Delivering the Letters
Phnom Penh: It’s been a whirlwind two days racing around the city delivering the letters to as many people as we can.
We visited with reporters at the Cambodia Daily, an English language newspaper, and Cambodge Soir, a French language newspaper. The later has a better reputation for
protecting its sources. The independent radio station, Beehive, suggested that a truckload of villagers come into Phnom Penh and stay at the Buddhist temple behind the station, so they will feel safe and can speak their hearts freely. The villagers must make that decision together and we need to garner some support before they do.
We delivered letters to the Voice of Democracy radio station, a project of the Cambodian
Center for Human Rights. The reporter, Him Khortieth, promised to coordinate his coverage of the story with Licadho, a human rights watchdog. 
My visit with Licadho Director, Naly Pilorge, was very important. She copied all the letters and is sending them to their lawyer stationed in Kampong Speu. This will give the villagers the back-up support they need to speak out with a human rights group watching.
The forest destruction has three levels. The illegal logging of big trees deep in the forest is for timber to be delivered to Vietnam. The smaller trees are cut down for wood sticks to be sold for cooking fuel in Phnom Penh by newcomers to the village from other provinces. These are the oxcart and wood truck drivers paying off the local authorities to pass with their loads. The forest fires are the third and final stage of deforestation to encroach ownership of the land and sell it to foreign companies for industrial agriculture purposes. Andre says that the forest soil is sandy, it needs the forest ecosystem to regenerate, and without the trees the soil will be infertile and useless for agriculture.
I thought about going to the Ministry of Environment with our letters but I remember when we passed the headquarters of the Aural Wildlife Sanctuary, administered by the Ministry of Environment, the official came to our vehicle for a bribe payment, mistaking our driver’s van for a wood truck. I don’t trust anyone involved with Cambodia’s ruling party, the CPP, an acronym for the Cambodian People’s Party; we’ve taken to calling it the Corrupt Peoples Party.
The reporter at the Associated Press, SoPheng Cheang, told us the story was too small for their news organization; Andre responded, “have you heard of global warming?” The forest destruction in Cambodia affects the entire planet. Most importantly it affects Cambodia’s food source, the rivers and the soil. He listened for a while but I don’t know if we got through to him.
We met with a Member of Parliament from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, Mr. Nuot Rumdol. He is very familiar with Aural and willing to advocate for our villagers within the
Parliamentary system. The best we can hope for is that the children’s drawings will stir some pity from the Ministers. Naly from Licadho cautioned us to keep our expectations low. My highest hope is that the children will see that they can write a letter and their voice will be heard.
Late in the day, I received a call from Washington D.C. The callers name was Khmera, a reporter with the Voice of America. Now, we’re getting somewhere!
Tomorrow morning we leave for the U.S. We’ll spend the next few months raising funds for the Abundant Forest training center at our school. A computer hub will give the students more direct access to information and their government, but it will also draw more students to our school. Then we will need a new building.
Be the Change
Spread the Word.
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25% of the proceeds benefit the Friends of the Grady Grossman School, Cambodia.
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using music and drama. I found an 83-year-old unemployed master musician, Em Nuot, living in a hut nearby who plays the two stringed Tror Sau and Tror Ou, the bamboo flute, and the xylophone-like Takay. He wants to be our teacher. A blind man living with forest monks sings beautiful songs he wrote about he forest in traditional Khmer style. The two of them will make a great team.
a pile of over 400 letters from children and community leaders. Forty-eight more letters are on their way from the Souy hill tribe villagers. Some people are afraid to sign their name; they live in fear of the corrupt police and military. But these letters are the beginning of a participatory democracy. 
video. The teachers set up the computer outside in the dark school yard. With power from a DC car battery, he showed his community the documentaries I brought, Voices from the Forest, Khmer Buddhist Forest Conservation Project, and 
community might be interested in a training session. The response was overwhelmingly positive. They are desperate for an alternative and would start building a press tomorrow if we let them. As with any new technology, it’s important that the product be introduced to the market properly, not hodge-podge; they must prove to have a consistent, quality product offered at a competitive price. This will take some time to develop the skills, test, get feedback and make improvements. It’s not an overnight solution, but it’s the quickest alternative we have. Community leader Bun Vana asked me to come back as soon as possible to train the trainers from each village. “If the people have something different they can do,� he said, “then no reason to cut down the tree and more kids can stay in school.� That’s why I keep fighting; I want to see 92 students in the sixth grade.
diverse, alternative options to make a living, charcoal briquettes, agro-forestry and eco-tourism. Everything depends on stopping the forest destruction and the corrupt governance tied to it. Everything depends on those letters.
on their letters. They’re creating vibrant drawings with colored pencils and glitter glue under a neatly printed heading in Khmer script “Please Don’t Destroy My Future, Don’t Cut Down The Trees,� signed with name and age. We hope that the voice of the children will touch the heart of the Minister of Environment to do something. Often the smoke is so thick it stings everyones eyes.
truck with a hundred children and drove to the “stream water,â€? a narrow pinch of creek between large granite boulders that make a great slide. “Moi dong diet,â€? a girl in blue pants said as she grabbed my hand, one more time. I probably slid down the rock with her 10 times; she could have kept going all day long. When I sat to rest on the rock several girls joined me, to get warm and be close. I reflected on the monk, Prom Thommacheat’s, words at the school meeting that morning. He preached to the children they must regard me as their own parent. I wonder if the changes over the next 5 years will be as drastic as the last 5; will they be change for the better or change for the worse. I must stay committed.
helicopters landed in the schoolyard and confiscated many chainsaws and burnt out the sawmill where Sok Sarith worked. At first he was angry but he knew he was guilty. He made a choice to change and stared planting fruit trees and making noodles. The rice is ground into flour then mixed with water to form a white dough. The dough is set in a mold and pushed with a lever through a noodle press, and the strings descended into a pot of boiling water. He uses bark, dead wood, and scrap for the cooking fire. His home is like a forest garden with many different kinds of fruit trees, with a little advice and water saving techniques he could easily increase production. He changed, others can too.
Some didn’t want to hear it and left, but many were interested and stayed. The monk, Prom Thommacheat asked, “to stop cutting the tree from today, what can the people do to feed their family tomorrow?� Good question. Our Abundant Forest project is a long range plan, but the need is immediate.
This morning while the older children worked on their letters, the first grade class joined me in the library for a play dough lesson. Luckily, I had brought enough so everyone could try. It was amazing to watch them explore something totally new, an array of animals and cooking implements were constructed. There were a lot of radiant smiles.
