At PEPY, we aim to be successful in our educational programs by focusing on investing time in people. We do that, by working with individuals and groups to identify their own needs and goals and helping build their capacity and connections in order to reach their goals.
One of our main programs that does with children and youth in rural Siem Reap Province is the Child to Child Program. A few months ago we entered the "Capacity is Development" discussion with this Case Study entry about our Child to Child Program. Read up Click Here!
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.
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.
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.
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.
For $250 your gift supports a 5 day teacher training course on literacy or mathematics for 20 government teachers.
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 ;)
For $500 your gift supports an educational field trip temple visit for a class of junior high school students. For 7th graders we plan on visiting the Angkor National Museum, in 8th have environmental projects planned on the Tonlé Sap, and we're still brainstorming with teachers for grade 9! You and your friends can help make these happen!
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!
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?
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!
This month, as we look back at the year, we wanted to share some of the statistics and fun numbers we have kept track of in 2009. Click on the links to read more about each statistic!
Chanleas Dai Villages in our target area of Chanleas Dai Commune: 11 Families in the Commune: 1,700 Percentage of government teachers in the area without any formal teacher training: 40% Typical monthly salary of a government teacher in Chanleas Dai:$35
Percentage of rice yield lost in Chanleas Dai due to severe flooding in October: 50-80%
PEPY Programs Schools PEPY works with: 14 PSDP Pilot Program schools: 2 Government teachers PEPY supports through training: 62 Days of training supported: 64 (and that’s just since we started counting in May!) Schools constructed in 2009: 4
Monthly average of books checked out of our Chanleas Dai library: 1,334 Classroom library shelves installed at 10 schools: 50 Total Classroom Library books: 10,000+ Students who joined PEPY’s second literacy camp: 443 (a 100% increase from last year!) Published Khmer books written by PEPY staff: 3
Children participating in our 15 Child Clubs: 350 Days of life skills training provided for Child Club leaders: 19
AUW scholars recruited: 5 Teachers PEPY is supporting to obtain their high school equivalency: 16 PEPY students and staff who spent the summer in Vermont: 6 Teachers PEPY supported in 2009 through monthly food support: 17 Primary schools with PEPY-supported English classes: 5 Junior high students studying in our English and Creative Learning Classes: 232
PEPY Staff Current Khmer PEPY staff: 36 Current paid foreign staff: 4 Khmer staff who are currently studying: 15 Foreign volunteer staff who have worked with us in 2009: 19 Khmer interns who have joined us in 2009: 6 PEPY staff babies welcomed into the world in 2009: 3 (Congratulations Mama Sak, Papa Aim and Papa Sovandy!) PEPY staff weddings planned in 2010: 5 Countries represented by PEPY's interns in 2009: 12 Collective kilometers PEPY staff ran or biked in last weekend’s Angkor Race and Marathon: 232 Estimated years until PEPY Program Officer Thul Rithy becomes Cambodia’s prime minister: 17
PEPY Dollars Individual donors in 2009: 532 Median donation amount: $40 Funds raised to date in 2009 through individual donations: $298,568 Funds received through the support of Dubai Cares to build three schools and operate educational tours for Dubai Cares volunteers: $238,237 Total funds spent to date on education projects in 2009: $ 499,445 Percentage of your personal donations that have gone/will go directly to program work: 100% (How? Click here!)
PEPY Tours Number of you who have traveled with us in 2009: 103 Number of trips: 15 Youngest trip participant: 5 years old Oldest trip participant: 80 years old Number of returning participants: 4
PEPY Media Number of websites we’ve developed (Thanks, webmaster!): 5 (www.pepyride.org, www.pepytours.com, www.lessonsilearned.org, www.thehipster.org, www.volonourism101.org) Number of Facebook friends: 943 (are you one of them?) Number of Twitter followers: 727 (follow us now!) PEPY’s ranking on Twitter within Cambodia: 1 Number of YOU who subscribed to our newsletter: 4,322 Number of you who read it: well, we’re not sure, but we believe it's higher than the stats say. Why don't you check out some of our Team Journal postings and leave a comment or two? We'd love to talk with you!
Want to join, support or help grow our numbers? Are there numbers you’d like to have included on this list? Get in touch!
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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.
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 ;)
