Prestigious Award for Dominic Sharpe (SVC 1971-7)

Dominic Sharpe leads a remarkable life and was an inductee onto the St Virgil’s College Heritage Roll in 2013.

The October 2024 OVAtion (edition No. 82) updated the readership of the remarkable work Dom has been doing in Cambodia since 2003.  Dom and his wife Benita were co-founders of CamKids – The Cambodian Children’s Charity in 2006.

Revisiting  London in 1994, Dom began working in the field of specialist decoration where he met his wife, Benita, who was his boss at the time. Together, they ran a very successful specialist decorating company up until 2009.

In 1999 their son Jakamo was born. There were serious complications and for a full week Dom’s wife Benita was in a life-or-death situation. Mercifully, she made a full recovery but they could have no more children. They decided to adopt. They spent the next two years jumping through various governmental hoops in the UK and Cambodia before being able to adopt their beautiful daughter Theavy. After their first trip to Cambodia in 2003 it was clear this was no longer about a single child.

CamKids – The Cambodian Children’s Charity

The Sharpe family left London in 2009 to have a family “gap year” in Cambodia on their way to live in Tassie with their two children – Dom and Benita are still in Cambodia. Jakamo and Theavy completed their secondary schooling in Cambodia and then went through university in Melbourne and are currently working there.

The Liger Foundation 

 In 2002 Trevor and Agnieszka Gile first visited Cambodia in 2002 and fell in love with the country and its people. Coming from humble beginnings in the Seattle area, Trevor recognised that the opportunities he had did not exist for those in the developing world. He believed that the big equalizer would be to provide opportunities for those who could take advantage of them. For Agnieszka, Cambodia reminded her of her home country of Poland with so many years of oppression and World War II genocide. She was determined to give the children of Cambodia this new opportunity.

Encouraged by the idea that the most effective form of aid is a hand up rather than a hand out, The Liger Charitable Foundation was formed with Liger Leadership Academy Cambodia as its pilot project. In 2009, Trevor and Agnieszka began extensive research and planning to develop the concept of Liger Leadership Academy Cambodia. Attracting a top-notch team of specialists from all areas of education and non-profit development, they created a new type of organization providing resources and guidance for promising children as a long-term investment to help the entire Cambodian society. Liger Leadership Academy Cambodia was opened in 2012 and today hosts 60 students.

Dom was approached by Trevor and Agnieszka Gile to help design and then project manage the building of a $1 million Learning Centre for promising disadvantaged Cambodian Children. After the Centre was built, Dom was asked to remain as Deputy Director and he led the initial team that travelled throughout Cambodia, assessed more than 12,000 students to find 50 students for The Liger Learning Centre. For the past 12 years Dom has been the Foundation’s Country Director.

To quote Dom, “My paid work for Liger and unpaid work for CamKids complement each other perfectly as all the knowledge is transferrable. I am busier than I have ever been and yet still feel I am on holiday. Anywhere you can live that gives you that must be a good place but the place would offer nothing if it were not shared with my incredible wife and two beautiful children. From my darkest moment when I nearly lost my wife, my everything has come: my son, my daughter, CamKids, Liger and the ability to live a life I could never have dreamed of!”

In February this year, Dom, along with Trevor and Agnieszka Gile, was honoured by the King of Cambodia for his outstanding contribution to the people of that kingdom.

Trevor and Agnieszka were awarded the Knight Grand Cross of Monisaraphon (GCM) for their services to education in the country. This is an extremely rare accolade, with only 13 others being awarded the GCM in its 120 year history.

Dominic received the Grand Officer of Monisaraphon (GOM) at a prestigious ceremony.