Daniela Papi's Blog

Wow... teachers are AMAZING. My hats off to all of you who dedicate your life to educating others, to making change possible in the world, to giving people tools with which they can improve their lives. My hat tips lowest to those teachers in rural areas, in areas of poverty, and to those teachers who are not being paid even close to their worth (as most teachers aren't).

After interviewing the 9 teachers at the school PEPY supports in rural Siem Reap, I am blown away by their dedication and efforts. They teach big classes, with kids of all ages and abilities, with little to no resources and training. Some ride their motorbikes 15 kilometers to school each day. The government pays first year teachers $15 per month, plus they don't get it until the end of the year. $15 per month. And gas is nearly $1 per liter. It takes almost 1 liter to drive a motorbike 60 kilometers, which is two days of going to school. Those teachers are spending $15 per month on gas, making their net income per month nearly $0.

And they are just a few of the thousands of teachers dedicating their lives to education in rural areas who are paid almost nothing for their efforts.... yet they still come to school.

The problem we face now is how to support these teachers but not hurt the balance of things economically. We're working on a solution.... and if anyone has any experience in this area and tips, be sure to let us know :-)

Think of the teacher who inspired you most in life and send them good thoughts.... I will be doing the same.

Us small organizations often turn our noses at the "big guys". One could argue that it is fear of being squished or pushed off the table. As I see it, the smaller you are, the closer you are to the people you are working with, and the more your cries for change echo theirs.

Big organizations usually find it hard to tailor their programs to the specific needs of a certain area or people or community, let alone the individual. It's too hard and takes too much money, time, and energy to tailor large-scale programs. Just like in the tsunami "temporary shelters" built in Sri Lanka where I volunteered (which of course were not so temporary as they are still being used now) could not be tailored in size and style to support different families sizes and locations. They were mass produced and erected sporadically at times, even if tailoring or consideration for location would not have cost more time or money, just some knowledge of the people and the area they were working in.

The more time I work in the NGO field, the more I see signs of this, money being wasted on useless projects, while other projects are implemented which COULD be hugely successful if those implementing the program knew even just a little more about the culture, people, and location they were working in. In Sri Lanka, "free" toilets for Tamils being built behind a Singhalese shop, thereby making it almost inaccessible for the Tamil women, here in Cambodia programs implemented to support female education which really just encourage other families to pull their kids from school in the hopes of being taken into the support program, etc etc.

This is NOT to say that I think PEPY, or any small NGO is flawless. Quite the contrary. Both the big and the small NGOs are all working on assumptions, facts gathered from surveys and data which are not thorough enough, and often involve foreign employees, or even locals from a different area, who are not 100% aware of all factors that might effect a certain project. BUT, as a small NGO, PEPY can test out a project, realize its flaws, and quickly adjust. At least, we can try to. We can take the effects our programs have on specific communities and even individuals and come up with solutions tailored to that problem.

When a teacher has too many kids in the class, they often teach to the middle child. The advanced students are bored, and the low performing students are lost and never able to catch up. The few in the middle are getting educated, but that's about it. This method of working toward the average of a large spectrum of people is equally as ineffective in teaching as it is in aid.

If we continue to support big programs working for the "average person" where local areas are not taken into account, we will continue to waste money, hurt economies, and take funding from programs which might actually have a chance of making changes.

Something to think about... all that we think is commendable, can sometimes do MUCH more harm than good.

A social venture combines aspects of a for-profit corporation and aspects of a non-profit. While a for-profit is designed to make as much money as possible most effectively and (hopefully!) sustainably, and a non-profit is working towards a social mission, it is often difficult to combine the two. When do you make the for-profit aspects a priority? When do you forgo profits to fill a need in line with your mission? There is so much grey area, and so many case-by-case exceptional circumstances, it can be a tough line to walk.

PEPY offers tours. Most tour operators make the final decision based on their bottom line. Is this decision profitable? Does it make economic sense? But what about us? We offer tours but we use the profits to run our non-profit organization, building school and increasing access to education across Cambodia. What might make economic sense for any other tour operator, might not for us.

In addition, there are moral questions you face all the time just living in Cambodia, no matter who you work for. Someone walks in and asks to be the cook for our tours. She has no job, a small child, and a look of extreme need in their eyes. She is a wonderful cook, but can not speak English, and my Khmer is not up to the level it needs to be to communicate effectively with her. Another woman comes knocking, asking to be the cook. Here English level is very high and her cooking just as good. Based on impressions and her stated past, her "need" is not as high - though of course that is a hard thing to measure here in one of the poorest countries in the world where everyone here NEEDS, and a few more dollars a month can improve almost everyones' health, safety, and well being. Most for-profits would take the person with the higher skill level, getting more for the money, and probably providing a better experience for their clients. The non-profit working for social development might be tempted to hire the first woman, the one who they can help support and for whom the job will make the most difference. But, a "social venture"? What do we do? When do we walk the for-profit line, and when do we walk the non-profit one?

This is just a small example, but the decisions like this range across the board from every day small decisions, the size of the office we rent, being able to really differentiate "needs" for the organization and added amenities which are extraneous.

