An informal portrait of aid worker Jennifer Ashton (left) and Cambodia born Theany Savon (right), ...

An informal portrait of aid worker Jennifer Ashton (left) and Cambodia born Theany Savon (right), both Australian aid workers at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Ashton, appointed Senior Social Services and Education Officer for the UNHCR in 1992, brought eight years of experience in Cambodian aid to the position, having been one of the first aid workers to work under the Vietnamese backed communist government in the 1980s, coordinating the efforts of four Australian non government agencies (NGOs). Her primary responsibilities under the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) were centered around the welfare of the 360,000 Cambodian refugees returning home from the Thai border camps, especially of the most vulnerable, such as the elderly, disabled, orphans, female heads of households and the seriously ill. Theany Savon, returning to Cambodia for the first time since immigrating to Australia after suffering through the Khmer Rouge regime and losing ten members of her family, interviewed every second household in the 270 family Chroy Sdao refugee resettlement site, northeast of Battambang, to check on their welfare and monitor their progress. Both aid workers state they were continually moved by witnessing a wide range of events - joyful family reunions, lonely orphans, and the distressing effects of the refugees' traumatic experiences.