Voice of the Children
Chrauk Tiek/The Grady Grossman School: This morning the children are busy working 
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.
After the clay pot piñatas were broken yesterday, we squashed into the back of a wood
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.
I told the parents during the school meeting, when I think about the future for their children and grandchildren, with all the trees gone, it makes me cry. They will be more poor and my hard work to fund this school will be useless if they destroy their future now. They can make the choice to stop. Take the case of Sok Sarith, the man with the noodle shop.
Two years ago, I took a letter from the community leader Bun Vanna to the Voice of America detailing the villagers complaint about the illegal logging. A few days later
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.
Andre displayed a map of Cambodia and explained to the parents how a watershed works. 
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.
We started to discuss a micro-loan program to give people, especially women tending their land, the opportunity to start a new small business, like noodle making. Here is the leverage point, loans will only be available to those not involved or chosing to leave the wood trade. The idea holds promise. We need to research best practices from Bangladesh’s Nobel Peace Prize winning Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank.
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.
These children are magical. I am asking them to be the leaders to save their forest. They deserve a better life.
Be the change.
Spread the word.
