The PEPY Team Journal

PEPY Newsletter Highlight Reel

27.04.10

Here are some featured newsletters from our 55 months of writing the PEPY Newsletter:

November 2005: This newsletter marked the 1 year anniversary of naming PEPY and beginning the journey of turning a bike trip into an effort to fund the construction of a new building for Chanleas Dai Primary School. 

It was also the first time we introduced Peppi, who has been a big part of PEPY ever since (name similarity is purely coincidence…. amazing, huh?!). It is so fun to read this to see people and groups who have been with us since the start. SystemsGo first joined our sponsorship team that month, and Mattias Thim, the first person to donate to PEPY who none of us knew personally, continues to be a part of our team and support system. (Greta and Daniela, who were the first of 6 to organize the first PEPY Ride, actually danced around the room when they realized that someone had donated who was not somehow related to one of the original team of riders!)

“How does reading this newsletter make us feel,” you ask?: Shocked. Shocked that this was written nearly five years ago, when it seems like we just started, and shocked that this was written only five years ago, when that newsletter seems so distant from what we are doing now! It also makes us laugh at how we clearly did not know what we were getting ourselves into, smile at how $40,000 seemed like such a huge goal a the time, and cringe a bit at how cheesy our writing is (oh, and at Harry Potter!).  Not that we are not cheesy now, but we like to think of our cheesiness as slightly more sophisticated ;-)

February 2006: We just finished the first PEPY Ride. This newsletter featured our reflections and some pictures from the end of our first bike tour. Our highlights were all personal –there didn’t seem to be much of a long-term vision for future “PEPY” goals. The foundation for such was growing, though, with more people onboard who have beenwith us for years, like Mt. Borah. We featured our upcoming events, including a contest to design a new logo for PEPY. (FYI: Maria Perez, who ended up designing that new logo, is in fact here with us in Cambodia right now, helping to teach our staff more design skills and helping us make even more beautiful things: this time, Khmer Early Literacy books!)

“How does reading this newsletter make us feel,” you ask?: It’s like a roller coaster. Smile one line, blush the next. We are smiling thinking about this first ride, the impact this trip had on all of our lives, and just how much FUN the first team had. We are blushing at our naivety in thinking we could “teach” about the environment in Cambodia when we knew little about the environment or Cambodia, a lesson which has taken a long time to sink in. We smile at having  finally learned that these one-off school visits are ineffective and have changed our tours to be about learning rather than creating volunteer projects for the sake of our guests. We blush at visiting Phnom Penh’s dump area (Stoeng Meanchey) when we soon after began to realize that, even if we are funding partner organizations working to improve the area, going to a place like this garbage dump just to look is still poverty voyeurism and that leads to many negative impacts. Then we’re smiling again thinking about the PEPY team going on to win that triathlon. (…Don’t tell anyone there were only three girls’ teams registered!)

March 2007: We had just (FINALLY!) signed our our Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be officially registered in Cambodia. This newsletter was perhaps the first one where we used the words “capacity building”, and that in reference to hiring two new staff, including Srey Toh (who is now our longest standing employee). With 35 Cambodian staff, it’s amazing to think that only three years ago we had fewer than five! In March 2007 we were announcing the sale of our first PEPY calendar, our first university tour, and the start of our relationship with Anthony Travel and the fabulous family that shares their name (and their many friends). The people and projects in this newsletter were beginning to lay the framework of how our current programs would look.

“How does reading this newsletter make us feel,” you ask?: Proud that we finally focused on programs that put capacity building above buildings and things. Looking at the article about The PEPY Friends School reminds us that PEOPLE are what make projects work. Building that second school brought the first junior high school building into an area that needed it, but we did not grow the relationship due to lack of commitment and leadership from the local board of directors and administrative staff. It makes us feel grateful for the positive working relationship we now have with our PSDP schools and some other partners, and makes us jump for joy that when we signed a renewal of our MOU with the Ministry this month (as the initial contract was only for three years) it was a MUCH easier process than it was the first time!

