an Adelaide “problem child” with a colourful background, found fulfilment in Cambodia where she founded Sunrise Cambodia, started as an orphanage in Kandal province and extending to sustainable development and family support in several provinces.
From an Adelaide foothills family, Cox left school at 15 and worked in secretarial jobs between 1965 and 1969 – with a year in Europe at 19 in 1964.
After moving to Coober Pedy to work as a miner in 1969, Cox started working with the Australian department of foreign affairs in 1970. Her first overseas posting was to Phnomh Penh in 1971, with the Vietnam at the border and American B52s dropping bombs. The Cambodian experience stayed with Cox, although she moved to other Australian embassies in Manila, Bangkok, Tehran and Washington, and, from 1987, worked for eight years at Chase Manhattan Bank in Sydney.
While in Australia in 1993, Cox helped found the Australia Cambodia Foundation that later operated Sunrise Cambodia. Cox moved to Cambodia in 1995 where she worked as executive assistant to the cabinet director for Cambodia’s first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
Cox helped his wife Princess Marie operate a residential education centre for orphaned children. When Princess Marie and her associates left during a 1997 military coup, Cox took looking after the children at the orphanage. She became widely known to the children as “M’Day Thom” (meaning Big Mum) and her unwavering support for the orphanage during the coup saw her recognised as a prominent humanitarian figure.
Cox was Austcare’s the keynote 1997 Refugee Week speaker in Australia, rasing exposure for her work in Cambodia. She was granted Cambodian citizenship by king Norodom Sihanouk in 1999.
Cox wrote Home is Where the Heart Is, about her life and some of the children under her care. An award-winning documentary My Khmer Heart was made by Australian filmmakers Janina Hosking and Leonie Lowe.
For her work, Cox was made a member of the Order of Australia and given the Royal Order of Sahametrei Medal, Cambodia’s most significant award to foreigners.
