Be the Change Network

October 20, 2008

Dear Kari and George:

Congratulations!

The epic results are in for the National Best Books 2008 Awards!

Your book, Bones That Float: A Story of Adopting Cambodia by Kari Grady Grossman, has been honored as an Award-Winning Finalist in the

Multi-cultural: Non-fiction category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

Thank you for making the National Best Books 2008 Awards one of the most successful mainstream book award programs in the United States.

Have a fantastic holiday season and once again, congratulations!

Regards,

Jeff Keen
President & CEO
JPX Media

USABookNews.com

Technorati Profile

Glenwood Springs Post Independent by Stina Sieg

Woman establishes school in Cambodia

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — In an act of charity, it takes real love to empower people, rather than make them depend on you. Kari Grady Grossman has come to understand that.

The reason why is quite a journey.

In 2001, she was a freelance journalist, working for the Discovery Channel’s website and living in the mountains of Wyoming. These days, she’s a Front Range mother of two adopted children, an award-winning author and founder of a successful school in her son’s native home of Cambodia.

“To be honest with you, I’m kind of in awe,” she said.

She’s not the only one.

Her recent book, “Bones That Float: A Story of Adopting Cambodia” has won several accolades, and Grossman herself has been named “Peacemaker of the Year” by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. She’s given presentations across the country, and thousands have bought her memoir. People seem eager to hear her story. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s a simple one to tell.

Her connection to Cambodia began when she and her husband, George, wanted to start a family and faced infertility. World travelers already, they thought of international adoption immediately. Grossman liked the idea of being part of some distant place.

“You’re not just American anymore,” she explained. “You’re Cambodian-American. You’re Indian-American. You’re really connected with your child’s history.”

She completely took that to heart.

After adopting Grady, now 8, from an orphanage, she learned about his country’s complex history, about the abhorrent acts committed by its government and the role our own government had there. What she saw was a corrupt, war-torn nation, and she just wanted to help. Full of empathy and good intent, she started up the Grady Grossman School in a small, mountain town and began a nonprofit to support it. For years, she acted mostly in a fundraising capacity. Her efforts were valiant, but something was missing. She wanted more for these people.

“It wasn’t very empowering for them to depend on a nice girl in Colorado to raise money for them,” she explained, “And (what) we really needed to do with that community was empower them to support their own school.”

What she was dealing with was a culture so used to foreign aid that its citizens felt entitled to it. It was frustrating for Grossman, as she wanted these people to feel they could help themselves. At Grossman’s school there were constant absences of both teachers and students, and some of the surrounding areas were completely deforested, as the trees were cut for fuel. The two issues might seem divergent, but they weren’t. It all stemmed from an economic and social depression, one that discouraged any form of creative problem solving. These people didn’t feel ownership over their own lives, and they’d been scared into silence about it for years by their government. They were desperate and had no idea how to make things better.

So Grossman decided to shake everything up for them.

These days, the Grady Grossman School is completely different than before. Teachers want to be there, because they’re compensated extra for their attendance. The town’s environmental nightmare has been squelched, as Grossman found the residents a way to make briquettes out of waste instead of using wood. The manufacturing of this burnable material generates income, as well, which helps the residents stay afloat, and allows more kids to stay in class. Instead of just being given funds, people have to work for them. If they want a library or some other addition, they have figure out how to pay for it. Slowly, the people who want change are taking over the reigns of their lives — economically, socially and educationally.

Strangely, by making the villagers more fiscally accountable, it’s as though Grossman’s setting them free.

“Our mission is to empower communities to sustain schools through economic development,” she said, adding later, “We’ve kind of stumbled on a real answer.”

In America, her nonprofit, formally known as Friends of the Grady Grossman School, is now Sustainable School International. As she sees it, this is a totally new way of running a charitable organization. She can’t help but want to spread it far and wide. But, of course, when it comes to dealing with people, nothing is cut and dried. Though her family moved to Fort Collins to be closer to a major airport recently, Grossman can’t always be in her adopted village to oversee things. She has Grady and her 4-year-old daughter, Shanti (from India) to take care of. In her absence, all kinds of things can happen. People can make mistakes and argue and use poor judgment. They’re human. They are what makes Grossman’s efforts so complicated and trying — and absolutely rewarding, too. This is really about people, after all, not the schools.

“You’re telling them you believe in them,” she said.

And that’s what makes all this possible.

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Floating bones

In Cambodian, the expression “bones that float” means “the sacred that rises above the suffering.” It’s also the title of Kari Grady Grossman’s memoir and historical look at Cambodia. In 2001, Grossman adopted a little boy from the country and decided to establish a Cambodian school, which a portion of the proceeds from her book funds. She’ll be speaking about her experiences, reading from “Bones” and showing a documentary film produced by her husband, George, at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Glenwood Springs Branch Library, 413 Ninth St. The presentation is free. For more information, visit Grossman’s website at www.bonesthatfloat.com.

