The PEPY Team Journal
A New Road for Chanleas Dai
11.01.10
By Maryann Bylander, Managing Director
In 2010, Chanleas Dai is starting off the year with a new sleek look, one of pavement. In two weeks, a shiny asphalt road will make its way from Kralanh town all the way to Chanleas Dai and beyond, stretching to the provincial capital of Odor Meanchey and past to the Thai border.
Construction has already started, as last month bulldozers and trucks came in to flatten and widen the existing road. Cutting down trees and bushes for three meters on either side, the construction has already changed the landscape of Chanleas Dai, as houses and shops have been pushed back, and the greenery lining the road aggressively chopped. For now, that means that the area looks a bit like a no man’s land, a sea of dust and stumps, with several felled trees lining the roadside. Soon, it will mean that a remote area has become accessible, with greater access to markets, health centers, and education.
We couldn’t be more excited. Many of you who read this newsletter have traveled with us to visit our projects in Chanleas Dai. Whether in a car, in the back of a pickup truck, a bus or in the PEPY biodiesel machine, I’m sure you all recall the rocky red highway that leads from Kralanh town to Chanleas Dai (and all the dust that comes with it). The first groups who traveled with us before 2006 might even remember the three rickety wooden bridges, unstable enough that we unloaded our tour vans before crossing them.
Those of you who joined us before April 2009 will also recall the poor condition of the road from Siem Reap town to Kralanh, a mess of sand and rock in the dry season and thick red mud during the monsoon months. When this road was paved earlier in the year, it cut our travel time to Chanleas Dai down by half and considerably eased the ride. Before, our staff would dread the dusty trek back in the PEPY truck, a converted flatbed that had few shocks to ease the ride. After upwards of an hour and a half of hanging on with kroma-covered faces, we often applauded when we reached pavement. Now Road 6 is a fast and easy 40 minutes to Kralanh with as smooth a road as any in the country, no kroma required. Soon, we’ll be able to say the same for the road to Chanleas Dai as well.
File under: Miscellaneous
Give the Gift of PEPY
16.12.09
In the past, some of you have asked to give the gift of a PEPY donation in the name of people you love as a holiday gift. This year, we're making that easy for everyone! If you are still looking for gifts this year or can't find the right thing for someone who "has everything," why not choose one of the gifts below? Your friend or loved one will get a unique and thoughtful gift, and together you support PEPY by investing in educational improvements in Cambodia. Not only will we put your donation to good use, we'll also thank YOU (and you friend!) in our own PEPY way, ranging from an email to a video, to homemade cookies (no, really!)
To give the gift of PEPY this holiday season, please visit www.pepyride.org/donate and fill out this form to tell us the names, addresses and phone numbers we will need to deliver our holiday love!
For $35 your gift supports a part-time assistant leader for our Child-Club Program for one month. These leaders are young people from the local community, who have been trained in Child to Child methodologies, leadership, and life skills. These dynamic young people were hired because of their enthusiasm, positive attitudes and potential to serve as role models in their community. Meet them here!
If you donate in the name of a friend, in addition to supporting rural education:
You and your friend will receive an e-mail sent on the date of your choice which lets them know that you have donated to support an assistant leader for a month in their name. We'll also send you both an e-mail in the new year letting you know how many people joined our holiday support team, and details on the Child Clubs.
Click here to support an assistant leader for a month!
and then fill out this form.
For $50 your gift supports one student's participation in our English and XO Creative Learning Class programs for a year.
On the date of your choice, PEPY will e-mail you and your friend a personalized certificate with PEPY pictures and logos, information about what their funding supports, and a message telling them that you donated in their name. Alternately, we can e-mail you and you can print it the certificate out to give directly to your friend.
and then fill out this form
For $100 your gift supports our Bike-to-School Programwhich is projected to award more than 100 bikes again this year to students entering grade 7.
On the date of your choice, we'll email your friend a personalized certificate with program information and custom message. In addition, we will send you and your friend a hand-written thank you card with photos from the Bike-to-School Program ceremony in October.
