Ancient temples, the spotlight falls on a very different attraction. This circus troupe is young, highly trained and winning recognition around the world. But the crowd hasnt just come to see dynamic acrobatics. Theyve also come for the stories, real life drama from cambodias history and culture. This performance tells the story of children who suffered psychological damage in camb cambodias civil war. He created the storyline. He writes from experience having lived through 20 years of war and chaos. The violence forced his family to flee across the border to thailand. He spent much of his child hood in a refugee camp. In 1992, at the age of 20, he returned to cambodia. But by then his village was in a state of desilation. Translator when we came back from the refugee camp we were poor and life was difficult. We did not have any schools. So children were unable to study and there was nowhere for them to enjoy themselves. He teamed up with some friends he made in the refugee camp. Together they worked to give the children a future. One of their initiatives was to teach circus skills. 20 years later, many of his students have become professional acrubats. In this episode of asian insight, lifting Cambodian Children out of darkness. The story of a circus. Siem reap is in northwest cambodia. Most tourists come here to see wonder of the ancient world. But some of them taking a 10minute drive out of town, not to a temple but to a circus tent. Its 3 00 in the afternoon and the troupe is warming up for tonights show. There are 40 performers altogether. Most of them in their 20s. All of them grew up in impoverished households. Today they are professional acrubats, living independent lives. They got where they are today through hard work, dedication and a small school with an unusual history. To find out more we drive to a village 160 kilometers from siem reap. This isanh chung. Many families return frumd refugee camps. Residents frequently have to get by on less than 2 a day. But the village is home to an institution that offer as way out of poverty. Its called phare ponleu selpak. Which means lessons of the arts. Lessons are free. Students can choose the courses that interest them. Many study visual and applied arts. Music is also popular. Then there is the circus course. Open to anyone aged between 7 and 20. Currently there are around 100 students enrolled. He is the man who set up the Circus Program and he still provides personal instruction. Meng sokchan, has been going to the school for six months. A friend asked him to join. His dream is to become a professional performer. Translator i can juggle balls. But i cant do this yet. He lives about five minutes walk from the school. And when he comes home, this is what he finds. The house has been flooded for more than two months. Translator during the rainy season, its always like this. Its hard. There are frogs and insects. His house is lower than the surrounding land. All they can do is wait for the rain to stop. His father makes incense sticks for a living. I dry them out like this. Unfortunately the high humidity during the rainy season prevents the incense from drying. That means no income. He starts cooking the rice. His mother is not home. Shes a street vendor. She finally returns. All day on her feet selling bread for just 2 total profit. Translator these are all left over. There were not enough customers. She has two sisters, meaning five mouths to feed. They can only just afford to eat. If he can become a circus performer, their lives will improve. Thats the familys hope. Translator i hope he trains hard and learns how to perform in front of an audience. Then he can become a professional. Maybe not overseas but perhaps here in cambodia. Im really excited about his future with the circus. Translator if he become as professional life will be easier. The teacher lives with his wife and 2yearold daughter. He was born in 1972 in a village in batawan province. Today hes going to visit his mother. She lives nearby. His parents were farmers. When he was 7, the whole family was forced to leave their village. They left in 1979. When had the Vietnamese Army invaded cambodia and the pol pot regime left. The fall of the government was followed by 10 years of fierce civil war. Around 1 Million People fled their homes. Translator i was running, holding dets hand. A bomb fragment landed close. It was a nightmare. Never again. Translator i was young but i remember running to escape. On our way we saw many dead bodies. There were so many that you just got used to it. Det and his family moved around battambang province before settling in a thai refugee camp known as site 2. He was now 13. This foota of se 2 was shot by an ngo. Refugees here received support from the United Nations and international ngos. But they were not allowed to leave the camp. Was very crowded and like a prison because we were not allowed to leave. If you tried to leave, you would be arrested by the thai authorities. And if you resisted, you could be killed. Many refugees suffered from depression and other mental illnesses. He says what saved him was learning to paint. A thai ngo ran art classes for the children. The art classes became a form of therapy. These are some of the pictures drawn by children at the camp. Translator the teacher told us we could draw anything we liked. But the only thing in myind was bombs and gun fights so thats what i drew. He kept sketching and painting. Then something started to change. Translator i had these images stuck in my head but as i drew them i gradually began to feel better. A peace accord was finally signed in october 1991. That led to the gradual closing of the thai refugee camps. The following year, he returned to cambodia. Back in his own province, he found children living in poverty and no schools for them to get an education. Translator everyone was very poor and the adults were just trying to survive. They didnt think about the future of the children. I thought we could help by teaching them something. Det decide stood start an art school, together with some of his friends from the refugee camp. He also had