Asian Avenue Magazine - August 2008

Written By Derek Brou

Bones That Float: A Story of Adopting Cambodia sets out to tell the story of Kari Grossman and her husband George, an American couple who, frustrated by their own reproductive limits, begin a journey into the wide and seemingly pointed universe to adopt a needy Cambodian boy living in a Phnom Penh orphanage. It is a powerful tale (as you can guess from simply reading the PR blurbs); An international adoptive mother gains more than the child she prays for, but an entire country, its history, its culture, its utter poverty and its deep-seeded social problems. But this book accomplishes much more than that.

In the world inhabited by Kari Grady Grossman, spirits hover, and visions of a magical, interconnected and immeasurable life-force guides and haunts this earthly existence. It is a beautifully crafted glimpse into the emotional and spiritual tensions that motivate every decision in human experience. What Grossman learns on her long and arduous journey is as ineffable as spirit itself, as fleeting as smoke. She does an outstanding job of describing the indescribable through her loving recreation of the facts (both physical and emotional), painted in broad strokes, until what is left is merely a residue of something seemingly as simple as the meaning of family, but more complex than human language can approach.

As Grossman struggles with matters of conscience, she is fearless in her storytelling. She sends her prayers for a wider understanding out into the universe, seeks in every corner of her own psyche, and remains undaunted when the answers turn out to be more difficult than the questions ever were.

Bones That Float has garnered impressive and well-deserved national attention with the presentation of two prestigious book awards: The Nautilus Book Award and the Independent Publishers Award. But what might be most impressive about Grossman’s efforts is the noble purpose that book’s proceeds go to promote. Because of the ties they have formed with their son’s native land, this couple feels an irrepressible sense of responsibility to the country that placed this human treasure into their hands. She and her husband have consequently created a school for underprivileged children in Cambodia.

The Grady Grossman School is named for her son, Eric Ratanak Grady Grossman. Located in an isolated rural village, the school educates nearly 500 children annually, with the main goals of the school being to give these children a strong primary level education, and in the process, to teach them ways to use their environment to sustain themselves without destroying it in the process. It is a book you’ll readily embrace, and a cause you will be inspired to support. Kari and George were recently named “Colorado Parents of the Year” by the Colorado Parent’s Day Council, an a liate of the American Family Coalition.

Bones That Float is available at the book’s website, www.BonesThatFloat.com, or at your local bookstore, or through various online merchants (though buying direct from the website assures that more funds go to the school). ISBN-13: 978-0-9792493-0-3. It retails for $24.95 Hardcover.

Written By Derek Brou
Asian Avenue magazine

We celebrate Cambodian New Year this month by reconnecting with our Friends and Supporters around the globe.

A NEW YEAR, INDEED!
Our program is experiencing expansive growth on both sides of the ocean. After our family returned from Cambodia in February, exhausted from a month of sustainability work at the school, we considered giving up. And then suddenly, incredible things began to happen…..

Our ABUNDANT FOREST LIFE SKILLS TRAINING CENTER is LAUNCHED!
During the month of January Sanu Kaji Shrestra, from Foundation for Sustainable Technologies Nepal, successfully trained the villagers in the production of Biomass Briquettes, an alternative cooking fuel made out of local waste materials. We learned the incredible challenges to building community in Cambodia, where fear and oppression remain a destructive force and where well-intended, donor-driven programs undermine community solidarity. Village leader, Bun Vanna, heads the production facility, sleeps at the school to protect it, and fears for his life if he is not able to pay the workers. We hired and trained a Phnom Penh staff to help the villagers develop the market for their briquettes under the brand name SMART CHOICE FUEL and then something MIRACULOUS happened….. the price of cooking gas in Cambodia rose 300%!!!!

Suddenly, our briquettes are very popular and we are getting calls daily from villages that seek training!
A quote from our Country Director, “Yes, we picked up 45 bags of briquettes = 2,250kg from Chrauk Tiek at this time and sold them totaling 1899kg in Takeo Province then we had 351kg left when we got back to Phnom Penh. At this point, we have now have 10 bags briquettes about 350kg leftover in PP office. Oh! yes, it feels so proud to sell so many briquettes so well in Takeo.”

SCHOOL FUEL
The briquette program has the potential to sustain many schools. Villagers can donate waste material and then buy back cooking fuel, creating income for the school, creating jobs in the community, and reducing environmental destruction at the same time. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Next we will tackle the challenges of transportation and distribution, developing the market, organizing a training program and outreach to other schools and organizations.

SUSTAINABLE SCHOOLS for CAMBODIA
That’s our new goal. To achieve it we have a new and highly experienced, 25-member Board of Advisors who will be spending the rest of 2008 growing our organization from one that supports one school, to one that supports many. Our mission will be to build a replicable model that helps local communities start income-generating businesses to support their own school in a sustainable way.

