Be the Change Network

Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

I got served Red Ants today. Fried. Funky. They’re supposed to taste sour and good, my colleague Paul Chuk assured me. I might have tried a taste, but the large ones with the wings and white egg sacks freaked me out. When a fried ant accidentally attached itself to my rice and sour fish, I couldn’t help but squeal. Kind of cartoonish, I know. My passion for Cambodia has led me on many adventures, but I draw the line at eating insects. This is a part of Cambodian I will never be.

The fried ants are a symbolic reminder of the cultural gap we need to bridge, as I spent the day with Paul, Yoen and Sam Sundoen trying to figure out how we will implement our vision for Sustainable Schools International. Our vision is pretty straight forward really—help the village support and sustain a strong primary school so that all the children will achieve a primary education and more can access secondary, high school and University through our scholarship program. It’s a partnership. We get stumped on things like “how to change the school director’s behavior to be more honest and transparent”, “how to make the teachers care about teaching”, “how to get the parents to participate and send kids to school”, how to raise termites, to feed chickens, to feed children, to feed teachers.

How on earth will we find the funding to make our education model truly reliable and sustainable and expandable to other villages? We go on the hunt for money. First stop is USAID, housed in the US Embassy. We enter through a fortress of security to go see about a grant. The irony is not lost on me. When I think of the exceptionally poor and powerless people we advocate the money for, how on earth could they ever access these vaulted resources? It’s intimidating for me, an educated American. The conversation goes well. Our approach is very much in line with the strategic education objectives of USAID and their program partners, who with tremendously more resources have come to the same solutions we have. But guess what. We’re in the wrong province. Their “target area” is not our region. You have got to be kidding me. We are working with the most marginalized people in the country. We are working in a community-driven, holistic and sustainable way. We are already accomplishing many of their objectives and solving some problems they haven’t solved yet, and their funding is geographically unavailable???? Surely, we can get around this? Nope. Red Ants.

I have one of those throw my hands in the air moments, wondering I why don’t just go home. Sokea, our first high school scholarship student, enters the room. He speaks to me in English as best he can. He wants to study English so he can go back to the village and be a teacher. We all smile. We will soldier on.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

If I’ve counted the stamps in my passport right, this is my 11th trip to Cambodia. Each time I leave my children behind, Grady 8 and Shanti 5, I spend the entire flight wondering why I’m doing this. Spending time away from them is painful, but the answer always comes back the same. If I don’t do it who will? Two years ago we launched a new approach to see if we could help the village of Chrauk Tiek make their school sustainable. My hope back then, to be honest, was that self-sustainability might help me let go, and I could walk away like so many other donors of schools in Cambodia.

What we have learned in the past two years is that sustainability requires a community ownership and a systematic approach. Our Education, Leadership, Sustainability program has the power to do just that. I’m not flying over the ocean with the hope of letting go. Instead, I find myself excited about meeting with the people at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) about helping with funding. And I carry the hope that our supporters will take up the torch of sponsoring more schools into the program.

Sustainable Schools International wants to expand it’s program to four more schools in the Aural District of Kampong Speu Province. New school buildings here have shuttered classrooms and absent teachers and vast swaths of the current generation have no opportunity for schooling past fourth grade. I just can’t let it go until I know that the people I’ve come to love and respect have built a RELIABLE education system that will bring them a tangible result for their community. One could have worse work to do in sacrificing time away from her own children.

Over the next two weeks I will write as often as I can from the villages were SSI hopes to expand. I want you to see these people, in all their grace and affliction. We need to strengthen our partnership and become better listeners. Srey Lim was saved from prostitution, shelter is given to a homeless family, schooling opportunities are extended to parentless children. Our community empowerment approach is working!

Come with me…meet them…and see if you can let it go.