My days here are filled with these decisions and I feel torn over these choices every day.

OK, so I know this is quoted elsewhere on the Delaying the Real World site, but I had to put my 2 cents of a plug in for this amazing man too.

www.bankertothepoor.com

Just read the first 6 pages there and be inspired.

People working here in Cambodia who can make you smile and remind you of the power of one:

www.cambodianchildrensfund.org - Scott Neeson changing his life, and the world

www.rdic.org - Maybe one of the best run and innovative NGO's in Cambodia, and beyond, based on the integrity and creativity of Mickey Sampson

Or check out the rest of our PEPY partners: www.pepyride.org

There are days here when I meet someone and am just so inspired by them, like meeting Mickey at RDIC last week, that I want to drop what I'm doing and just help them continue to be amazing.

I'm continually inspired by these people, and the others that I have come in contact with through this project. That might be the biggest thing I've gotten out of this personally - an endless list of people to look up to, go to for advice, and be in awe of.

Wow. What a hike. I can't believe I'm back in the land of ringing cell phones and mind numbing computer screens. Sitting here so long sometimes you forget what it's like to use your human power to get from here to there, to have your biggest problem of the day be wading through a shoulder high river with your pack above your head trying to avoid getting latched on to by a buffalo leech, or the site and sounds of the jungle and stars above your hammock. Now THAT is living it. And the leeches, yeah, that's roughing it.

Conservation International is working to prevent the ever growing wildlife trade in the Cardamom Mountains and to protect the last beautiful virgin forests of the area. They are considering bringing eco-tourism to the area through this type of hiking trip, but at the moment, the idea is still in the incubation stages. The trip was VERY strenuous, cutting our team down from 8 to 7 in only a matter of hours and leaving one of our hikers so dehydrated and exhausted that he needed to help helped up the mountain. We often lost the trail, and at times there didn't appear to BE a trail, but our amazing man-of-the-woods, Tony, was able to spot a broken stick there or some patted grass here and lead us on, even in the middle of the jungle. By day four, it was smooth sailing, we were used to the ticks, loved drinking brown-ish water straight from the streams, and our legs were used to being sore... but that good I-just-hiked-up-a-mountain sore that you can only get from moving all day, none of this "hour-run-in-the-morning" sore stuff. The real thing - hurts to the bone but feels real good.

I have to give a quick plug for my Hennessy Hammock. My GOODNESS, have you ever used one of those? It's better than a tent! The hammock is so comfortable that the two of us who had Hennessey’s were hard to wake up in the morning, while everyone else was so uncomfortable in their little hammocks that they were just waiting for the dawn each morning. I think I might even be tempted to sell my tent and just go straight hammock from now on. They are the best!

Anyway, back in Phnom Penh. Water festival is over and the city is beginning to settle into its normal state of chaos as opposed to the heightened state it has been in all week. The PEPY team is getting ready to head up to the school, celebrate the blessing ceremony of the new house on the school grounds, and begin the testing process of all of the PEPY students. We are taking a bench mark of their current reading, writing, and math skills to be able to better judge yearly improvements, learning difficulties, and teaching practices. Our congrats go out to the Cambodian government who just hired a team to create the first set of curriculum standards... before now the only standard was the teachers had to teach from 7-11 and 1-5. Ha.

More to come from Siem Reap!

When I was in the US this summer, working on a computer all day, for some hope I had for a country far across the world, it was sometimes hard to remember what the goals of PEPY were.... why I was working long hours behind a computer and not out enjoying each day..... what were we accomplishing anyway? Now, being here, it's so easy to remember. I think LIVING what you are working is so important. Being in Cambodia, you just need to look outside to remember what you are working towards and why you are here.

For the last 3 weeks of this month the whole PEPY team will be up at the PEPY Ride School. I am really looking forward to bringing Erin, Adam, Maayan, and Doug the school and helping remind them about why they are working so hard here in the PEPY office.

We will be doing thorough interviews of all the students, teachers, and many parents - to better document progress, understand their situation, and better evaluate the needs/shortfalls/successes of our project. I am really looking forward to it :-)

In the meantime, today marks the start of Cambodia's Water Festival Holiday. The river here changes directions once a year, marking the change from the wet season to the dry season. It is the only river in the world to do so I believe.... pretty cool. Oarsmen from around the country are out now on long boats racing across the river front where the King himself is stationed on a royal mount waving signs of approval to the racers. Phnom Penh's population explodes this week - to the point of overcapacity I believe. So many people come in from the provinces, and just sleep on the streets. For many, it is their first time to the city. Cambodia's only escalator, built in a new shopping mall just around the first time I came here, 4 years ago, will have a line down the street. Everyone wants to try the moving stairs, though many people chicken out and jump out of line just before they get on as they are afraid they will get hurt. Quite a site.

Me, I'm heading to the Cardamom mountains with some people from Conservation International, avoiding the chaos of Phnom Penh and being reminded myself of the beauty of this country and why I am here. This will be my first time completely away from a computer for 8 days since..... since the internet was unleashed I believe ;-)

Wish me luck.... and no tigers :-)