t begins with family. “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” Mother Teresa spoke truth. But families are messy. We’re a lot of misfits bundled together with a commandment to love. Here’s the kicker – while you’re struggling to muster up enough love for your older brother, we ought to also love…our neighbor?

That’s hard.

A mere 35 years ago in a land distant from most of our minds families were torn asunder. Forced into “labor” camps dubbed “killing fields,” millions of moms, dads and siblings were wrangled up and forced to work or die, or work and die, or be too old to work, and die. Imagine so much death. Nearly three million people were killed under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. History has a short memory.

We’ve preserved countless memories and not once have I witnessed anything like the tragedies told in Cambodia. These aren’t really the moments we tend to capture. As in family, it’s easier to brush these blemishes under the rug.

But love brings all things to bear.

Andong is a small village of displaced refugees located outside the capital of Cambodia. They live in shanty huts, in conditions that would make your camping trips look like the Four Seasons. There’s a group of people there, locals, with some help from neighbors like us, who have devoted their lives to rebuilding. They’re taking on the biggest task yet – to build an entire city. It will start with infrastructure, to homes and farms, and everything in between.

Southtree has bought into this audacious vision of BuildACity.org.

We’ve made the commitment to fund the Community Development Center, a centerpiece of this new city in Andong. This will be a three year project, with a three year commitment from us. It’s a start.

We think the best way to start loving our neighbor is to first connect with them. This is why we love home movies so much – they transport, remind, and link us in a tapestry bigger than creed or country. Every time we have the opportunity to preserve a family memory of yours, know that we’re helping create new memories elsewhere. Memories of hope and love.

As Mother Teresa said, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

It begins with family. Then work your way out.

Nick Macco, Founder