The PEPY Team Journal

Primary School Development Update

22.02.10

By Maryann Bylander, Managing Director

It has been fascinating to watch Chanleas Dai and Prasat Knar School Support Committees work through their first respective Primary School Development Plans (PSDPs). 

As part of the PSDP methodology, we’ve been working for the past 3 months with each school to build, strengthen, and train a School Support Committee (SSC), much like a Parent-Teacher Association Board in the United States. 

The School Support Committees now meet once a month, and have been working with the PEPY Team to learn about the Ministry’s policies of Child Friendly Schools, Education Law, Identifying Root Causes, Strategic Planning, and Budgeting.   This month we’re beginning the fun part: writing and implementing a School Development Plan based on the particular needs of each school. 

One of the most interesting things about working with PSDP is seeing the differences between Prasat Knar, a newly supported primary school, and Chanleas Dai Primary, where we have been working for over 4 years.  Although both schools are receiving the same training, workshops and attention as part of the PSDP process, the problems they are identifying and how they choose to solve them are remarkably different. 

Of course, their problems ARE different.  Many of the things that Prasat Knar wants, Chanleas Dai already has.  And in addition to having a beautiful library, more highly trained teachers, clean water, and school gardens, Chanleas Dai is also a different village, 20 kilometers away with unique community problems.

As part of the PSDP approach, each school is offered Standard Support (uniforms, first aid kits, water filters, and a wide variety of training and resources), and also works with PEPY and the SSC on a School Development Plan for each of the three years they participate in the program.  During the planning process, the groups have the opportunity to identify problems and plan solutions of their own. As the PSDP approach is focused on initiating sustainable changes, the idea is that the community and SSC are responsible for as much of the implementation and costs of School Development Plan projects as possible.  While PEPY can help with advocacy, training, ideas and small amounts of resources, the SSC is responsible for putting these changes in place. 

At Prasat Knar, a remote school near the Odor Meanchey border, the main problems the SSC identified were a lack of water, poor literacy skills among students, and a lack of textbooks and resources.  The SSC is already moving forward on finding creative ways to solve these problems.  Through a community donation scheme, they are raising over 300 dollars to move 100 truckloads of dirt, creating a pond that will provide water for toilets and gardens at the school.   PEPY’s contribution will be about 140 dollars, less than half of what the school will collect.  For a library, the community is looking for ways to raise money to subsidize a volunteer teacher, or to have approval from the District for one teacher to work part-time as a librarian.  We’ll provide a one-time room renovation, books, and library training, and the SSC will provide follow-ups and commit to funding a librarian.  For textbooks, we’re working with other schools in the area and the District to find extra copies.  If that’s not possible, the school and PEPY will work together to provide extra textbooks.

At Chanleas Dai, the SSC is focusing on providing life skills training for students, creating resource workshops for teachers, and making child friendly spaces for students to learn and play outside of class time.  It is reassuring to see that after so much exposure and training, the Chanleas Dai teachers and parents recognize that the biggest things they can do to improve their school are less related to things and more related to actions.

As we move forward with our PSDP program, we’ll keep you posted with pictures and journal entries.  Stay tuned!  

File under: PEPY News & Updates

TEDxBKK

22.02.10

By Eric Lewis, Intern

In 1984, a California nonprofit called TED hosted a conference featuring preeminent figures from the realms of Technology, Entertainment and Design. The intent was simple—invite the world’s changemakers to share their ideas. These lectures sparked an amazing synergy, a network of the world’s technical and social pioneers, all realizing and discussing the interconnectedness of their respective work. Since that first conference, the frequency, scope and accessibility of TED events have all grown, and conferences are now held on nearly every continent, with many of these lectures available free online.

As TED grew, its organizers recognized the interrelation of not just technology, entertainment and design, but of all fields where progress is made. Enter a new slogan: “Ideas worth spreading.” In addition to the nonprofit’s annual conferences in Long Beach and Oxford, TED enthusiasts can apply to host worldwide satellite events under the name “TEDx.” Bangkok recently hosted its first TEDx event, and the organizers invited PEPY founder Daniela Papi to speak about our work and lessons learned in sustainable development.

