This year, the Journeys Within Tour Company won the ETC 2016 Responsible Tourism award for the active philanthropy program and experience that it provides to its travelers through JWOC.  

If you ever wonder why I do this, take a quick look at the video that was part of their winning application submission: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZdIUQwgmT4

I’ve had a terrific summer at JWOC and thought I would (finally!) share some highlights that have really inspired me during the last 3 months!

International Youth Day

On August 12, JWOC joined not only with 11 other civic-minded, youth-oriented organizations in Siem Reap, but with thousands (maybe millions!) around the world to celebrate International Youth Day 2015.

This year’s theme was “Youth Civic Engagement.” In Siem Reap, more than 150 of us got up at the crack of dawn to start our day together with a balloon release and bike ride. Tied to each balloon was a message from one of us celebrating and encouraging youth and all of their potential to shape the world in positive ways.

We rode together to one of the rural primary schools where the youth in our group taught the children games, did art projects and gave speeches about what “civic engagement” means to them. The speakers included our very own Eng Kea!

For me, the best part of the day was every time Vantha pointed out another JWOC alumni/a who was part of the event. One of our Free Classes graduates works with the NGO that was the lead organizer, and she was the MC for the entire day! One of our Scholarship program graduates started an NGO that teaches students traditional dance, using the proceeds from performances to pay for scholarships for their educations – they were remarkable, especially one dance where each member was an interconnected section of a very green centipede. It feels kind of like each of our students is a rock that we are able to drop in a pond and watch the ripples spread outward into the community – very cool!

More than 150 total riders!

“Centipede” dance – incredible athleticism!

Go, Kea!

Vantha, Kimchhay & Kea

Messages to celebrate our youth and their impact!

The JWOC crew, bright and early

A few of our sister NGOs who participated in the event:

“Our View Our Story” Photo Exhibit

An exhibit of some of our students’ work at a local arts café made for another very special evening.

In partnership with PhotoForward, an international media arts program, JWOC scholarship students participated in a two-week photography workshop where they learned skills in digital photography, editing and visual storytelling. The result was a catalog of captivating images of the world around us, seen through the eyes of our scholars.

Each image embodied a different aspect of Cambodia… the determination of working villagers, the serenity of the countryside, the hustle-and-bustle of daily life.

And each of our students both brought and took away a different perspective on their photography experience. In their own words:

For more on the photos, the students and the evening, check out JWOC’s blog or PhotoForward’s website.

34tunate

At JWOC, we get a number of volunteers who come for a day, a week, three months and more. All have made wonderful contributions to JWOC ranging from teaching art class, to curriculum development, to a total computer lab overhaul, to developing a strategic plan for our Microfinance program.

But this summer, one of them has inspired and energized me – and reminded me about how I want to look at life.

Tracy Stayton has spent the last couple of weeks with us, working with our scholarship students on their career plans, CV development and job search skills. But we are only one small part of Tracy’s incredible journey this year. She has decided to spend her 34^th year doing 34 service projects around the globe. We have been lucky enough to be one of those and to gain an incredible new member of the JWOC family….

You can follow Tracy’s journey on the 34tunate Community Facebook page.

JWOC’s New Crew

My last highlight is the new team members that we have brought on this summer to help carry forward with the mission of JWOC. All of our team members are amazing, but I just wanted to do a quick shout-out and welcome to the newbies who have just come on board – I am so looking forward to working with you all!

Kneath Heard, Managing Director

Liz Offner, Fundraising & Communications Manager

David Cunningham, Education & Volunteer Manager

Lita Vuth, Microfinance Program Manager

I’m guessing that those who know me well may be thinking that I’ve been uncharacteristically serious throughout my stay here… NOT!  In addition to the work with JWOC, my tours around the area, and the chances to meet so many incredible people, I’ve also had plenty of fun 🙂

So before I head back to the U.S. tomorrow — I thought I’d share a random collection of pics from various lunches, dinners and nights out, the JWOC teambuilding trip to Beng Mealea (one of the temples a bit farther out from Siem Reap that has not been restored at all), and a karaoke evening (consider yourself lucky that there is no audio for anything I was involved in singing(!) though some of the staff, particularly Nesa, are phenomenal!!).