On the date of your choice, we'll email your friend a personalized certificate with program information and a custom message. In addition, you will be some of the first to receive the PEPY 2010 calendar (which is a bit late this year! Sorry!). You let us know where to send them, and you and your friend will have two calendars to keep you PEPY-fied in 2010! If you like, we'll also send a poem to you and your friend in your honor that incorporates both of your names and your support for PEPY. (If your name doesn't rhyme with anything, we might give you a nickname ;)
On the date of your choice, we'll email your friend a personalized certificate with program information and a custom message. In addition, we'll send your friend a beautiful silk photo album with pictures from the field trip in the spring of 2010! Plus, if you give us your/his/her phone number, we can call directly from our office in Cambodia during the last week of December, from 6am-10pm Cambodian time (6pm-10am EST). We'll even sing a holiday song of your choice to your friend!
Click here to sponsor a field trip!
and then fill out this form.
For $1500 your gift sponsors a Child Club's activities for a year!
Both you and your friend will receive the certificate, program information, and a holiday phone call, plus a semi-annual update from your club, giving information and stories about what the club is doing, an album of pictures from the clubs, and a personalized video documenting the Child Club for both you and your friend. We will also make you cookies. No, really, we will! Just tell us where to send them! We have 15 Child Clubs looking for sponsors… Who wants to take this opportunity to be an important part of our team?
Click here to sponsor a Child Club for a year!
and then fill out this form.
Thank you for helping PEPY continue our programs into 2010. Happy Holidays to you!
File under: PEPY News & Updates
PEPY Staff- A Love of Learning
14.12.09
When we’re hiring new staff, evaluating ourselves, and looking at intern applications the first thing we look to is our PEPY Powers. About two years ago our staff sat down with an HR expert and whittled down the core competencies/values we wanted in our team. We came up with these 5 :
1. Love of Learning
2. Passion for Change
3. Working Together
4. Initiative
5. Follow Through
Though we think we have a pretty impressive team of Cambodian staff in general, they are especially showing their Love of Learning these days! Out of the 18 Khmer staff working with us full time, 10 are currently studying outside of their working hours! That means they are working 40 plus hour work weeks and then studying as well---impressive! Most of these individuals are supported through PEPY Capacity Building Scholarships, which are available for any full time staff who has been working with us for over three months. Staff who are interested in continuing their education can apply for scholarships and are awarded either partial or full support through PEPY. Not only does this help us develop the strengths of our staff, it also reinforces one of our core values: A Love of Learning.
What are they studying?
o Cham Sela, Office Manager- Year 1 of his MBA
o Sung Chan Ratana, Education Program Manager- Year 1 of his MA in Education Administration
o Hun Thida, PSDP Program Officer- Year 4 of her Accounting BA
o Riem Bon, Program Assistant- Year 2 of his Management BA
o Rith Sarakk, English Program Officer- Year 3 of his Management BA
o Rous Rithy, Driver- Year 1 of his English BA
o Thul Rithy, Program Officer- Supplementary English at ACE
o Chun Kong, Guard- Truck Driving/Maintenance and English
o Chim Seng, English Teacher and Child Educator- Year 1 of his English BA
o An Aim- Year 1 of his BA (still deciding his major)
They don’t have PEPY Capacity Building scholarships, but many of our part-time staff are studying too!
o Riem Noun, Program Assistant- Studying to get his 12th grade equivalency
o Soth Bopha, Program Intern- Year 1 of her IT BA
o Choch Chor, Tours Intern- Supplementary French Classes and perhaps Tourism Guide Certification!
o Ao Hang Chhay, IT Intern- Year 3 of BA in IT
We are so excited to be working with such a motivated team of people who share our belief in the importance of education. If you’d like to sponsor a capacity building scholarship for one of our staff, contact
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
today!
File under: PEPY News & Updates
Meet PEPY's new Creative Learning Class Staff!
