THE first 'Taste and See' event of the year took place at Tavistock Golf Club last week.

The club was filled to capacity to hear Mari Hill talk about her life and work with social enterprise projects, which she has been running in Cambodia for the past 20 years.

Mari's talk 'using weapons of war' included how she came from Australia to the UK when she was six years old.

She was brought up as a Catholic. She had a personal conversion to Christianity after she met her husband and made links with the Westcountry when she came to Art College in Plymouth.

In the early 90s Mari felt called to work in Asia and spent time working in refugee camps.

Her work has developed over the years but currently two of the main areas of the Saomao Social Enterprise are the making of jewellery and hand loomed pure silks.

She explained how metal from the weapons of the killing fields of the 1970s, where more than two million people — over a quarter of the population — were murdered by the communist Khmer Rouge regime and subsequent conflicts, are used in the design and manufacture of unique and exquisitely produced jewellery.

Ruth Newman, chairman of Taste and See, thanked Mari for an inspirational and humbling talk and also thanked the staff at Tavistock Golf Club.