CAZENOVIA — On Monday, Aug. 19, at 6 p.m., the Cazenovia Public Library will host a screening and discussion of the documentary “Les Pépites” (“Little Gems”) by noted French filmmaker Xavier de Lauzanne.
The film tells the story of the founding of Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (For a Child’s Smile, or PSE), a French non-profit organization with a mission to help Cambodian children escape from destitution and lead them to decent, skilled, and well-paid jobs.
Fred Rogers, a Cazenovia resident and PSE volunteer, will introduce the film. He will give a brief presentation on the recent history of Cambodia and share “how an ordinary French couple created ‘the best school for the poorest children’ in a war-torn land.”
PSE is a comprehensive school and vocational training center in Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh, that serves nearly 7,000 destitute children annually.
Founders Christian and Marie-France des Pallières were young retirees on a humanitarian mission in Phnom Penh 29 years ago when they discovered hundreds of children scavenging in the city’s municipal dump to support their families.
The country was devastated, still reeling from civil war and the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime. Horrified, the couple left their suburban Paris life and moved to Phnom Penh to set up a simple feeding station at the dump. They eventually built a school that has grown into a full-service educational institution and social services center. Today, PSE comprises day and boarding schools, medical and dental facilities, vocational training programs, and two dozen satellite locations across Phnom Penh.
According to Rogers, Christian passed away in 2016 and was publicly mourned by thousands, including the Queen Mother of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The upcoming library program will feature a screening of a 33-minute distillation of the original 90-minute “Les Pépites.”
The shorter version of the film includes English subtitles provided by Rogers.
He has been working as a French-to-English translator since retiring in December 2023 from Hamilton College, where he was director of annual giving for nine years and director of gift planning for three years.
He became a PSE volunteer in September 2023 after reading about the organization in a French-language newspaper that covers Cambodia.
“I am very interested in Cambodia and follow developments there closely,” Rogers said.
His interest began when his daughter, Mairin, a 2021 Hamilton College graduate, studied abroad there and Rogers accompanied her at the beginning of the program.
“I have a 40-year career in nonprofit work, mostly in education but also human services,” Rogers said. “In my retirement, I wanted to be involved with a large, respected, well-run nonprofit organization that works to support young people. PSE fit the bill perfectly. Plus, it enables me to combine that commitment with my love of French and Cambodia.”
Almost immediately after becoming a volunteer, Rogers joined the board of the American Friends of PSE, one of several national support groups around the world.
“I am helping PSE raise money for its boarding school, which gives 24/7 care to children who cannot live at home because they are at risk of parental violence and abuse,” he said. “I am trying to identify American foundations interested in supporting this type of work in Cambodia, and I am helping to plan a fundraising gala in New York City in 2025. I help with English-language communications to our supporters in this country, and I help a colleague in London translate the substantial quarterly newsletter written by our founder, Marie-France des Pallières.”
Rogers added that PSE maintains strict neutrality in its affairs; it does not accept governmental funding from Cambodia or France. It is entirely sustained by gifts from individuals, some foundation funding, and some corporate grants assisting the vocational programs.
Rogers has traveled to Cambodia twice since his initial visit. His most recent trip was early this year when he spent five days living at the school in Phnom Penh with 14 French volunteers.
According to Rogers, PSE’s main site of operations, the Center, is now a large campus with several buildings, a canteen, a student residence, training facilities for the vocational schools, medical facilities, and a guest house and restaurant run by students in the hospitality school.
Rogers described his recent trip to the campus as “immersive,” recalling that his group visited every program; spoke with staff and students; and worked the food line at the canteen, ladling out rice, fish soup, and sweet potatoes to nearly 3,000 children for lunch — one of two daily meals provided.
The volunteers also took field trips to the remote program sites around Phnom Penh, the shanty neighborhoods where the students are drawn from, and the now-closed municipal dump where PSE started.
“There is no substitute for a hands-on visit like this,” Rogers said. “As a volunteer, I had studied up on PSE before I arrived. But to see the organization in actual operation, to be joyously set upon by swarms of happy, well-nourished children filled with curiosity about their pale-skinned guests — these were poignant moments of emotion that will be difficult to forget.”
Rogers was perhaps most touched by his experience attending a simple evening prayer service held for boarding students who cannot go home.
“The founders, who were devout Catholics, have always been very careful to honor the country’s majority Buddhist religious tradition,” Rogers said. “The organization itself is thoroughly and vigilantly secular. [However,] their personal motivation was Christian, and some of the students come with no religious background but seek a peaceful moment of reflection in an otherwise busy day. So, a short, student-led reading of Buddhist and Christian prayers was established. For a time, it had been discontinued, but the students themselves wanted it back.”
Rogers recalled that at 6:30 p.m., about 115 children and others gathered silently in a recreational space for the service. In front of them, propped up on chairs, was a picture of the Buddha and another of Jesus.
“Just then, a boy to my left grasped my hand,” he said. “On my right, two girls grasped my other hand, and the dreamy, otherworldly chanting — in Khmer — of Buddhist prayers began. Then a passage [from] the New Testament was likewise intoned. I knew not what was being said, but the fleeting bond I had with those children — children who cannot live with their own family for fear of mistreatment — felt in that instant indissoluble.”
To learn more about PSE and view the trailer for “Les Pépites,” visit pse.ngo.