14.12.09
By Kyla Solinger
This year, instead of XO computer class PEPY is offering Creative Learning Class, with two very creative teachers who recently joined our team. Meet Soun Kimeang and Loem Lida below! Both Kimeang and Lida are recent graduates of CIST (Centre for Information Systems Training). PEPY began working with CIST in 2008, when we learned about their impressive training program in Cambodia. CIST works to recruit bright, motivated young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds across Cambodia, and supports them through a two year high-class I.T. training program. In their own words, their goal is "bridging the digital divide in Cambodia through the creation of an I.T. training centre." We believe in CIST's mission and their team, and have partnered with them for two years now offering internships to CIST students, and working with them to recruit from our target areas. We hope that one day we will have students from Chanleas Dai attend CIST, then come back and teach our Creative Learning Classes! To learn more about CIST, click here. Read on to meet two of CIST's newest graduates who are managing PEPY's CLC programs in Chanleas Dai.
Suon Kimeang is 22 years old and is from Kompong Cham Province. He just finished studying System Network Administration, which is a diploma degree in computer sciences, at CIST in Phnom Penh. Kimeang first worked with PEPY in 2008 for two months in September and October during which he assisted Channeang in the XO program. PEPY is very happy to have him back on our team as our full time Creative Learning teacher. He feels confident that he can practice his knowledge and share with the students. He feels there is much he can learn from PEPY and much he can teach his students.
Loem Lida is 21 years old and is from Pursat Province. She also just finished her System Network Administration training at CIST. She has worked with CCFC (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood) and UNDP (United Nations Development Program) on internships in IT support. She has also worked with Project for Asia as an English teacher. Lida will be joining PEPY as a CLC and English teacher and will be helping to make the Creative Learning Classes come alive with ideas! She is excited to help students gain new knowledge and to share what she knows with them.
File under: PEPY News & Updates
Highlights and Challenges of 2009
14.12.09
In Words- A Conversation with
PEPY People:
Below, join PEPY’s directors Maryann Bylander and Daniela Papi as they reflect on the highlights and challenges of 2009. Are there questions you’d like to see answered in an extension of this conversation? Let us know!
What do you think your biggest achievements have been this year?
MA: Well, I think I’d have to start with the four schools we built. It might be surprising to say that, since those of you who have traveled with us know that one of the things we always stress is how the biggest changes in education will not be the result of buildings, but will be the result of investments in training, capacity building, and community advocacy. That’s all true, and I think we’ve had some incredible progress with the intangibles. But when I think about the year, my strongest memories are the community workshops, meetings with contractors, moments with volunteers, and the learning our staff went through that resulted in four safe (and beautiful) spaces for learning. I don’t believe that these buildings are the way we have impacted education in the most significant way this year, but I think managing four community-based school construction projects at the same time was a major achievement for our staff. Being on a construction site checking steel rebars, engaging the community in the construction process, figuring out how to make a building go up in Cambodia…. it was a tremendous challenge and our team did a fabulous job.
I think the other huge achievement is with our team of program staff. The most pressing challenge we deal with is getting the right people in the right places and keeping them there. Whether by luck or learning, we’ve managed to form a tight-knit, hard-working, inspiring team. Awatd, our Community Program Manager, and Ratana, our Education Program Manager run most of the show these days. I smile every time they get up in front of a training, or share their ideas for future program changes with us.
D: Watching a proactive team of PEPY staff, Cambodian government teachers, and trainers from the Provincial Teacher’s Training College (PTTC) make our second Khmer Literacy Camp a really inspiring place to be was one of the highlights of the year for me. Last year when we tried to do this for the first time, we didn’t have the right staff, we didn’t have the right materials, and we didn’t really have a strong plan for what the camp would look like. It was a success last year in that it opened the doors to several literacy improvements in our school programs, but it took the full effort of nearly all of our team to make it happen, and it was not a very community-driven initiative. This year, in contrast, the PEPY staff had much less to do with the camp, as the teachers and principals of the 10 schools involved led the way, along with the PEPY team, and they had the vision of what the camp should look like. Finding talented teacher trainers from the PTTC was one of the biggest keys to success of this program and we will continue to look to them for advice and training as we improve our programs.
