‘Born lucky’: Escaping the Khmer Rouge

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According to Cambodian folklore, Sieu Do was born with a ‘cloak of good fortune’. His family believed it helped them to survive under the brutal regime in the late 1970s. Sieu was a teenager who could speak seven languages. This made him a target for the Khmer Rouge, who wanted to exterminate the educated classes. But those language skills would save his life when he found work as a physician’s assistant treating thousands of refugees alongside international aid agencies. Image: Composite of Sieu Do images Credit: Courtesy of Sieu Do