From Good Intentions to Lasting Impact: Sally Hetherington's Journey

Armed with a Bachelor of Business from the University of Newcastle, alumna, Sally Hetherington embarked on a career path that would lead her to unexpected places.

"The lessons from my time at the University of Newcastle still resonate with me today. Although I didn't fully appreciate the privileged position I was in at the time, I have continued to reflect on the lessons my education imparted. Teamwork, an empowering management style, and persistence were all instilled in me throughout my degree.”

Much like many other 20-somethings, Sally was gripped by the desire to travel. In 2011, a trip to Cambodia opened her eyes. The grim history of the Cambodian genocide, responsible for the deaths of up to 2 million Cambodians, weighed heavily on her heart. It raised a profound question within her about humanity's capacity for both atrocity and resilience.

Determined to make a difference, Sally delved deep into Cambodia's dark past and present struggles. Her stint at an orphanage in Siem Reap, while well-intentioned, revealed the complexities of a term often referred to as “voluntourism” (‘voluntourism’, a combination of volunteering and tourism, involves traveling to a foreign country to perform volunteer work). For Sally, it was a tough lesson in the unintended consequences of foreign intervention.

“There was a student at the orphanage who had attachment issues. Every time a new volunteer would come to her class, she would latch onto them. Then, when the volunteer was about to leave, she would become withdrawn and depressed. She needed consistency in her life, yet by having a different volunteer teacher every month, she wasn’t afforded that stability.”

This realisation led Sally to a Buddhist pagoda and a humble night school called Human and Hope Association. Here, Cambodian volunteers taught English and Buddhist morality to eager young minds. Sally realised that their motivation and intentions were admirable, but resources were lacking.

With unwavering determination, Sally joined with local staff to transform the school into a registered charity, using her hard-earned business knowledge from the University of Newcastle to guide the process. Sally’s vision was clear: cease the foreign volunteer program and work towards local self-sufficiency.

The transformation was nothing short of extraordinary. Together, Sally and the staff developed a community centre in a rural area and designed a range of programs to support local families and break the cycle of poverty. After Sally’s departure in 2016, Human and Hope Association stood as a beacon of success, as the only organisation in the area entirely run by local staff with a Cambodian board at the helm.