Be the Change Network

By George Grady Grossman

Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. April 29, 2008 local time.

Cambodia has been a whirlwind of excitement for me on this trip. First it is the rainy season so every afternoon and night it rains as you’ve never seen in the American West. One night the thunder was crashing instantly after the lightning flash. Amazingly the power in Phnom Pehn never failed. Secondly, without Kari here to be my crutch, I’ve been forced to really work on my Khmer language skills and let’s just say I’ve gotten a lot of blank stares.

Today I met with Aurelien Herail, a biomass energy expert from GERES and Tong Chantheang, the General Secretary of the Training Unit of CEDAC. Along with Yoen Soek, our Country Director, and Savin Oeun, our Program Coordinator we discussed each of our organizations missions concerning renewable energy and biomass briquettes and ways to form partnerships. GERES offers us technical skill and research beyond our expertise and is willing to help test the quality our our briquettes. Third party independent testing will be valuable for marketing our “Smart Choice Fuel” as a viable alternative cooking fuel to charcoal and woodsticks. CEDAC has expertise to help us with the development of our training workshop. Although the particulars were not worked out the basis for working together has been established. CEDEC also wants to publish out story in their quarterly review called “Green Fire.” This will be more publicity for our alternative cooking fuel as well as our model of life skills supporting education.

Tomorrow I will be heading to Chrauk Tiek to spend 4 days at the Grady Grossman School. Supposedly the roads have been fixed since our trip in January. But only time will tell.

I am excited to meet the three new music teachers and see if the new “Peter Pisay” Library is complete. And the big question is how do we dry a briquette in the rainy season.

More to come so subscribe and stay tuned.

From 9 to 11 pm last night, I sat in my Colorado office talking to our school director, Ngim So Bun, in Cambodia, using the voice over internet software, Skype. Our two hour conversation was completely free. I hope that Skype will one-day become the tool to facilitate a web based English tutoring program at our school. But this is a first world dream. In seven years of sponsoring a school in Cambodia, I have learned one firm lesson - listen to the people I am serving. So I listened, and So Bun talked, and my dreams of a computer lab deflated. Right now cooking fuel is more important than computers.

We begin the 2007-2008 school year with 435 students enrolled, and another 73 who have not shown up yet. Why? Because their parents cannot afford to send them. They either live too far away or they need their children to work. They work chopping down trees to sell cooking fuel to Phnom Penh. We have 129 students enrolled for 1st class and 25 enrolled for 6th class. Fourteen have enrolled to attend the secondary school 4km down the road. I’ll be surprised if half of them finish the first year. Our student enrollment figures confirm that 80% of rural children do not complete a primary education, in keeping with the UNESCO statistics for the region.

Cambodia is much like the United States was 100 years ago, when most of the economy was agricultural, and most people did not attend school past 6th grade. I’ve learned to lower the bar of my first world expectations. Building the foundation of an educated society begins with universal primary education. When you put the opportunity for education in the hands of a few, you seat power in the hands of a few. And that is exactly the urban-rural dynamic that fueled the disastrous communist revolution known as the Khmer Rouge in the first place. Educating the rural poor is our priority.

For a sobering reminder of why our work is necessary, take a look at the status of our 6 Khmer teachers who are provided by the ministry of education. Five return for another year with the addition of a second female teacher, Cheang Van Neath, newly graduated from the teacher training center. The salary provided by the government for our experienced teachers is $38 per month, the school director receives $40, and the new teacher receives $15. If Cheang Van Neath can survive on that for a year, she will receive a $250 supplement from the government at the completion of her 10 month contract. The $25 per month food stipend we send to each teacher helps to curb the national trend of teacher absenteeism and collection of “informal payments” from students, as described in the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia on Bookrags.com

“The country’s teachers, who are grossly underpaid, have resorted to charging their students unofficial fees. Many are spending less time in the classroom as they seek additional employment elsewhere. Almost 20 percent of students in urban areas, and 26 percent in rural areas, have repeated at least one grade at school. From every one thousand students who begin primary school, only twenty-seven will graduate from upper secondary school. Girls, students from remote areas, and the poor are all grossly underrepresented in education statistics. With these significant problems as a backdrop, and the school-age population continuing to grow, the Cambodian government still denies the education sector the funding it needs to realize its important role in Cambodian society.”

Our 83-year old music teacher, Em Luot, suffered a setback with his rheumatism in September, exacerbated by the school director’s decision to withhold his salary since July. Why? Because he needed to pay for the new gate to keep the cows out of the schoolyard - they were eating the flowers!

Routine operating expenses and development activities are supposed to be funded by the “priority action program. ” But the government was more than 4 months behind on delivering “pap” funds, the cows were despoiling the school yard, and Em Luot’s salary was the only cash available .

We told director So Bun not to borrow teacher’s salaries to fill the shortcomings of his government - that’s what we’re for! We need Em Luot healthy and working to prepare his music students for their big debut in the marketplace to deliver our conservation message and demonstrate cooking fuel briquettes.

Imagine if your child’s school was subject to such incalculable whims. Would you place much faith in education?

As our Abundant Forest Life Skills Training Center develops, we hope it will empower the Chrauk Tiek community with both the income and local control to steer their own educational destiny. We want every child to complete a primary education and for teachers to earn a salary they can live on.