What would you have done differently?
MA: Not eaten that ant soup? Hmm. . . there’s lots I would do differently, which I hope means we’re learning! One of the things we could always do better at PEPY is more planning before jumping in, and hiring farther in advance the people we expect we will later need. Because we have such a proactive and motivated team, we often stretch staff too thin before we hire extra people to work on a program/project. In retrospect I probably would have hired someone to manage the Classroom Library Program instead of having staff we already have work on development and implementation of the program. The Classroom Libraries have SO much potential that they aren’t yet reaching because we don’t have staff with enough time and resources to devote to building the program.
D: I agree with Maryann, and I confess to being the “push-aheader” in a lot of our blind-jump decisions. The Classroom Library Program does have SO much yet unreached potential, largely from lack of leadership and ownership, mostly from us moving forward without getting the right people in place to make this project work. Getting the right staff has been the biggest struggle from us from day 1. What might be a funding dilemma in the US (“Oh no, we can’t afford the $200,000 fee to hire the best English early literacy curriculum development team!”) in Cambodia, when it comes to Khmer literacy, it is a staffing dilemma. . . those skills either don’t exist or are extremely hard to come by. This puts us in the dilemma of either pushing forward with foreign leadership behind certain initiatives that we want to be locally owned, or choosing staff who are typically new entrants to the work force and have less experience than our ideal candidates—but who have the passion for learning and believe in what we are trying to achieve. Point being, we have great staff who believe in what we are doing, but in projects such as the Classroom Library Program, we are not yet close to reaching the program’s potential as we have not put enough time into identifying or developing the skills we need to make the program work. But we are getting there.... We are learning a LOT. To some, that might mean we were not qualified to start PEPY in the first place, which is true. We were travelers "looking to do good" who funded a building. Later, when we realized that buildings don't teach and the "priorities" of community needs are different from our initial ethnocentric ideas, we could have gone home, but that would have meant leaving a project a failure. We weren't qualified to stay. I hope that the fact that there are many things we would do differently hopefully means we are bringing in qualified staff who we are learning from and that there is a lot we will continue to do better in the future.
Have any favorite moments stood out?
MA: The first school building volunteer trip we did with Dubai Cares was a pretty amazing week. Because of publicity agreements we didn’t write much about our partnership with Dubai on our websites, but that partnership defined 2009 in many ways for our team on the ground. We spent four months working with the community, working on school construction, developing agreements, etc, and it was rewarding when we finally had the opportunity to start working with the Dubai Cares volunteers directly. This year’s literacy camp was incredibly special as well. Seeing Ratana, Aim, and the Provincial Teacher Training College trainers manage the camp with such success was inspiring.
D: Once again, I agree with Maryann here. The Dubai Cares partnership really shaped our 2009. The song “I’m Yours” will forever be etched into my memory surrounding the school construction, as Rithy took it upon himself (and all of us!) to learn all the words. The literacy camp, which I was not able to attend last year, was so rewarding to witness this year. Having Maryann run our programs this year, with little to no support from me (as I tend to just stir things up by throwing new ideas into programs which were working fine already) has been a big key to this success. Having Awatd and Ratana as our program managers has also been one of the reasons that there are so many program highlights for me this year.
One last thing: about two weeks ago I was in the library and the bell rang to announce a break in classes. Typically, until this year, there would always be some teachers who didn’t show up or who let their kids out early, so there would always be some students milling about the school grounds. On this day, everyone was learning in class and the school grounds were silent. When the bell (aka tire rim hit with a stick) sounded, I was standing near the library entrance making a phone call. I heard a stampede and fortunately was able to get out of the way before being run over by about 50+students, who were pouring into the library to report to our librarians about the books they had read the night before. Kyla helped work with Srey Touh and our library team to create a system to track student reading progress and to get the librarians involved in asking questions about the books students have read. It was really fun to get almost literally run over by the excitement the students have for the program!