I’ve had an amazing time and will miss all of you.  I’ll be back!!

I have met so many incredible people during my stay in Cambodia, I could probably write at least a hundred posts if I tried to tell you about them all.  There is one, though, that I think you need to “meet”.  Sophary is one of our JWOC scholarship student graduates.  After leaving university, Sophary chose to work for the Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD) organization – an NGO whose mission is to locate, de-activate and destroy the millions of landmines and unexploded ordnance that remain strewn widely across the Cambodian countryside following the Vietnam War and the years of internal conflict and civil war during the 2nd half of the 20th century.

CSHD was founded by Aki Ra, once a child soldier forced to lay landmines for the Khmer Rouge.  After the wars ended, and starting on his own, he began to find and clear the explosive devices he once was part of putting in place.  Later he founded CSHD as well as the Cambodian Landmine Museum Relief Facility , which serves not only as an archive of the history, but also as a home that provides education and support for dozens of at-risk youth and landmine-affected children that they have rescued.  There is no accurate tally of how many explosives remain undiscovered, but all estimates are in the millions, generally in the range of >3 million still in place.  As you can see from these couple of articles I copied from the Phnom Penh Post in just the last few days, this remains a very real part of daily Cambodian reality.

I think Sophary is probably about 4’11”, if that.  And yet, I think she is one of the strongest women I’ve ever met.  Beyond wanting to help her country recover and be safe, it is deeply important to her to help other women and to show them that they too can do anything and be truly strong.  That is one of the reasons that she chose this as her profession — and it is one of the reasons that she supports not only her own younger siblings but others from her village.  Like her, they have no opportunity to finish high school if they stay in the village and must find a way to come to the city in order to continue their education and have any opportunity to continue on to university.  Her older brother came before and brought her along once he was settled, and now she is doing the same for several others.  She is an incredibly positive force and amazing role model for so many that she touches.

I did visit the Landmine Museum, as well as the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields and S-21 Prison while I was here, but can in no way do justice to them — or to the impact they had on me — in writing.  If you do have the opportunity to visit Cambodia, I urge you to make them a part of your experience.

Today I get to introduce my third JWOC Scholarship Student “guest author.”  Sophea is part of our Free Classes team.  He is one of the most energetic, fun and engaged people I’ve ever met — and he is absolutely amazing with the kids in both our English classes and our Sunday afternoon Art Class, as evidenced by both his words and the pictures below.  And be sure to read on through the end, as Sophea, in turn, shares a story about one of his favorite students!!  

My name is Lim Sophea. I’m a scholarship student at JWOC. I’m also a student at Build Bright University that support by JWOC. I study at subject Tourism Management. I have been volunteered at JWOC since December 2013. I volunteer as an English teacher in Free Class Project. I have volunteered as children’s teacher and also kindergarten’s teacher before. I love to work with the children and the kids very much. Since I have been teaching them I feel so happy and have a lot of fun. Moreover I’m very happy at the same time I have helped many children and many kids to have more knowledge, and also have a bright future too. Now I’m not teaching them anymore, because I have another work so it let me to change the time to teach. Now I volunteer as adult’s teacher I teach on Saturday and Sunday. It also helps to have other experience to work with adult. Even I have changed it, but I still miss their activity, their smile that makes me fresh. I can say that I have the best fun ever to work with the kids. Especially I really enjoy working at JWOC very much. I really love education system there and environment around there too. I have gained a lot of experience from my work and moreover I have learnt a lot thing, such as Team build, many important workshops (communication skill, first aid training, and personal finance act). Especially Teacher Developing Workshop every month that can help me with my volunteer work. In the Free Class Project not only have free English class, it also have the free computer class too. Everyone can learn the computer skill, that this skill can help them easy to find the job and also help their study too.

I’m the one who have a big family. I have three elder sisters and one elder brother, so I’m the youngest in my family. My home town is in Potisat province is in Cambodia. Now nobody there anymore, my family has moved to other place from each other. My parents and other two sisters and one brother live in Phnom Penh. I and my other one sister live together in Siem Reap. I just have moved to Siem Reap since I passed the scholarship in JWOC. I enjoy living in Siem Reap very much. I love Siem Reap. It is the second house for me. It makes me fresh, make me feel want to live in this world even I stay far from my family. It is very peace full place.