February 2008: Here we start to reach out a little more. We realized that, just like us, you don’t want to talk only about PEPY all the time. Techrosette Leng wrote an article about E-Waste (watch the video – it’s SHOCKING), and Michael Woodard completed his introduction of partner RDIC. This was also the newsletter where we announced the first class of Cambodian students heading off to the Asian University for Women (AUW).  It’s crazy to think they have since completed their 1.5 year prepatory course and are well into their first full year of school.

“How does reading this newsletter make us feel,” you ask?: It makes us miss some of the many fabulous Khmer and foreign interns who have crossed our path and graced us with their passion, their writing skills, and their hard work. It makes us wonder what the AUW girls will be doing in five years, and makes us carry on hoping that this experience will continue to lead them to be inspiring change makers when they return home. (The first class will be returning home again soon and we are excited to learn that some of them will be doing an extensive research project on education here in Cambodia this summer! Plus, one will be interning at PEPY!). Re-reading this still makes us cringe at the amount of computers we have and use, makes us question our own personal and global greed for the newest and coolest products, and makes us fear for the future if we continue to pollute our water sources and our earth with even more E-Waste.

December 2008: No one reads our December newsletters. Everyone is too busy taking their New Years vacations, baking cookies, or reading the 1000 other newsletters they get in December to open yet another end-of-year mailing. So, this pretty little thing didn’t get read too much her first time around -- here’s your second chance! We’ve got poetry, we’ve got videos, we’ve got the start of our “Lessons Learned” series, and the most important thing you won’t want to miss is an informative piece on arsenic poisoning in Cambodia through NGO wells. Read up. (The same goes for this past year’s December Newsletter. If you were too busy drinking eggnog, then you missed our year in review and year in numbers, as well as the chance to learn about PEPY’s 18 staff members who are enrolled in school!)

“How does reading this newsletter make us feel,” you ask?: It makes us grateful for the chance to go back and read through these newsletters, for the chance to reflect on our progress, and to re-learn things we forgot. You all HAVE to read this arsenic piece. It makes us happy to see that our newsletters are finally starting to have some real content and to see how much we are not only learning, but now able to share through these mailings.

March 2009 : Last March, one year ago, we dedicated our newsletter to Mickey Sampson, who for many of us at PEPY was one of our heroes. He continues to inspire us daily, and we continue to spread his messages. Here is a link to Daniela’s TEDx talk (which is still not officially online yet, but here is a video recording from Rithy). This talk is largely based on lessons we learned from Mickey.

“How does reading this newsletter make us feel,” you ask?: Devastated. The recognition that we have lost someone who has taught and inspired us,and so many others, is still a devastating feeling. Countless times this year we have said, “What would Mickey do?” and tried to imagine what his council would have been. Seeing the comments from this newsletter makes us thankful that we had the opportunity to bring a number of people to meet Mickey and spread his inspiring messages. It also rekindles in us a commitment and dedication to live our lives and do our work with a passion modeled after Mickey’s. Re-reading our most commented on entry reminds us that by incorporating the aspects of Mickey we hold so highly into our own lives, we too can achieve great things for the world.

October 2009 : And here we were, just a few months ago, flooded. It’s strange to think that the dry, burnt, rice fields around us were only recently covered by the worst floods this area has seen in many years. If you know what you are looking for, you can still see the damage in the rice fields and water marks on the walls. In this newsletter we talked the “sustainability” of our programs, which has been a driving force for change this year. Last October we introduced PSDP, hopefully our most “sustainable” program to date. (Read our latest PSDP updates here.) We also got to highlight the superstars who help us throw our annual NYC fundraiser and KEEN, whom we have watched grow at an exponential rate since beginning our partnership in 2005.

“How does reading this newsletter make us feel,” you ask?: It makes us wonder, if so much can change since October’s floods, what will PEPY be like in 6 months? With so much change since our first newsletter in 2005, what will PEPY be like in 2015? Will we still be here? What will Chanleas Dai’s education system be like? Will we be needed? We hope not. . . . Will we have developed models or systems that can be adapted for new areas? Perhaps.