I joined Cambodian PEPY staffer Rithy Thul on his first trip abroad to see the event, and we were thrilled when Daniela’s impassioned talk drew the day’s first standing ovation. She spoke about several of the topics that PEPY enthusiasts are familiar with, such as the importance of investing time in people rather than merely investing money in things.

Other conference highlights included a talk by PEPY friend Brooke Estin, who explained the “triple bottom line” of social enterprise. She puts her social business theory to practice at Kiva, a micro-lending enterprise, and Change Fusion, a consultancy for social innovation. Further, experimental musician Ronley Teper wowed us with her unique brand of music, which defies all categorization. (Exciting update: Ronley will visit PEPY headquarters in the coming weeks!) Of all the day’s speakers, perhaps none was more inspiring than the last, Prae Sunantaraks. Prae, who suffers from the currently uncurable disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP), shared the story of her gradual blindness and the beautiful insights she has gained in light of this experience. The crowd sprung to their feet with applause as Prae concluded with the Helen Keller quote, “It is better to be blind than to have sight but no vision.”

If you want to experience TEDx and Daniela’s talk for yourself, we would love to share video footage with you once it has been uploaded to the TEDxBKK website. We look forward to posting Daniela’s speech to the PEPY Team Journal as soon as it’s available!

File under: PEPY News & Updates

Leadership for Literacy and Bike Repair Clubs

19.02.10

By Maria Hach, Program Intern

Here at PEPY we are getting ready to introduce two exciting new programs: Bike Repair Clubs and Leadership for Literacy. Both programs will see students from Chanleas Dai Primary School and Chanleas Dai Junior High School in roles that will encourage confidence building and self empowerment through peer teaching.

Recognizing that our Bike to School Program is likely our least sustainable program—but realizing that a broken bicycle or the lack of a bicycle is often the reason given by students who have dropped out of school or who are absent for a long period—we have decided to modify this program and introduce Bike Repair Clubs. These clubs will provide technical and leadership opportunities for junior high school students who will repair bikes in their school as well as surrounding primary schools. This means that students of all ages who are registered in school can benefit from having their bikes repaired. A micro-lending aspect will also be involved, and this will be managed by club members. Students can pay back the cost of the required bike part in small amounts, on a weekly basis. This means that the family will not need to wait until they can afford to fix their child’s bike, making it possible for the child to keep attending school. Through Bike Repair Clubs, students will not only have the opportunity to learn practical skills, but also enhance their soft skills such as team building, problem solving and critical thinking by working together with their peers. It is a simple yet stimulating idea, and hopefully the kids will have a lot of fun in the process!

The Leadership for Literacy Program begins next month, and involves both Chanleas Dai Primary School and Junior High School. Inspired by PEPY’s Community Program Manager Khouth Awatd, who recognized the significant impact of student-led initiatives, Leadership for Literacy aims to empower young people to make positive changes in their communities through tutoring mentorships. By being paired as tutors to young under-achieving students at the primary school, eighth and ninth grade students will learn how to teach and mentor their peers, while also actively taking part in promoting education in their village. Mentors will be trained on simple teaching methods through engaging and interactive activities. They will then be in charge of planning and scheduling their sessions, and also recording their thoughts after each lesson. While improved literacy will hopefully be an outcome of this program, Leadership for Literacy also aspires to create a young generation of leaders and role models who believes in their ability to improve education in their community. The name says it all, really, and we believe that it has the potential to support young leaders in a very meaningful and powerful way!

Stay tuned as we post pictures and updates from the program! 

File under: PEPY News & Updates

Videos from the PEPY Ride V

09.02.10

File under: Friends, Partners & Participants

More PEPY press

06.02.10

This has been a great week for PEPY press!

You may remember that back in September PEPY were announced as one of the three winners of the 2009 Geotourism Challenge alongside Nature Air and Wikiloc (two great companies – check them out). We only got there because of your support so once again THANK YOU!

This week tonic.com, a funky happiness-driven online media company that seeks out all the goodness in the world, covered National Geographic's Geotourism Summit 2010 where all of the Geotourism finalists were honored. Our director, Daniela Papi, was brought to the USA to join the summit and she said she has learned a lot to bring back to us when she returns next week! Look out for a post from her soon highlighting what she has learned and the inspiring people she was able to meet. Thanks again to Ashoka Changemakers and National Geographic for this fabulous honor and once again, THANK YOU for getting us there!

File under: PEPY Press