Director: Steve Norman

In April 2008, Steve Norman, a Police Officer of 24 years, chanced upon an article in a Sunday newspaper supplement about a girl sold into prostitution at the age of 13. The next day he bought the book and read it through that night into the next day. It was through this experience that God broke his heart and placed therein a deep compassion for the children of Cambodia who have no voice and endure such unimaginable suffering. The overwhelming desire to engage in this issue was impressed on him.

Following numerous fruitless searches and being advised that it was an area best avoided, Steve happened upon the Ratanak Foundation. Over the following months and the exchange of countless emails and calls, the prospect of developing the Ratanak Foundation in the UK became a reality. In June 2009 Ratanak-UK was formally born.

In September 2009 Steve travelled to Cambodia where he was able to meet the Ratanak partners and see first hand the situations which exist. This visit cemented his resolve to work to make a difference to the lives of as many people as possible. In April 2010, Ratanak UK received its charitable status and is now a registered charity with the UK Charities Commission.

Steve is a committed Christian and has been married to Karen for 22 years. They have two children aged 21 and 20 and they are expecting their third child in January 2010. They also have a 4 year old grand-daughter. Steve and Karen live in rural North Yorkshire and are members of Richmond Pentecostal Church.

Patron - Steve Chalke MBE

In 1985 Steve Chalke set up Oasis Trust in order to open a hostel for homeless young people. Oasis UK as it is now known currently has over 600 staff, pioneering educational, healthcare and housing initiatives in the UK and across the globe. (www.oasisuk.org)

In 1997 Steve launched Parentalk, an organisation dedicated to inspiring and equipping parents. Parentalk works across the UK and produces a range of resources aimed at helping parents make the most of every stage of their child's growing up. (www.parentalk.co.uk)

In 2001 Steve laid the foundations for the Faithworks Movement. Faithworks exists to empower and inspire individual Christians and every local church to develop their role at the hub of their community. It also seeks to challenge and change the public perception of the Church by engaging with both media and the government. The Faithworks Movement goal is to build the most effective social action network in the UK. (www.faithworks.info)

In 2003 Steve became the leader of Christ Church & Upton, in Central London. Under the name, Church.co.uk, Waterloo, it became the first of a new network of churches around the UK committed to the same values they aim to become 24/7 - always open, never shut, where no one is ever turned away, whatever the time of night or day. (www.church.co.uk)

Steve was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List 2004 for his services to social inclusion.

2004 also saw Steve develop Oasis Community Learning (OCL), a sister charity to Oasis UK. OCL have opened nine secondary schools around the UK .Oasis Academies as they are known bring Oasis values to young people's education. (www.oasiscommunitylearning.org)

In 2006 Steve founded Stop The Traffik a global coalition, which now has over 1000 member organisations around the globe. Stop The Traffik campaign to put an end to people trafficking through preventing the sale of people, prosecuting the traffickers and protecting the victims. In February 2008 , Steve and Stop The Traffik delivered over 2.5 million signatures to the UN GIFT forum in Vienna, calling for international action against trafficking. After Vienna, Steve was appointed as UN GIFT Special Adviser for Community Action against Human Trafficking (www.stopthetraffik.org)

In 2007 Steve became the official holder of the Guinness World Record for the largest amount of sponsorship money ever raised by an individual through a single event. He broke this record by raising £1.84 million for Oasis academies through running the London Marathon.

Steve has presented his own television series for ITV and BBC as well as a regular show on Radio 4. He writes monthly columns for Prima Baby on fatherhood and Christianity magazine on Church leadership. He is also the author of over 30 books.

Steve was ordained as a Baptist Minister in 1981, having studied at Spurgeon's Theological College in London, and was a local minister for four years before setting up the Oasis. He is 53 years old and is married to Cornelia and they have four grown-up children.

Trustees

Kingsley Armstrong
Kingsley is currently one of the Pastors in Norwich Family Life Church in the UK.