Library and Music Program
Our new facility is 75% complete. The new music teaching team consists of three teachers: music, dance, and voice performance at $80 per month for teaching 6 days a week. The importance of the music program is profound; it is the thread that rebuilds the fabric of community. We also hired a full-time librarian for $50/month, so the students have more access to the library during recess and free time.

A Medical Facility
This has been both a need and a dream for a long time. And now, The College of Nursing at Belmont University in Nashville is helping us develop a sustainable medical program, via professor Susan Talpin, who worked for 2 years training nurses at a Phnom Penh hospital. A student nurse team led by Susan will be visiting the school at the end of May to conduct a 2-day medical clinic, a hygiene workshop, train a health teacher, assess nutrition/malnourishment of the students, and gather information for long-range sustainability planning.

Book Tour in honor of Mother’s Day
Sales of BONES THAT FLOAT, A Story of Adopting Cambodia by Kari Grady Grossman remain the bow of our fundraising ship.

Come see Kari’s presentation “How a Mother’s Love Can Change the World? And tell your friends!

Friday, April 18: PHILADELPHIA: Khmer Art Gallery, 319 N. 11th ST, 6:00-8:00 PM
Monday, April 21: COLORADO SPRINGS: Poor Richard’s Bookstore, 6:00-8:00PM
Sunday, May 4: DENVER: First Universalist Church, 4101 E. Hampden Ave, 9:30–11:00AM
Saturday, May 10: FORT COLLINS: Greyrock Commons, 2265 Shooting Star Lane, 4:00-8:00 PM (childcare provided)
Saturday, May 17: SAN FRANCISCO: Holdenreid Home w/Cambodia Tomorrow, 50 Cerritos Ave, 6:00-8:00PM
Sunday, May 18: DENVER: Colorado Ambassadors for Peace, St. Francis Event Center, 1030 St. Francis Way, 6:30-8:30 PM
Wednesday, May 21: BOULDER: Huffaker Home, 801 Columbia Place, 6:00-8:00 PM
Wednesday, June 18: VANCOUVER ISLAND, BC: Courtenay Recreation Centre, 411 Anderton Avenue, 7:00-10:00PM

For complete information and driving directions see our calendar.

Would you like The Mother’s Love Book Tour to come to your town? Schedule an event for fall 2008!

Gratefully Yours,
The Grossman Family and
The Students and Teachers of the Grady Grossman School, Chrauk Tiek village, Cambodia

Sometimes the Universe rewards you for staying true to your calling.

On Saturday I not only met my personal hero, I shared a podium with her. Loung Ung is the international bestselling author of First They Killed My Father and Lucky Child, and a passionate peace activist. She is now also a supporter of The Grady Grossman School in Cambodia.

She went first, delivering a heart wrenching speech about her life’s journey from childhood under the Khmer Rouge, to American refugee, and back to Cambodia as an activist for a land mine free world. Over 150 teachers from International Baccalaureate schools in the Rocky Mountain region listened with rapt attention, their minds churning with desire to communicate these events to their students, K-12. The theme of the Denver, Colorado conference was Awareness to Action. Loung spoke to the Awareness part, and I was there to inspire Action.

Seven years ago, while waiting to adopt our son, I bought 20 copies of First They Killed My Father, and sent them to every member of our family for Christmas. Four months later, as I cradled a Cambodian baby boy in my arms, I wanted a book about the conditions in today’s Cambodia to explain why my son was a war orphan - 25 years after the war! There was no such book, and that is why I wrote Bones That Float; it remains the only narrative book out there to connect Cambodia’s history with Cambodia’s present.

It was amazing to listen as Loung’s journey reached the exact same conclusion that mine has, Cambodia needs sustainable lives and teacher support to help rural communities heal the many ills that continue to plague the rebuilding of society to this day. After showing the video of our school, I explained my vision of sustainable, school-based economic development, building a solid foundation of primary education at the grassroots level, partnered with Life Skills & Vocational training, to empower local communities with control over their educational future.

When I finished my speech, Luong gave me thumbs up and a big smile. She asked how she could help me. With her notoriety taking our awareness message to a wide audience, and mine taking our action message deep, I think we can have a powerful effect.

I am going to ask Loung to join me for the world’s largest online book discussion on April 17, 2008. A day of remorse and healing in recognition of the day the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, in the year that they are finally being held accountable for it.

I will call for volunteers to join our school supporting network. Through building relationships and listening to local communities, our partners will find a way for every school to become income-generating and self-supporting in 3 to 5 years. This is a people to people endeavor and our job is to work ourselves out of a job, to usher each school to its own, unique sustainability.

Who will join us?