Stay Tuned…

Please support our efforts and become a Friend to the Grady Grossman School in Cambodia.

Last week when I spoke our school director via Skype, he told me that “the high-ranking people are now scared of the people of Charuk Tiek because they have a voice to the world. ” They do. Me. Read all about it in the News….

This local news on the heels of a report released June 1, by London based human rights group Global Witness called Cambodia’s Family Trees, detailing how the political elite is stripping Cambodia of it’s forest resources in the illegal timber trade. This is the web of “the power man” that the people in our village live in fear of. Read more here…

To convince the teachers, community leaders, monks and students to write a letter, I would pick up a single stick and say “If one person speaks out, easy to break” Snap. Then I would pick up a whole bunch of sticks and say “But if everyone speaks out together, cannot break.” And the bundle held firm. When asked if the people believe that their letters are what make the “powerman” look over his shoulder, he said yes. When asked if anyone has been threatened for writing a letter, he said no.

I am proud of them all.

Still I’m searching for the right conservation NGO to team up with to help with the sustainable forest agriculture projects at our school Here’s what a contact at Conservation International great.

Flora & Fauna International (FFI) is the international conservation organization who works with the Cambodian government in the Aural Wildlife Sanctuary. Apparently, Tra Peang Chor, is unfortunately called “timber town” and effective enforcement of natural resource laws has been difficult there.

I just don’t get why they are working with the Cambodian government, which I can tell you from personal obersavtion is utterly on the take in Trapeang Chor around out school. Yet, we have a huge number of local advocates, why aren’t they working to empower these people?

I honestly dont get it. It’s like no one ever thought of working through the school for community driven economic development and empowerment. I find this odd, because a school is a natural community meeting place, and it also serves to neutralize conflict since everybody’s kids go to school there.

Our grassroots approach is based on the premise that the government will not change. It is either unwilling or unable to support it’s schools. Change has to come from the bottom up.

I wanted to thank everyone for their interest in my soon to be released book Bones That Float, A Story of Adopting Cambodia.

I just received a review from Luong Ung that you might find interesting.

“Bones That Float is Kari Grady Grossman’s tender tale of her journey to find her son in Cambodia. But more than an adoption story, this beautifully written book brings to light the external, internal, and spiritual struggles mothers of internationally adoptive children face in their new roles. As a mother, Kari understands the cultural and emotional issues her son, like many other young Asian Americans today, will face in our contemporary American society. As a writer, she knows that Asian Americans are more than the one dimensional characters they are often portrayed on television and in films. Instead, they are a juxtaposition of old and new world views, proud of their cultures but also finding that sometimes they have to rebel against traditions that keep them down. Like her son, today’s Asian American youths will have to break molds and barriers to create a new mosaic of families, lives, and multi-national identities in their increasingly global world. In her desire to understand and make whole her sonís two countries, Kari integrates both cultures into her heart and their lives so successfully, sheís fallen in love with her sonís ëotherí brothers and sisters in Cambodia. This led Kari to return to Cambodia many times to build a school and become ëmamaí to over 450 children. Told with fierce honesty and an affecting voice, Bones that Float is a love story of mother for her child, and a testimony of how love can change the world.”

- Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father and Lucky Child.

Even more important, I spoke to our school director this weekend; because of my visit to the school 6 weeks ago, and the children being featured on Voice of America, 100 children have come back to school!!! They were all 3rd-6th grade students who had dropped out to work. For their parents, everyday they send them to school is a sacrifice, but they again see hope. That is why the relationship matters as much as the money.

If you have already ordered the book during the pre-publication sale, I thank you for your support and patience. Books are due to be shipped to us on March 16, and out to you on March 22.

The Official Publication date for bookstores is April 17, 2007, commemorating Khmer New Year and the 32-year anniversary of the Khmer Rouge takeover, in this new year when UN war crime trials are supposed to begin.

If you are interested in ordering the book, the most money goes to our school in Cambodia when you order direct from www.BonesThatFloat.com.

We are only 50 books away from reaching our pre-publication goal of 500!!!

I will be at the Long Beach Khmer New Year on April 21st, signing books!

With profound gratitude, Kari Grady Grossman

proud moma of Grady, age 6 Cambodia, and Shanti, age 2, India
author of Bones That Float, A Story of Adopting Cambodia on sale now at http://www.BonesThatFloat.com
sales benefit The Friends of the Grady Grossman School http://www.GradyGrossmanSchool.org

The January food stipend has been delivered to our teachers. It is amazing how a 4 room house and a $100 of food every month has drastically improved the attendance and commitment of our teachers.

Kari will be visiting the school January 23 - February 4 and reporting on this blog. The plan is to discuss the next steps in improving the school, whether it’s another building, or an internet computer hub, or music class. Our approach to working with this community is to let them decide how to spend the money we raise.

Kari will be accompanied by biologist Andre Carvalhaes, founder of the Abundant Forest Enterprise, who will meet with Chrauk Tiek community leaders and network with local forest conservation organizations. His expertise with agro-forestry and perma-culture techniques may offer the Chrauk Tiek community a sustainable and profitable alternative to destroying their forest. Stay tuned.