I’m not the one who comes from a rich family, so it needs me to find my own future. So now I found JWOC. Since I have got this chance I always promise with myself that I will reach my goal even the hardest ever things come to me. My future goal is I want to have my own small Boutique. I always think that my dream will appear someday. I love this so much, this dream is related to my major. On the other hand in my free time I love decorate and find something new to help me with my study and my future goal too.

In conclusion I want to say thank you for JWOC that have supported me for my University and also give me a lot of soft skill, experience for my life, make me more feel amazing of my study. Moreover it also change me from the person who don’t have many experience to have more tip to develop myself and to have more power to involve in society. Especially I have a very good relationship with each other. I LOVE JWOC.

And here is Sophea’s story about one of his students at JWOC 🙂 :

She is 10 year old. She lives in Siem Reap province. Now she is a student of JWOC, and she also my student. She just a little one, but she has strong will. She studies hard. She has studied here since 2013. She decides to study here because she love environment around here, have good teacher, and JWOC have library that have many book to read to improve her knowledge . Especially she doesn’t need to pay money for her study. Moreover she has learnt a lot from her study. She can get a good education, can speak English, and can make a lot of good friend. In that she will use her English skill to communicate with other people, especially with the foreigners. Moreover she has other knowledge about her living (hygiene for living, hand washing, teeth clean …). In short she wants to say thank you for JWOC that have provided the class without paying and allow the poor children come and get knowledge to help their future.

I am pleased to introduce the second of the JWOC Scholarship Student “guest authors” for my blog.  Tivecheka is a confident, articulate and truly impressive young woman who volunteers as one of the loan officers on our Microfinance team and will graduate from college later this month.  We met and talked quite a bit on Loan Disbursement Day, and I thought you would appreciate hearing her story!  

My name is Tivecheka Ting. I’m 23 years old and I am sixth child among my seven siblings. There are two brothers and five sisters in my family. Nowadays, my father is a retired teacher and now he is getting old, so he has nothing to do. My mother also getting old and now she sells some vegetables at the market, and outside from her small business she look after her grandchild and also a housewife. I came from Battambang province where Cambodia and Thai border.

Now I’m living in Siem Reap town for six years already. I’m studying in Year IV, Semester II and my major is Accounting & Finance. I will graduate in July,2014 next month. I prefer to run my own business in the future if it is possible, but short term plan I want to be an accountant or general operations and so on.

I am a university scholarship student at JWOC since Oct, 2010. During I get scholarship from JWOC, I must do volunteer working  for JWOC at least 5 hours to 10 hours a week. There are two projects that I already worked. First, Free Class Project as an English teacher for a year and now working as a loan officer for Microfinance Project since 2012 so far. Both of these projects, I got difference experience. When I under the Free Class Project as an English teacher, I worked every Monday to Friday at 5: 15 pm to 6:15 pm with all kind of students. And now I under Microfinance Loan Project, I work only on every Sunday at 1:30 pm to 5pm with villagers (borrowers). Some days I have to volunteer working more as my Project Manager requires.

Volunteer working with JWOC, I got a lot of experiences such as: teaching experience, time management, how to do lesson plan, how to manage students during the class and so on. And working with Microfinance Loan Program, I’ve got a lot of experiences such as: how to do loan application, how to interview borrowers, know borrowers living style situation in the village, know what kind of business do they run and how is going on while borrowing money from JWOC, and how much their business growing after get loan and so on.

There are 10 borrowing groups and total amount of borrowers around 44 borrowers that I and my friend responsible. I chose one of the borrowers who I responsible to let you know how is her business running. Her name is Yi Channy who lives in Kvean village at Angkor Wat area. She sells all kinds of dessert in front of her house. Before she borrowed JWOC loan, her business is small and she made a little dessert for sell because of she does not has enough money to buy raw materials for making dessert. But now, she can expand her business by borrowing money from JWOC. As my experience with her I observe that her business is growing by making more dessert and making a lot than before. Now she is borrowing JWOC loan and nowadays she is 3rd term borrower also.

