Cairde Khmer GAA Club in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Other SCOOP Projects Around The World

 

Since 2018 we have sponsored the Cairde Khmer GAA club in Phnom Penh, set up by long term SCOOP collaborator – photographer Conor Wall, originally from Cork but who has made Cambodia his new home the last 12 years or so. Fellow ‘Corkonian’ Peter Downey is also a cofounder and he was in fact the 3rd ever long-term volunteer we sent abroad, and he too fell in love with the country and has made it his home. Both being very talented soccer players, and proud Gaelic players, they set about setting up the country’s first GAA Club in 2017, with SCOOP sponsoring them since 2018. 

 

The Club not only promotes Gaelic games, but it also offers free training to Cambodians interested, and when the gang went to Kuala Lumpur in November 2019 for the Asian Gaelic Games, there were Cambodians in the squad who had never left their home country in their lives – the Cairde Khmer gang helping them get their passports also. And that’s not all the good news from Kuala Lumpur – they walked away with a ton of silverware as one of their teams won the Men’s Junior Football Championship and the whole club won Club of the Year. To top it all off they also brought home 1 Men’s All Star Award, 1 Men’s Fair Play Award, 2 Ladies Junior Plate Medals and 1 Senior Hurling Medal. They also fielded the first all Khmer team who played an exhibition match against Malaysia’s Orang Eire team. We are honoured to back such a positive and community nurturing club. Cambodia Abú!