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DenmarkEuropean Royals

Princess Marie of Denmark begins humanitarian trip to Cambodia with poignant visit

Princess Marie of Denmark has undertaken a trip to Cambodia in her role as honorary President of DanChurchAid, the Danish church’s humanitarian foundation. 

The program will take Her Royal Highness through some of the most evocative sites in the country, with her first stop of the trip being the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh, a memorial to the massacre carried out by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. 

But the schedule for the visit will be primarily focused on the areas that Princess Marie and DanChurchAid have been working on for many years: poverty, sustainable development and human rights. 

The trip started on Sunday, 3 April, and will end on the following Thursday, 7 April. It will bring the Princess to the provinces of Takeo and Kampong Chhang, as well as the capital Phnom Penh. 

DanChurchAid turned 100 in 2022, and this trip serves as a celebration of the organisation’s significant milestone, as well as being a trip to mark Princess Marie’s tenth anniversary as Patron in 2021. Cambodia holds a special significance for the Princess because it was the first country that she travelled to in her new role with DanChurchAid. 

The organisation operates in a number of countries around the world, including Ethiopia, Myanmar and Uganda, and established a presence in Cambodia in 1979, in the wake of the civil war. The organisation’s first Cambodian office was opened in Phnom Penh in 1997. 

Princess Marie’s visit will include organisations such as Mith Samlanh, a partner for DanChurchAid that works with vulnerable children and families, LICADHO, a human rights organisation, and Voices for Gender Equality, another partner of DanChurchAid that works with marginalised groups such as members of the LGBTQ+ community and women who go through domestic violence. 

The Princess will also visit farming lands in Kampong Chhnang province, where she will see first-hand how locals are trying to produce food that earns them a living wage while also fighting for the sustainability of the produce. 

This is Princess Marie’s first international trip and engagement since Denmark and France, where she currently resides and has the role of Danish-French cultural ambassador, went into lockdown in March 2020.