Be the Change Network

We are pleased to announce that the Friends of the Grady Grossman School has received a $7,000 grant from the PRBB foundation for our alternative cooking fuel training. The price of LP gas is skyrocketing in Phnom Penh and putting even more pressure on our students to drop out of school to chop down trees and sell cooking fuel to the city. What a mess. But we hope to turn the tide with the production of biomass briquettes. It’s like putting a finger to the damn but we’ve got to start somewhere.

Our old village leader, Bun Vanna, who was ousted by corrupt officials a year ago because he was too adamant about protecting the forest, has agreed to manage the cooking fuel production, stage one of The Abundant Forest Life Skills Training Center. We are excited to have Bun Vanna on board, a man with no teeth but more integrity than anyone I’ve ever met in Cambodia. We hope that this new skill will not only help economically empower the community to support education in their village, but also strengthen the leadership role Bun Vanna already holds, despite the efforts of corrupt officials to silence him.

The training will be conducted by one Sanu Kaji from the Foundation for Sustainable Technologies in Katmandu, Nepal. There are only 3 people in the fuel briquette network that I’ve found in Asia, one is a Burmese refuggee stuck in a camp in Thailand, and the other an expensive academic group from Indonesia. Sanu is our only option, and he is taking time out of his busy schedule to help us.

The Foundation for Sustainable Technologies is a finalist in the World Challenge 2007, a prize sponsored by BBC, Newsweek and Shell Corp for innovative solutions to tough development challenges. You can see his work here. Please watch the program and cast your vote for “Cooking Without Gas” to help Sanu’s organization win the prize and gain the publicity to help Nepal convert to using sustainable resources for cooking. There are 9 days left to vote. The prize is announced December 10, then we will know for sure when Sanu can join us in Cambodia.

We will be the first to introduce this low cost, innovative solution to Cambodia. Our villagers are very excited about the market potential of biomass briquettes.

Kari will be reporting the progress of the training on this blog in January. Stay tuned.

Woud you like to support the children of Chrauk Tiek in their desire to create sustainable future?

Last year, the Grady Grossman School had 92 kids in first grade, yet only 16 graduated from sixth. Fifty percent student drop-out begins in third grade because at 8 or 9 years old, children are needed to work. In the commune of Trapeang Chhor, where the Grady Grossman School is located, that means chopping down trees. 1.5 million people in the capital city of Phnom Penh cook with wood sticks. Currently, Trapeang Chhor is the largest source of these cooking sticks. Hardwood trees chopped up for cooking fuel is annihilating the forest, funding a culture of corruption, depleting the water source of the entire country, and keeping children out of school. In Trapeang Chhor, cooking fuel has everything to do with education.

Our goal is for every child to complete a primary education through 6th grade.Rather than build a secondary school which few could afford to attend, we’ve decided to make primary school attendance more economically feasible with a vocational training center where sustainable, income-generating skills are learned. Since students only attend school half the day, we intend to utilize the other half of the day to teach valuable life skills. The first project of The Abundant Forest Life Skills Training Center will address cooking fuel.

Cambodia needs an alternative. Who better than the children of Trapeang Chhor commune (aka Timber Town) to lead the way!

The Legacy Foundation, an Oregon based engineering development organization, has devised an ingenious solution to the cooking fuel problem in many poor regions of the world where natural resource depletion is taking it’s toll. Biomass briquettes are created from dead material collected from the ground: dead leaves, rice husks, saw dust, and even waste paper can become the raw material for a highly efficient and low cost cooking fuel.

Click here to watch a short video of the process.

Through the worldwide network of fuel briquette-rs we found Sanu Kaji, the Nepalese director of Foundation for Sustainable Technologies. Sanu brought briquette technology to Katmandu during a cooking fuel shortage and is now having success converting poor villages to sustainability. He is a finalist on World Challenge 2007, a worldwide competition that rewards people who “truly make a difference through enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level.” We’re excited to welcome Sanu Kaji to the Grady Grossman School. In December, we will begin the briquette training under Sanu’s guidance.Our next challenge will be to get people to buy our briquettes in the marketplace rather than wood sticks.

Stay tuned to this blog to find out how we intend to do that!

Do you have ideas or input that may help us achieve our goal?

September 13th, 2007 | by Angel Limb of WCVE Public Radio, Richmond, VA.

Cambodia’s long history of war and genocide has left thousands of orphans with little chance of a better life. WCVE Public Radio’s Angel Limb spoke with author Kari Grady Grossman at a Richmond homeschooling event about her efforts to improve the lives of Cambodia’s children.

Listen to the interview:

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.