We’ll check back in on our 110^th newsletter (or maybe a bit before!) and see… that is, if YOU are still here (and if we still write these things!).

In the meantime, thanks for taking this journey with us and for being a part of making PEPY more responsible, “sustainable”, and hopefully a bit more professional. The humor, we can do nothing about. It seems that, on that front, you are stuck with us just how we are J

All the best, and here’s to number 55!

The PEPY Team

File under: PEPY News & Updates

PSDP Updates

21.04.10

PEPY’s Primary School Development Program has been busy the past few months, moving forward both with our Standard Support for teachers and School Support Committees and also working with Chanleas Dai and Prasat Knar as they move ahead with their School Development Plans.  (Haven’t heard about PSDP? Find out more here!)

What have the Schools Been Doing?
Fundraising, building, planting, creating, and learning!  At both schools we’ve seen a great deal of momentum as School Support Committees (SSC’s) begin to execute the plans they created in January.  At Chanleas Dai, community members constructed two shady learning huts on the school grounds, giving students a quiet place to read or study during breaks or outside of their school shift time.  All the materials and labor came from the community.  Our only contribution was taking pictures!

Chanleas Dai’s team has also been busy making teaching and learning resources.  Over the past two months, teacher team leaders have led their school in making effective learning resources using minimal materials.  The school fundraised over half of the budget for the resource-making workshops. 

Most recently, the team has been learning how to grow mushrooms, -- the beginnings of what they hope will be a life skills program for students that offers agricultural knowledge and income-generating ideas.  The community leaders are just testing the waters now, planning their first crop of mushrooms obtained through the Royal University of Agricultural in Phnom Penh.  In a few weeks we should have a taste for how viable the program is.  In the meantime, curious students and community members are coming to peer through the palm huts where the mushrooms have been planted.  

The creation of School Development Plan seems to be acting as a catalyst for additional ideas and action as well.  Though not a part of the formal “plan,” teachers and school administrators have recently started two new programs at their school, one aimed to elicit more parental involvement in education and the other focused on helping poor students.  Both of these programs came about without any PEPY input or assistance, highlighting momentum and initiative by teachers which that is exciting for us to see!

In March the school invited 10 parents to observe the classes of their students, giving feedback on their experience and sharing what they’ve seen with other parents.   The school director plans to keep inviting groups of parents throughout the year, thereby encouraging parent engagement in students’ education.  Though it’s a small step, it’s the first time we’ve seen a school actively engaging parents in this way.  Parent-teacher meetings are rare here, and many parents have never set foot in their children’s classrooms.  The school director expects to see changes in student interest and progress in their studies as parents become more active in the school.  We hope he’s right, and are excited to see this begin in Chanleas Dai.  

Teachers also started a program last month encouraging wealthy students to help their younger peers by giving small donations of 100 riel each (just over two US cents) in a collection box placed in the library.  Though no one in Chanleas Dai is considered wealthy by Western standards, there are houses with a bit to spare, and teachers are capitalizing on the concepts of peer assistance and community support to encourage students with a bit of pocket money to donate specifically to help their more needy peers.  In the past two months the school has collected over 16 dollars -- enough to purchase school materials such as notebooks and pens for the most impoverished students.  

These kinds of changes are exactly what we hope PSDP inspires -- community-led solutions to school problems.  As we see more of these exciting changes, we’ll keep you posted!  

PSDP is also moving forward in our second partner school, Prasat Knar.  The SSC has been moving slower here, as their principal is nearing retirement and transitioning many tasks onto the vice principal’s shoulders.  Prasat Knar also starts from a different place.  Where Chanleas Dai teachers and students have had 5 years of investment from PEPY and our staff, this is the first year that any non-profit has been working directly with Prasat Knar.  In some ways working with teachers and community members here reminds me of our first years at Chanleas Dai, when the biggest barrier to change was schools and teachers being able to visualize and articulate their goals.   

Nonetheless, the School Support Committee has gathered a great deal of momentum and has made significant progress towards their goals.  After a fundraising campaign in the two main villages nearby, the SSC raised over 200 dollars to dig out a school pond, providing a much needed water source for toilets and drinking water.  Though PEPY contributed a portion as well, over 70% of the funding came from the community.  In a place where most families are living on less than a dollar a day, this is a tremendous achievement. 

