CNN Hero Phymean Noun

On Thanksgiving night at 9 p.m., CNN will pay tribute to the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008. The top 10 CNN Heroes, chosen by a blue-ribbon panel from an initial pool of more than 3,700 viewer nominations, were each honored with a documentary tribute and introduced by a celebrity presenter. Each of the top 10 Heroes receives $25,000. One of the nominees is Phymean Noun and her organization, Championing Children. Growing up during the Pol Pot genocide, everyday Noun not only fought to stay alive but to finish high school. That education led to a decade-long career with various aid organizations, like the United Nations. On a fateful trip to Phnom Penh in 2002, she tossed a chicken leg into a garbage can. Phymean then watched in horror as several children fought to reclaim her discarded food. After meeting the children and hearing their stories, she learned that they worked at Stung Mean Chey, the municipal garbage dump. Children comprise a large majority of the workforce at Stun Mean Chey. Many of them are barefoot, shirtless and can be as young as four years old. Children often work from 3 a.m. until dusk for about 50 cents a day. At that moment, she decided to leave her job and dedicate $30,000 of her own money to starting schools for underprivileged children. Today, she runs the Stung Mey Chey Center, which provides more than 200 “dump children”, a free education, health services and an opportunity to be a child in a safe environment. Tune in Thanksgiving night to a great show hosted by Anderson Cooper with performances by Alicia Keys, John Legend and Christina Aquilera.