Children Draw Attention to Forest Crimes With Cartoons

Sok Khemera reports from Washington-(1.87MB)
Listen Sok Khemera reports from Washington

VIEW CHILDRENS’ DRAWINGS, click here- GALLERY 1, GALLERY 2

The sun rises over a wasteland where forest once grew as animals flee the area

A surprising intervention tactic in Cambodia’s ongoing battle against poachers and loggers has emerged among students in Kompong Speu’s Oral District.

The students say they’re fed up with strangers coming and going—carrying axes and chainsaws, machetes and machine guns—illegally depleting the forests of animals and trees, apparently without fear.

Students are drawing cartoons to highlight the effects of these crimes and are sending them to authorities in the hopes that something will be done in time.

Vong Reaksmei, 15, told VOA by phone she frequently sees offenders cutting down trees. She wants it to stop, so she drew pictures with other classmates and plans to send them to relevant environment and enforcement officials.

“I’ve drawn these pictures because the forest clearly is being disrupted and the wildlife is being destroyed,” she said. “I’ve seen these things, and I feel regret, because the forest and wildlife are completely destroyed, and our future is tied to them.”

‘We have peace,’ say the birds. ‘We will be married,’ say the snakes. ‘I’m so happy that people stopped cutting the trees,’ says the elephant

Forest crimes are especially flagrant in Trapeang Chor commune, on the border of the Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, about 70 kilometers west of Phnom Penh, according to several residents who spoke to VOA anonymously for fear of their safety.

“The forest is completely destroyed, and the land is divided,” one local man said. “Some trees have been marked for logging, and now the strangers are building cottages in the area, and they grab the land too.”

“They cut the trees with chainsaws, deep in the forest, and they hire villagers to cut trees and drive the wood through the village to be sold,” another woman said. “There will be no more big logs in the future. When locals cannot prevent it, with big businessmen who have machines and trucks, they will also cut the trees to be sold as coal. They don’t have another livelihood.”

A small cottage with clear signs of occupation stands among harvested trees in Kompong Speu province

Nearly 100 primary school children, aged 10 to 16, drew cartoons, and many signed them. The bright, glittery drawings rebuke these illegal activities and explain why animals need the forest. They warn of animal extinction, flooding and erosion. In their pictures, criminals saw trees while poachers kill wildlife. Mountains are bare, and the land is stripped clean.

Primary school student Khar Kunthea, 14, said she has seen people cutting trees up to a meter in diameter. It saddens her, she said, that the trees are cut day after day.

“I hope that by speaking out that authorities can recover the forest,” she said.

“I drew these pictures because I want to address the destruction of the forest and the killing of wildlife,” she said. “I don’t want them to cut the trees and kill the wildlife, because the forest and wildlife are almost extinct.”

Birds, snakes, monkeys and other animals speak their woes.

After logs are taken from the forest, they are processed into lumber

“Don’t destroy the forest. It is my home,” advises an elephant drawn by 15-year-old Theun Thim, of Chrork Teak Primary School.

“Please help protect me because wildlife like me is close to extinction,” a deer implores in a picture by Chem John, 16, from the same school, while a tree warns: “If you cut me down and destroy me, there will be a flood.”

Kong Heang, governor of Kompong Speu, rejected the student’s accusations. There is no major illegal logging in Oral, he said, because much of the area is protected by strict measures from provincial authorities and the Ministry of the Environment, as well as non-governmental organizations.

Students from Chrork Teak Primary School, concerned over illegal logging and poaching in their area, recently drew cartoons to highlight the problem to national authorities

“Nowadays, there are two NGOs to help watch for illegal activity,” he said. “We have better protection. No big illegal logging occurs in this area. There are only small cases where people cut the wood and load it into a car, which is normal, but to load it into trucks, there is no more.”

The governor said his police have acted on illegal logging and deforestation many times, confiscating tools and arresting perpetrators.

But villagers say that armed forces like soldiers and the police, backed by businessmen, are those who actually cut down trees, confiscate land and, instead of protecting the forest, set up checkpoints to squeeze money from travelers.

Meanwhile, a complaint signed by local men and women has been submitted to public and non-government agencies, giving the name, age, and address of signatories, some as young as five.

A monk points out a tree in a typical Cambodian forest. Forests like these are under threat from rampant illegal logging

The petition demands, among other things, that the government and local and international groups stop illegal logging and land grabs, curb related corruption and support those who preserve the land.

The World Bank last year announced $14 million for forest protection. In the past, the World Bank was criticized for not doing enough by the forest monitor Global Witness, an organization that has since been banned from the country.

Cambodia has promised donor countries many reforms, including in forestry, but donors remain concerned that the loss of forest will disrupt the lives of Cambodians living in rural areas now and in the future. Much illegal logging is linked to high-level corruption, making authorities hesitant—or unable—to curb the practice.