help from veronique decrop, a french woman who taught him to paint when he was in the camp. Translator this is the first building, which was constructed in 1994. This is where we started giving art lessons. The project was funded by selling artworks produced at the ref refugee camp and through donations. The art lessons still continue today. The instructor is lao, who along side det is one of the schools original founders. Translator learning art improved my life and changed my personality. It gave me the strength to keep on going. I want to pass that on to the next generation of children learning art. Det came to see each child had talent. They just expressed it differently. This led to the start of music course two years later. Next he founded the circus course for children with physical talents. While he was at the refugee camp, det had also learned acrobatics from one of the staff working at a u. N. Organization. But before teaching, he needed to learn more so he went and did a three month course in circus skills. The circus lessons for children began in 1998. Translator the kids begin learning here just by playing around. Every child has his or her own interests. We want them to discover for themselves what kind of tricks they will be good at. The following year he formed the circus troupe. The shows won media attention. Soon they were being invited to perform in other parts of cambodia. In 2013 a permanent circus tent was set up in siem reap. There are now performances every single night of the year. Tickets cost between 18 and 35. The 350seat tent is full almost every night. 75 of the profits go towards running the school in battambang. The stories in each performance are what make this circus troupe special. One is based on his child hood during the civil war. The children flee from falling bombs and gun fire. Theyre haunted by nightmares of war and violence. But the circus is their salvation. By throwing themselves into their training, they gradually free themselves from trauma. Finally they have hope in the future. Translator the war is over and now we have peace. But the scars remain in our hearts. That is not something we could just completely rub out, like using an eraser. I dont want another generation to experience what i went through. Whatever we do i think we need start by first thinking about the childrens mental welfare. The school holds regular meetings to discuss management issues. These are the four returnees from the refugee camp who began the art lessons back in 1994. The teachers think it is important to treat each child as an individual. Translator one of the students was told by his parents that he had to go out to work because the family needed money. So he stopped coming to school. Ive managed to persuade his parents to let him come back to us but this is the second time this has happened. We cant simply teach the children technical skills. We have to learn more about their family situations and respond accordingly. He heads off to visit a students home. Hes looking for a young acrubat who has been skipping class. Tiaras parents are divorced. He lives with his grandmother. After returning to the school, he finds out that tiara is playing in the park just across the road. Thats the kind of teaching that changes lives. 27yearold nem sothea is a circus acrubat. Dets instruction helped him become a professional. Here he is under the big top, performing one of dets stories. Sothea is playing the part of a soldier. His rolex presses the dilemma faced by a young man at war whos been ordered to kill. Sothea lives in a rented apartment in the city of siem reap. It is not a very affluent lifestyle but he is proud that he is a professional performer and financially independent. Translator if i was not in the circus, i would not be able to enjoy living like this. Sothea was born in 1990 in a refugee camp in thailand and returned to cambodia just one year later. He does not have any memories of the war. To prepare for the role of a soldier, he spoke to det about his child hood experiences and read books on cambodian history. I heard that he became separated from his parents when they were trying to escape during the war. He said he was unable to go to school at that time. Unlike him someone i consider a role model for my life. Every weekend he visits a village on the out skrt skirts of town. Many residents moved from impoverished rural areas to earn a better living. Sothea and other members of his troupe run an acrobatics class for children. Theyve been doing this for three years. He teaches for around two hours. Sometimes with as many as 50 students. Translator i hope that the children, no matter how poor they are will always be able to enjoy them svselves when they c here and learn acrobatics. I want to pass our skills down to these kids. Today sotheas old teacher is coming to pay a visit. Hes come to siem reap to check on some of his former students. Sothea is appearing in tonights performance. [ applause ] sothea calls det on to the stage. Whenever sothea meets det he always asks for his advice. Translator i now understand how difficult it was for you to start the school and make tit this far. The most important thing ive learned is to always threat to children with love and affection. If youre warm towards them, they will develop confidence and trust in you. This will help them to continue coming to class. The work you are doing is very important for their future. Back at the school, he is seeing off some of his students. They are going to perform. This group has learned basic circus skills. Now its time to put them to the test. Det knows theyll soon be ready to stand on their own two feet. Theyre leaving their teacher behind to help the next generation of acrubats. To our viewers around the world, welcome to nhk newsline. Its 11 00 a. M. On thursday in tokyo, im miki yamamoto. Wellorganized, coordinated and sis matic, words the u. N. Human Rights Office uses to describe what it calls brutal attacks on roe min ga muslims in me yard man. Steps taken to drive out more than half a Million People. The report is based on interviews with 65