The ISPS HANDA Senior Open will shine a light on the transformative power of sport and raise funds for life-changing initiatives in Cambodia.
At Europe’s Senior Major Championship this week, a Birdie Challenge – organised in collaboration with The R&A – will see funds raised to help introduce golf to children in Battamburg, one of the poorest regions of the Southeast Asian nation.
For each birdie made on the par-three 13th at Sunningdale over the four tournament days, $750 will be added to the total, with $5,000 for a hole-in-one.
This project forms part of a broader long-term mission led by Dr. Haruhisa Handa, founder and chairman of ISPS HANDA, to rebuild Cambodia since the post-Khmer Rouge era, more than 40 years ago.
One of his most enduring legacies is the Sihanouk Hospital, named after the former King of Cambodia, which has treated more than 1.8 million people completely free of charge and hundreds of thousands more with substantial subsidies since its foundation 30 years ago.
After co-founding the University of Cambodia, which has provided thousands of scholarships to academically gifted students who otherwise had no access to education, Dr. Handa later founded The Handa Foundation.
Starting with a trauma hospital dedicated to providing free emergency care to landmine and traffic accident victims, it was later renamed the Handa Medical Center and expanded beyond just trauma to include all kinds of medical services and the training of local medical professionals.
Around it, Dr. Handa created an entire ecosystem of programmes including the Handa Academy and Handa Model Farm, with the aim of improving the community’s economy, health and education system together.
Pádraig Harrington, a long-time ISPS HANDA ambassador, recently donated £100,000 to install an array of solar panels at the Handa Medical Center, which help to drastically reduce the high electricity costs common to the region.
As a tournament, the ISPS HANDA Senior Open has committed $50,000 towards The Handa Foundation, linked to the project in Cambodia.
