Be the Change Network

Kari’s upcoming trip to Cambodia to work at the Grady Grossman School, Jan. 23rd-Feb. 4th, 2007 has a two-fold mission. One is to determine educational improvement priorities for the coming year. I will be meeting with American Assistance for Cambodia to discuss the Computer Hub program. And I will be meeting with Arn Chorn Pond, of Cambodian Living Arts to discuss implementing a music, dance and art program. But my most important priority is to understand the reason we have such significant drop off of attendance at the fourth grade. As the children get older less show up to school because their parents need them to work. That leads me to my second mission, looking at sustainable economic development that would afford families the luxury of sending their kids to school.

To that end, I will be traveling with Andre Carvalhaes, a Brazilian biologist, whose Abundant Forest Enterprise aims to connect local knowledge of the forest with sustainable land use techniques, agro-forestry and perma-culture. We will be networking our community leaders with other conservation groups working on the forest issues and community empowerment in Cambodia, Community Forestry International, Flora and Fauna International and the Lutheran World Federation.

The most promising piece of information comes to us from the Legacy Foundation, which has developed a simple technology charcoal press that might give villagers a sustainable, income producing alternative to chopping down their forest for survival.

By partnering with family sponsorship programs such as those offered by No Child Left Out, more families may afford to allow their children to complete primary school through grade 6, and perhaps onward to secondary school. With that achievement in mind, we will definitely need a new building!

From our School Director, Nhim So Bun:

“As a representative of the teachers and villagers in the Chrauk Tiek community would like to express deeply thanks to Kari and George that always think of us and I know that your goal want to help the Cambodian children to obtain the knowledge and eliminate the poverty, this goal is like Ministry of the Education that is trying to educate the students and find the way to eliminate the illiterate. But unfortunately the natural resource in Aural area is unable to protect because of the uneducated people whose have never received the education before. They cut down the trees to sell for exchanging rice and some for money. They don’t think about the future consequence for the children.

That is why Ministry of Education is struggling to educate the new generation to protect the environment and the natural resource, but now the forest is destroyed almost gone. Before they just cut down the best timber for the houses and for the furniture and this year they cut all kind of the trees even though they are saplings for the charcoal and wood sticks for cooking everyday. Each day they are destroying thousand trees and hunting the wild animals without any authority stops them in this action. In addition, the forest community is incapable to stop them to destroy the forest at all. We are all sorry that the former community chief, Ban Vanna was dismissed in the last July, 2006. We are incapable to solve this above problem. We are only the teachers providing knowledge to the students. So we hope that you understand about this trouble. We would like to suggest you to continue to support your school and the forest community in this area.”

Friends, what is the point in educating 485 students if they are just going to face drought and famine because of environmental destruction? On the day I received this message, I was also contacted by a friend from Brazil, Andre Cavalhaes Ph.D, who is a rainforest biologist. As I told Andre our troubles, he started to explain to me the processes of agro-forestry and perma-culture used in Brazil to grow food and forest products that restore the forest at the same time. The concept is so beautiful, we decided to form a partnership dubbed Abundant Forest Enterprizes with a mission to create economic growth through integrated, diverse, productive, healthy and sustainable land-use systems while maintaining the cultural integrity of local people. Our school will host the pilot project.

Andre will accompany me to Cambodia in January, where we will study the problem, network with other conservation organizations and develop a strategy with the teachers, monks, and community leaders in Chrauk Tiek to find a solution to the intertwined cycles of poverty and environmental destruction. You’ll be able to follow the story as it unfolds on this blog. Come back often!