The SSC has also been meeting regularly to brainstorm ways to sustain a community librarian, and is writing requests to the District and Provincial offices of education to see if there is any potential for government support.  We’re looking forward to bringing a school-based library to Prasat Knar once the community has ensured a means of supporting a volunteer or salaried librarian!

What’s PEPY Been Doing?

Alongside the School Development Plan which is implemented by teachers, School Support Committees and community members, PEPY is also doing our part to contribute at Chanleas Dai and Prasat Knar.   In the past two months we’ve held trainings on first aid for teachers and students, distributed new uniforms at both schools to all students, and arranged a learning field trip to a government-run model school.  Next month we’re focused on director training, women’s health seminars, and providing classroom resources coupled with teacher training on resource use.  Stay tuned to our team journal for more updates!
 

File under: PEPY News & Updates

PEPY Staff Get Creative!

09.04.10

What does it mean to be creative? Writer Thomas Disch claimed that “creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist.” If this is the case, then at PEPY we are imagining all sorts of relationships, while we constantly look for ways to improve our Creative Learning Classes. The CLC team have been busy developing a new curriculum, which will encourage cross-curricular, topic-based learning. Wishing to reinvigorate the goals of the program, the team decided to go back to basics and have spent the past week revisiting and re-learning what it actually means to “be creative.” We are lucky to have Maria Perez (PEPY’s resident graphic designer, artist, and all-round creative person) for the next couple of months, sharing her skills and knowledge with the CLC team. We’ll keep you updated as we move forward with new and creative approaches to teaching and learning, and the revised CLC curriculum. For now, you can check out some pictures from a recent training session about creative displays and our different "thinking hats" on our flickr site.

 

File under: PEPY News & Updates

March 2010 Challenge

26.03.10

Cambodian New Year will be starting soon, and since this provides such a great opportunity for our staff and interns to travel, we’ve been thinking a lot about our past adventures, and we’d like to pose a question to you: 

What is the most exotic food that you've eaten while traveling?  It could be delicious, it could be disgusting, or it could just be different.  Let us know!

This month, the winner will receive an Eagle Creek Wallaby!

"This tri-fold toiletry kit has plenty of pockets and compartments for all of your personal care items; packs perfectly inside your main luggage or your carry-on bag and includes a swivel hook for easy hanging."

File under: PEPY News & Updates

May Cycling Trip

24.03.10

It’s been a few months since the PEPY Ride V, and now that our muscles have well and truly recovered and we’ve had time to reflect on all the videos, photos, and memories from the trip, we can feel our feet starting to itch again and hear our bicycles crying out to us. We just can’t wait that long for another chance to jump on our bikes and go out exploring PEPY-style! While the PEPY Ride offers participants a chance to explore Cambodia from corner to corner on a three week expedition, we have captured a snippet of that trip to create a southern Cambodia adventure tour. This tour is ideal for travelers out there who can’t commit the time to join our lengthier cycling tours, as this adventure is one week long in the beginning of May.

Starting and ending in Phnom Penh, the trip will visit some rural southern areas such as Kep and Kampot. While there will be plenty of traveling by bicycle, there will also be ample opportunity to relax in the beautiful surroundings of an eco-lodge in the hills, to sunbathe on a tranquil beach while sipping on cool coconuts, and to enjoy refreshing river swims.

Along the way, we will visit organizations working in the fields of community empowerment, skills training, and land protection, providing participants the first-hand experience of development work in Cambodia.

Those who join this ride through southern Cambodia will not only travel through the beautiful rural countryside, but also have a chance to spend a night in a rural homestay.  As a final stop-off point on the way back to Phnom Penh, we will experience life in the Cambodian countryside while pumping and filtering our own water, taking bucket showers, and getting a chance to learn from our homestay hosts.

The trip is set to be a great adventure and there are still spots available! If you’re interested, please let us know. We’d love for you to join us!

File under: Tour Related News