Be the Change Network

World Action Group welcomed independent author Kari Grady Grossman to Courtenay, British Columbia in Canada on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008. Zac Whyte of World Action Group interviewed Kari and George Grady Grossman after the event.

Kari Grady Grossman - “Giving” - World Action Group

“Peacemaker of the Year award winning author Kari Grady Grossman penned, Bones that Float - A Story of Adopting Cambodia, and is taking international development philosophies to the next level. Her work is inspiring everyone around her to be the change they want to see in the world.” —Zac Whyte, World Action Group

Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Our adventure to sustainability begins with a blessing from a like minded monk. Venerable Brak Sareth called on the first day of our arrival, anxious to meet. He’d read our website and recognized a kindred spirit. His homegrown organization, Raise and Support the Poor, also runs a school in Kampong Speu province, where Life Skills are taught in a free after school program adjacent to the government school. He’s providing training in several foreign languages, computer skills, sewing, moto repair and bicycle repair to 345 impoverished students, 66 of whom are parent less - orphaned by AIDS. We are on the same wavelength.

Sareth found me because his mother read my book. She bought Bones That Float at a fundraiser auction for the Angkor Dance Company in Massachusetts. Apparently, his family was impressed with both the meaning of the book and it’s intent to support the rural poor. And that’s how I found myself inside the inner sanctum of Aronnavati Pagoda in Phnom Penh, in a monk’s dorm room, discussing the weakness of the Cambodian education system with a bald man in a saffron robe as if he is my brother. It’s a small world after all.

We left the pagoda with a long red thread wrapped around each of our wrists, our faces sprinkled with holy water, as a family blessed for success with our project.

I’ll take the blessings from wherever they come. My jetlagged brain spends the sleepless hours of the night mulling over every possible detail that could go wrong with this project. Our biggest problem is the condition of the road. As usual, the transportation of illegal logs by oxcart and wood truck during the rainy season have destroyed the road. Although it is well into the dry season, the government still has not fixed it. This presents a challenge to the idea of producing briquettes in the village for sale in the city. How will we transport them in a cost effective manner? Even the 4 wheel drive passenger vehicles want to charge $150 per day because of the damage potential. The eighty kilometer trip is likely to take 6 hours.

My worries began to subside today when Sanu Kaji arrived from Nepal with his technician, who is, by coincidence, also called Sanu Kaji. Sanu 1 is a well educated man who delights in empowering the poor. His eyes twinkle when he talks of briquettes. Everywhere he looks, he sees waste materials we can use as raw materials. He brought some sample briquettes and a simple demonstration stove. George was carrying them when we walked into a restaurant for lunch which drew significant attention to this simple little device. One patron recognized Sanu from the BBC World Challenge broadcast and the restaurant owner was very anxious to try our product. Even the neighboring restaurateur handed us his card expressing interest in the briquettes and stove. Apparently the price of cooking gas and wood is hitting everyone hard. We have a promising level of local demand for the product we hope to produce.

But here is the catch. It would be more cost effective and just as easy to produce them right here in the city. The reason we are taking the training to our school in Cardamom Mountains is because that is where the trees are being chopped down. We want to empower villagers with alternative livelihoods to support our school and increase attendance. If this were purely a business decision, we would set up a production facility in the city using the city’s own paper waste as our raw materials. If we are successful, eventually the forces of competition will figure this out. How do we create a business model that aligns with our mission to support rural schools?

Our sustainability plans for the Grady Grossman School are quite coincidentally at the cutting edge of international development. Sanu Kaji Shresthra, our alternative cooking fuel expert, has just won the runner up prize in World Challenge 2007, sponsored by BBC World, Newsweek and the Shell Corporation for his work introducing biomass briquettes and solar cookers to urban and rural poor in Nepal.

According to Sandra Wijnvelt, who collected the award for Sanu in The Hague, because of the media coverage, Sanu is now getting requests from all over the world to share his expertise. As luck would have it, we’ve been working with Sanu for months, and the Grady Grossman School is the first place outside Nepal he will bring his expertise. Together, we are the first to introduce this low cost, appropriate technology to Cambodia. Makes me feel like we are on the right track.

“Thanks to the exposure in Newsweek and on BBC World Sanu has already received more than a dozen request from countries in Africa, Asia, South America and even in the Pacific of people and organizations who now want to replicate FoST’s technologies, projects and ideas! This month Sanu Kaji Shrestha is invited to Cambodia to teach his skills and share is knowledge with a school. And this is only the beginning…

For us this is a dream come true, because now Sanu can help the Nepalese rural and urban poor, while protecting the environment, but he can share his work with the rest of the world who are facing the same daily struggles and hardships in life. FoST’s solutions to these global problems are so simple and cheap, but highly effective. This small Nepalese organization is becoming an example to many countries in the world.

- Sandra Wijnveldt, GORP Productions”

To see Sandra’s video of Sanu’s work in Nepal Click here.

To read the article about the 3 World Challenge finalists, find a copy of the Dec. 17th issue of Newsweek. (Unfortunately, the article is not posted on their website - argh!)

To see how we apply this technology in Cambodia. Stay tuned to this blog!

We now have 150 students sponsored for 3 years in our sustainability challenge. Keep the donations coming!

Sometimes the Universe rewards you for staying true to your calling.

On Saturday I not only met my personal hero, I shared a podium with her. Loung Ung is the international bestselling author of First They Killed My Father and Lucky Child, and a passionate peace activist. She is now also a supporter of The Grady Grossman School in Cambodia.

She went first, delivering a heart wrenching speech about her life’s journey from childhood under the Khmer Rouge, to American refugee, and back to Cambodia as an activist for a land mine free world. Over 150 teachers from International Baccalaureate schools in the Rocky Mountain region listened with rapt attention, their minds churning with desire to communicate these events to their students, K-12. The theme of the Denver, Colorado conference was Awareness to Action. Loung spoke to the Awareness part, and I was there to inspire Action.

Seven years ago, while waiting to adopt our son, I bought 20 copies of First They Killed My Father, and sent them to every member of our family for Christmas. Four months later, as I cradled a Cambodian baby boy in my arms, I wanted a book about the conditions in today’s Cambodia to explain why my son was a war orphan - 25 years after the war! There was no such book, and that is why I wrote Bones That Float; it remains the only narrative book out there to connect Cambodia’s history with Cambodia’s present.

It was amazing to listen as Loung’s journey reached the exact same conclusion that mine has, Cambodia needs sustainable lives and teacher support to help rural communities heal the many ills that continue to plague the rebuilding of society to this day. After showing the video of our school, I explained my vision of sustainable, school-based economic development, building a solid foundation of primary education at the grassroots level, partnered with Life Skills & Vocational training, to empower local communities with control over their educational future.

When I finished my speech, Luong gave me thumbs up and a big smile. She asked how she could help me. With her notoriety taking our awareness message to a wide audience, and mine taking our action message deep, I think we can have a powerful effect.

I am going to ask Loung to join me for the world’s largest online book discussion on April 17, 2008. A day of remorse and healing in recognition of the day the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, in the year that they are finally being held accountable for it.

I will call for volunteers to join our school supporting network. Through building relationships and listening to local communities, our partners will find a way for every school to become income-generating and self-supporting in 3 to 5 years. This is a people to people endeavor and our job is to work ourselves out of a job, to usher each school to its own, unique sustainability.

Who will join us?

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.