He is also President of International Gospel Outreach, an inter-denominational ministry with its motto; 'reaching the whole church, reaching out to the whole world'. (www.igo.org.uk)

He is the Director of his own ministry called 'The Joshua Project', which was set up to help people identify their own calling and ministry. (www.thejoshuaproject.co.uk)

Kingsley has been married to Cathy for 27 years and they have 2 children; Jemima who is 14 and Isaac who is 10.
He is passionate about missions and desires to see the church turned inside out.

Pat Norman
Pat has now retired after a number of years in business. His support of the development of Ratanak UK has been evident since the notion was embryonic and is keen to lend this support to raising the awareness of all issues within Cambodia.

Pat is married to Mary and they have 4 children and 7 grand-children. They live in York.

Brian McConaghy
Brian McConaghy, Founding Director of the Ratanak Foundation, was a Forensic Scientist with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 22 years. For 19 of those years he performed his duties with the RCMP while setting up and running the Ratanak Foundation as a volunteer. Brian is a man with a burden for the people of Cambodia. Having grown up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Brian knows what it is to live under the stress of political turmoil.

Brian first visited Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand in 1989. What he witnessed there appalled him. This experience led him into Cambodia several months later to find conditions were worse than in the camps. This was the start of a long journey that has taken Brian and the Ratanak Foundation through many challenging and rewarding times in their desire to be servants of the Khmer people.

After visiting Cambodian refugee camps and seeing a documentary on Cambodia, Brian was moved to study the complexities of this country and to do something to alleviate the suffering. The result was a foundation named after a little girl he saw dying in that documentary.

Brian never got to meet Ratanak but she changed his life. His dedication to the people of Cambodia is a reflection of the person of Jesus Christ at work in his life.

Thank you for contacting Ratanak UK.

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Ratanak UK is a registered charity.
Number 1135338.

Mailing Address:
Ratanak UK
PO Box 167 Thirsk
North Yorkshire. YO7 9AH
United Kingdom

Phone: 07545 887697
Email: ratanakUK@ratanak.org

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Your contact information First Name: Last Name: Phone: Email Address: Comments:

What comes to mind today when you think of Cambodia? For some perhaps ancient temples, Buddhism, mass genocide, poverty, corruption and perhaps the high profile Hollywood adoptions or the Ho Chi Minh trail. For others nothing comes to mind as there is no knowledge and understanding of this small Southeast Asian nation which so often evades the world's attention.

Over one third of the 14 million population of Cambodia lives on less than $1 a day with the gap between rich and poor widening daily. Many suffer unimaginable exploitation with children - boys and girls - as young as 5 rescued from brothels having been sold for just a few dollars. Human trafficking represents one of the most terrible abuses of human rights that demeans the value of life and represents one of the world's fastest growing illegal industries today.

Ratanak (UK), working closely alongside it's parent organisation The Ratanak Foundation, partners with like-minded organisations to serve the people of Cambodia on Christ's name by providing healthcare, shelter, literacy and agricultural development. Furthermore they are engaged in assisting women and children in crisis who have been subject to the most horrific forms of abuse. Their support of human trafficking prevention programmes and rehabilitation centres which are second to none demonstrates a solid partnership approach of prevention alongside rehabilitation.

The goal of Ratanak (UK) is simple: To be an agent of change in Cambodia's social, economical and spiritual landscape and to help the Cambodian people rebuild their lives and country after the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge a few short years ago. In so doing show they are demonstrating the compassion of Christ in a tangible way.

I am delighted to add my support to Ratanak (UK) as a model for the way in which support can be extended to a country like Cambodia - a nation that has experienced 40 years of dislocation, war and genocide, and that is now beginning to realise its bright potential in Southeast Asia.

Steve Chalke MBE
Founder Oasis Global, CEO Oasis Community Learning, UN.GIFT Special Advisor on Community Action against Human Trafficking.