The PEPY Team Journal
A glimpse of what the future can be...
03.02.10
This week PEPY had a visitor! We were lucky enough to be joined for a few days by Jerri Chou. Inspired by the amazing people she has met, and the wonderful things she has seen, Jerri has one simple desire in life. She wants to change the world and she wants to empower others to do the same. (Sound familiar? That's because it's OUR GOAL TOO!) And that is exactly what she's doing.
Jerri is the founder of TBD, a free weekly newsletter that delivers "one world-shaking idea and one collective action to improve our future”. The features in TBD range from ways to make your voice heard by the people who never seem like they're listening, to companies who are turning scary corporate big guns into soft loveable teddy bears, to programs which give social entrepreneurs a leg up in the big bad world. TBD looks for organizations that are making a positive impact in the world and shares it with all their like-minded supporters who won't just sit back and do nothing. Most recently, TBD found PEPY.
We are really honored to have been featured and were delighted to have the opportunity to meet with Jerri this week. We strongly encourage you all to sign up for your TBD newsletter and find out about ways to improve your own future!
File under: PEPY Press
Lessons Learned from First Aid Class
15.01.10
By Sela Chham and Tyler Roy
From what I have experienced growing up in Cambodia, when accidents happen here, people often try and help victims by using traditional Cambodian techniques and medicine. Unfortunately, more often than not, these techniques will not help people to get better. In order to better learn how to treat injuries, proven modern techniques need to be utilized.
Because of this, on December 13th, PEPY provided a First Aid Training course conducted by the Red Cross to all of our staff so that we could learn more about healing ourselves and others. During our training we did not learn advanced medical techniques, but rather learned the skills necessary to save lives in emergencies. We learned how to immobilize fractures, treat burns, stop bleeding, and perform many more medical techniques.
These classes are essential because Cambodian ways to deal with health emergencies are often different, even from one village to another. These methods have various degrees of effectiveness, ranging from being very effective (placing banana leaves on burns) to being very harmful (dragging a motorcycle accident victim by the feet).
In our first aid classes, our staff members were asked questions by the trainer. For example, one question was “How would you stop bleeding?” One person answered “use brake fluid,” another suggested “pouring gasoline into it.” Other answers ranged from using smashed spiders and their webs to applying charcoal and alcohol.
While those may seem harmless enough, and some may even work, other treatments in Cambodia can prove to be extremely harmful. For example, if someone is electrocuted and their heart stops, instead of performing CPR or other lifesaving techniques, some Cambodians bury the person up to their neck in mud or sand and cover them with a white cloth. This is done in hopes of releasing the excess electricity that has built up in the person’s body into the ground. Some people will also shove a white cloth into the person’s mouth and ears in order to keep the person’s spirit from escaping the body. Since people occasionally recover naturally during this process, any recovery is credited to the success of the treatment, and the ineffective method of treatment will be used again.
Through our training, we were able to learn modern first aid techniques to facilitate safety and health so that we will be able to provide suitable first-aid treatment to employees or other people in the office, people in the communities in which we work, along with participants who come on a trip with PEPY. Because of the workshop, our staff now has the necessary skills to help preserve life, prevent further harm, and promote recovery.
File under: PEPY News & Updates
PEPY Ride V in Review
15.01.10
Five?! It seems impossible that we have just waved goodbye to all of the guests on The PEPY Ride V. Looking back on five years of multi-week cycling tours across Cambodia, it seems like we just started, but looking at the changes in how we operate our trips, it does indeed seem like a long time.
The first trip was comprised of a group of us who didn’t know Cambodia, didn’t really know where we were going each day, who thought we came here to “teach”—and left realizing we had been given an opportunity to learn.
The PEPY Ride V shared some similarities with The PEPY Ride I:
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Both groups biked across
- Both groups visited Non-Governmental Organizations, though the majority of NGOs visited by this year’s team were PEPY partners and groups we have long-term relationships with rather than one-off visits.
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Both teams were made up of travelers from around the world: The PEPY Ride I consisted of six people from the USA,
Some of the things which made The PEPY Ride V unique:
- We had the largest age span of any PEPY Ride on this trip (17 to 65 – though Eli was quick too point out his memory lapses… as he says it, he “forgot to grow up!”)
