Be the Change Network

Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Our adventure to sustainability begins with a blessing from a like minded monk. Venerable Brak Sareth called on the first day of our arrival, anxious to meet. He’d read our website and recognized a kindred spirit. His homegrown organization, Raise and Support the Poor, also runs a school in Kampong Speu province, where Life Skills are taught in a free after school program adjacent to the government school. He’s providing training in several foreign languages, computer skills, sewing, moto repair and bicycle repair to 345 impoverished students, 66 of whom are parent less - orphaned by AIDS. We are on the same wavelength.

Sareth found me because his mother read my book. She bought Bones That Float at a fundraiser auction for the Angkor Dance Company in Massachusetts. Apparently, his family was impressed with both the meaning of the book and it’s intent to support the rural poor. And that’s how I found myself inside the inner sanctum of Aronnavati Pagoda in Phnom Penh, in a monk’s dorm room, discussing the weakness of the Cambodian education system with a bald man in a saffron robe as if he is my brother. It’s a small world after all.

We left the pagoda with a long red thread wrapped around each of our wrists, our faces sprinkled with holy water, as a family blessed for success with our project.

I’ll take the blessings from wherever they come. My jetlagged brain spends the sleepless hours of the night mulling over every possible detail that could go wrong with this project. Our biggest problem is the condition of the road. As usual, the transportation of illegal logs by oxcart and wood truck during the rainy season have destroyed the road. Although it is well into the dry season, the government still has not fixed it. This presents a challenge to the idea of producing briquettes in the village for sale in the city. How will we transport them in a cost effective manner? Even the 4 wheel drive passenger vehicles want to charge $150 per day because of the damage potential. The eighty kilometer trip is likely to take 6 hours.

My worries began to subside today when Sanu Kaji arrived from Nepal with his technician, who is, by coincidence, also called Sanu Kaji. Sanu 1 is a well educated man who delights in empowering the poor. His eyes twinkle when he talks of briquettes. Everywhere he looks, he sees waste materials we can use as raw materials. He brought some sample briquettes and a simple demonstration stove. George was carrying them when we walked into a restaurant for lunch which drew significant attention to this simple little device. One patron recognized Sanu from the BBC World Challenge broadcast and the restaurant owner was very anxious to try our product. Even the neighboring restaurateur handed us his card expressing interest in the briquettes and stove. Apparently the price of cooking gas and wood is hitting everyone hard. We have a promising level of local demand for the product we hope to produce.

But here is the catch. It would be more cost effective and just as easy to produce them right here in the city. The reason we are taking the training to our school in Cardamom Mountains is because that is where the trees are being chopped down. We want to empower villagers with alternative livelihoods to support our school and increase attendance. If this were purely a business decision, we would set up a production facility in the city using the city’s own paper waste as our raw materials. If we are successful, eventually the forces of competition will figure this out. How do we create a business model that aligns with our mission to support rural schools?