Local writer has global ambition
In late 2002, as Mark Schneider walked down a Cambodian street near the famous Hindu-Buddhist temple in Angkor Wat, a barefoot young boy begged him to buy some postcards.
“The kid could speak four European languages,” said Schneider, a Weymouth resident and history instructor at Bridgewater State College and Suffolk University. “All I could think was: why doesn’t this kid have an American buddy or pen pal that he could converse with?”
The youngster’s determination convinced Schneider to purchase several pictures, but his encounter with the boy left him awestruck by the enormous poverty in Southeast Asia.
Schneider walked away with a sinking feeling. He believed that the boy should have been attending school and buying the postcards was not going to help the youngster in the long run.
“I began to think about ways we Americans, regardless of our political views, could cooperate and get in touch with that kid in Cambodia,” Schneider said.
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