Also, we can’t forget the launch of our new websites with the help of Soe, who fell out of the sky and landed in our technology-expertise-free laps. How lucky we have been to have his leadership this year!
PEPY has been working in Cambodia now for over four years. Where do you see PEPY five years from now?
MA: Such a hard question! I guess one of the trends that I’ve seen with PEPY is that we’ve become more professional as an organization. We have better accounting practices, monitoring and evaluation, stronger working relationships with other NGOs and the government. I expect that process of increasing professionalism to continue, though I hope that it continues only in so far as it allows us to be more effective and organized (not to the point where it inhibits creativity and flexibility). In terms of what I expect we’ll be doing. . . Running a girls’ dorm? Publishing early literacy books? Promoting Child Clubs throughout Cambodia? Running a leadership camp in Siem Reap? So much of this will be directed by the Khmer staff we hope will take the reigns of the organization within the next 5 years. For PEPY as an organization, our vision is of communities empowered to take action to improve their living standards, knowledge of health, environment, and quality of education. Our staff are going to figure out the best way to make that happen, in line with their experience and passions. Right now the programs we are starting and modifying in Chanleas Dai are being developed with end dates, mostly in the 3-4 year range. The goals of each of the programs are to encourage sustainable changes to the point they are no longer needed, or to the point where local community members are trained to take over. So, our English teachers are working with government English teachers, our PSDP Program is helping develop and strengthen local school support committees, and our Child Clubs are developing the skills of young people who could run their own groups in the future. I can’t say that PEPY won’t be in Chanleas Dai in 5 years, but I won’t be surprised if we hand over most of our projects to a group of trained community members, and begin working in other areas, or supporting education in other ways.
D: I hope that even by the end of one year I will not be the one being interviewed for this, but instead our Khmer staff will be. Part of the reason it is always Maryann’s and my voice here is that taking the time of our Khmer staff to write updates in English, or even taking staff to translate, often comes at the expense of other program work. But I do think it is important that it is not my dreams and goals pushing us forward in the future, but the vision of our 35+ Cambodian PEPY staff, or more specifically the 20 staff who are from the target area where we work. I would love to see PEPY help develop more training, materials, and curricula around increasing Khmer literacy skills for new readers. There is a lot of unmet need in this area, and I think that creating a repeatable model would be a way for us to spread our impact far beyond Chanleas Dai. Then again, if our Khmer staff take us in another direction that better meets the needs of the community—as Aline originally did when introducing the Child Club concept to PEPY—I will be delighted.
Anything else you want to share?
MA: Just that we’re grateful, and feel really
lucky to have the support and encouragement that we do. Thank you. And as
they say in Cambodia to celebrate the New Year: Wishing you all
happiness, love, beauty, luck, long life, good health, and a fertile
harvest J
D: Thank you! As we get ready to
greet The PEPY Ride V team this weekend, I can’t help but be in shock at the
turns PEPY has taken and the fact that all of you and our staff here have
jumped on this bandwagon to keep us moving in the right direction. I know that
my role at PEPY will change, as it must (likely before our next annual update)
as my strengths do not lie in sustaining something, creating processes, and
following a routine. We are at the stage
of PEPY where we need to further focus and improve the outstanding programs
that have floated to the top of the array of work we have entered into, and I
think changes in leadership will follow our changing needs. . . so stay tuned.
Your questions, criticism, and support have pushed us to be more open and honest about our programs, with ourselves and with all of you reading these. (There are people reading this, right? Feel free to reply and let us know you are out there—we love knowing that the work we put into our newsletter to keep our supporters informed and educated about our programs is not in vain!) Thank you for being a part of our team!
Happy Holidays,
The PEPY Team
File under: PEPY News & Updates
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