South Aussie with Cosi’s Andrew Costello is on a mission to save Cambodia — one cow at a time

Cosi is a big name in SA ... and Cambodia. Many South Aussies don’t know he runs a “bank” in Cambodia that has helped hundreds of poor villagers in a very creative way.

Cambodia is the place that can make you laugh and cry, in the same 60 seconds.

I spent two weeks there recently to see how our beloved charity Cows for Cambodia is going.

I sat on my plane at Adelaide Airport like everyone else, ready for adventure and happy to be travelling again. The plane would take me on my 24th trip to Cambodia and my first trip back since Covid.

The Cambodians were as excited as I was with our charity manager Jet travelling six hours on a bus to be there to greet me at the airport. His hug and smile is something I’ll never forget, he calls me his “ big fat kangaroo”

Our charity has grown to become the biggest agriculture charity in Cambodia and at its core is the cows. The Cambodians tell me we are the biggest cattle owners in the whole country.

Pictures from Andrew "Cosi" Costello’s recent trip to Cambodia.

Pictures from Andrew "Cosi" Costello’s recent trip to Cambodia.

Cows for Cambodia is essentially a bank, but instead of loaning money we loan cows. If you have a cow in Cambodia it will give you a calf each year. You can then sell that calf for around $600 USD which is the average family annual income in Cambodia. Therefore give a family a cow and you double the family’s annual income. But they have got to work for it. I don’t believe in giving handouts but would rather give a “leg up” There is a great saying that goes like this. If you give someone RESPONSIBILITY they will generally RESPOND. And that’s what we do.

So naturally the first thing I wanted to do was get out into the villages and check in on some of our 200-odd cows.

Whilst we were walking through the back roads of Cambodia checking on our cows I came across this family. We began to chat to them as we noticed their young daughter had issues with her eyes. The conversation that took place next surprised us all. Through our Cambodian interpreter we started to learn the history of this family.

The mother was visiting a friend in hospital when she was informed of a baby that had been born and left alone in the hospital. She started tending to this baby’s needs to help the understaffed nurses. She purchased milk powder with money she didn’t have to help keep the baby alive.

She would travel into town each day to feed and care for the baby at the hospital and after three weeks no one claimed or wanted the baby so the lady took it home and has cared for her ever since.

Sadly the little girl has a string of health issues with stomach problems, eye problems and general illness. Despite all this the mother and father care for her as one of their own. It is a selfless act that had my group speechless. This family knew by taking on the baby it would greatly affect their lives but they did it anyway. So kind.

Andrew "Cosi" Costello in Cambodia.

We paid the upcoming medical bills for the little girl and gave her family a surprise they did not see coming. We gave them a cow (pictured). Can you imagine bumping into a group of Aussies where no westerners ever go then suddenly scoring a cow and doubling your family’s income.

When they are being told in Cambodian they will receive a cow I always look at their eyes. You can tell the moment it sinks in as their eyes either light up or they start to cry. It’s an amazing thing that I have been blessed to see hundreds of times but I never get sick of it.

During our trip we gave away another 12 cows, all to women. Our charity aims to empower women by choosing 95 per cent of cow recipients as females. This is twofold, it helps improve the status of females in the villages (if you are walking around the villages with a cow it’s like driving around in a Ferrari here in Adelaide) Secondly I have found the females to be the core of the households we work with so I find they do a better job with the cow and keeping records etc.

On this trip we also vaccinated and drenched our entire herd, no mean feat! Cattle were coming from miles to get up to date with their healthcare. It is very important to us that our cows are the happiest and healthiest cows in South East Asia and we work hard at it. We spend $300,000 USD building the best cattle facility in Cambodia.

We built two new houses and checked in on the Cows for Cambodia primary school where 300 children receive free education each day. We also selected a site to build our new school on where another 300 kids will be educated, so exciting.

Our charity has become famous for what I believe to be the fastest donation in the world, our Rice Runs.

I do a Facebook post from Cambodia asking Aussies to donate a bag of rice. We then take their donation and buy rice. Each bag has the donor’s name written on it and a message. These are then delivered to some of the poorest families in Cambodia. A photo is taken with the lucky family that receives the rice then these photos are uploaded meaning the donors actually get to see where their money got spent.

An unexpected cow recipient.

We donated over 6000 kilograms of rice during my recent trip. In fact since I started doing rice runs we have given away 15 million meals to families in Cambodia and also India and Botswana.

My time in Cambodia reminded me how lucky I am to call South Australia home. I left the country a better man than when I landed. Cambodia has this crazy way of straightening your brain out and resetting your priorities. One things for sure, Cambodians despite having nothing are a happier race of humans than we are.

I have taken over 700 Australians over to visit my charity on a nine-day tour. If you are a fun loving, caring, adventurous person that wants a travel experience you can’t find anywhere else then I would love to host you on my next tour.

Originally published as South Aussie with Cosi’s Andrew Costello is on a mission to save Cambodia — one cow at a time