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This was the first year we finally realized that stopping at schools to teach environmental lessons, even if it was in partnership with M’lop Tapang and even if it included pre-tour meetings and pre-tour environmental education classes, was not “sustainable” – nor practical, nor a useful way to spend our time in
- This was the first trip where we highlighted visits to a group of community based tourism organizations. We visited the homestay and tour program at Banteay Chammar, a newly developing mangrove tour project between Kep and Kampot, and stopped in to learn more about the programs being offered at Bridges Across Borders in Kep. At all three programs we collected feedback on how to tailor the programs being offered to attract more responsible, independent, and adventurous western travelers.
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We partnered with Global Agents for Change on this trip and had some of their team (volunteers and board members), along for the ride. It was a pleasure to have the GAFC team with us, to see PEPY and our work in
We hope that next year, The PEPY Ride VI will continue to:
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Attract adventurous and passionate travelers who are eager to learn about
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Be led by inspiring trip leaders! Thank you Rithy, Katy, and Lucky for your hard work to make this trip so educational and to get us onto some of the nicest back roads in
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Support innovative and “impactful” NGOs, social ventures, and community based tourism projects throughout
Over the coming week, look out for more posts from PEPY Ride V team members about the trip highlights and maybe you will want to join us on The PEPY Ride VI!
File under: Tour Related News
Child Clubs in Action
12.01.10
By Maryann Bylander, Managing Director
For the next two weeks PEPY’s 350 Child Club members are taking to the streets in Chanleas Dai Commune. Their mission? Spreading messages about the importance of clean water. Three child clubs have joined together today in Kok Tnaut village, doing the first stop of their “Clean Water Campaign,” which will reach all 11 villages in the area over the course of two weeks. Marching with banners and a rusty microphone strapped to a bicycle, they cheer in a semblance of unified response to their 14 year old leader.
“Clean water makes us healthy. Is it so?”
“That’s right!”
“What do we want?”
“We want good hygiene!”
Before long, a trail of smaller children gathers behind the group and begins to march in step. Parents and older generations laugh and smile as they watch the campaign pass their homes. At points along the way, the children disperse and walk into different households to explain their messages. They carry hand-drawn brochures with simple messages about the importance of water filters, not drinking directly from the fields, or boiling water that might be contaminated.
Though many children and adults in the village know these messages already, they don’t always follow them. It is quite common to see children and adults drinking water directly from the rice fields while farming, a significant health risk as this stagnant water has been loaded with fertilizers and also carries other bacteria. Families without water filters rarely boil or treat water, and sometimes young children drink directly out of pumps, especially when they are far from home. Across Cambodia, diarrheal disease is one of the most common killers of children under the age of 5.
I trail the group, along with a visiting PEPY supporter. We discuss what effect this campaign might have. Though the goal is ostensibly educating the community about the importance of clean water, like much of the work we do in Child Clubs the action-oriented end result is only the showpiece. Actual changes have come along the way, and we hope will continue to do so. As children go through the process of learning about specific problems in their village and finding ways of taking action to change them, small changes happen each day. They take place when children ask their younger siblings whether they washed their hands before dinner. They take place when parents see their child coming home each Sunday showing pictures about clean water and begin thinking about purchasing a ceramic water filter. They take place when the children who drink directly from the pump or the fields are chided by their peers. The campaign is exciting recognition and a public display, but we expect that most of the attitude and behavior changes towards better health are happening regardless.
Beyond that, we hope that the participating children recognize, through the clubs and club campaigns and actions, their own power to make a difference in their families and communities. Whether it’s related to clean water or something else, standing up and making their voices heard shows children the power of a voice and a group of voices, no matter if they are all between the ages of 10 and 16.
The trail of yellow shirts files down the road and turns at a bush of romchek plants, beginning their wide circle encompassing the village. PEPY’s child educators stand off to the side watching. Laughing and holding hands, the children call back to their leader and his microphone.
“Do we care about our health?”
“Yes we do!”
“I can’t hear you”
“Yes we do!”
Make sure and take a look at the photos from this campaign here!
Could you sponsor a child club in 2010? Click here to make a donation!
File under: PEPY News & Updates
PEPY Tours featured in the VolunTourism "Watch List"
11.01.10
http://www.voluntourism.org/
File under: Miscellaneous
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