I like playing with kids, sight seeing, talking funny with friends, and so on. These are my fun times.

Finally, I would like to say thank you Erin for this blog. And also thank to you again for your time volunteer at JWOC in order to help poor Cambodian people.

I have asked a few of the JWOC Scholarship Students to be “guest authors” for my blog and to tell you a bit about themselves, their lives, their aspirations and their experiences with JWOC.  I’m truly pleased to introduce the first of those, Vanthen, who I have been sponsoring for the last couple of years.  I have so enjoyed finally getting to meet and talk with him in person that I wanted to share that — but I realized that rather than me trying to tell you his story, he could do a much better job!

My name is Kim Vanthen and I am a 2^nd year student at USEA University major IT (Information Technology).  In the future I don’t want to work for somebody else; I want to work for my own. I want to be a web developer, designer and programmer.  I like playing sports especially volleyball, not professional but only for fun and healthy. I love watching movies like education movies that can blow up my mind with critical thinking, and listening to music which can improve my English. Nowadays I work and study at university this is the only way that can improve my English.

Nowadays I involved the CLA (Community Liaison and Assistance) program with JWOC. There are many projects we do in CLA. We do:

o   Home garden: we trying to change the way that people who live far away from town live. We teach them grow their plants different ways with new technique and chemical free. We teach them make dry compost and liquid compost and new technique to some sort of plant.

o   Liaison: We research and try our best to find some free classes, job opportunities and short courses and we do the advertising to the villager, poverty children and jobless people. Assist them to reach out new destiny.

o   Emergency Assistance: Any kind of emergency by the natural we try our best to take care of villagers.  We focus on health care, using clean water and offer what JWOC can. In 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia had a big flood which never happened before, we tried to announce the emergency news, offer some medicine for the skin problem and some pill to clean up their drinking water and we also rebuilt road which cut by water for emergency use. We went to each villager’s house to give some advice.

o   Food for Work (Road rebuilding): At the country side some road are damaged and there’s no solution for them. I mean the government doesn’t see this but we do see and we do the rebuild by gather the villagers to discuss and give back some benefit (rice) with the local market rate.

I have a friend his name is Vong Chann. He’s also a scholarship student at JWOC. He met some problem in his family. His father was away the family economic went down. This is because in Cambodia father is the one who support the whole family and mother the one who take care the whole family. This culture was followed since the Khmer Rouge, so now his parents are apart the whole family 2 little brothers and 2 sisters need support and that time he finished high school, so without JWOC he won’t be able to study in university, and now he became an outstanding student in the class. I’m so proud of him.

I was born here Siem Reap, Cambodia. My situation not so different from Vong Chann. I finished high school in 2010 and had no opportunity to support myself with the college thing and 2 years later I know JWOC helps me a lot and not just me my whole family and also affect my community. Every time I leave home for work or for school my neighbor look at me in the eyes that so proud at me.

I have 1 brother and 1 sister. I brother got married 2 years ago and he has 1 child, and my sister is studying in high school grade 10.  She has 2 years more to finish and in that 2 years I believe that I will be able to support her.

I don’t have much thing to add, just want to say Big Thanks to JWOC, not just me who JWOC help many poverty students in this province had been support by JWOC, so JWOC is a Big part of developing Cambodia. JWOC built good human resource more than 200 already. I will never forget JWOC and in the future, one day I will come back to JWOC and use my knowledge, experiences to help JWOC back.

JWOC’s Microfinance program has made more than 200 loans in the last year, and has worked with well over 500 borrowers since its inception in 2006, achieving a nearly 100% repayment record.  Loans in the $100-300 range are disbursed in 5 cycles each year — and a new cycle launched just last week. Borrowers came in and worked with the student volunteer loan officers to sign and thumbprint their loan contracts, get a copy of their weekly repayment schedule… and receive their funds!  I had the pleasure of acting as official photographer for the day:

Sunday is collection day, so I headed out with one of the teams on their weekly run.  I got to meet some of the borrowers and learn more about their small business ventures:

Sells vegetables and other goods at the Phsa Leu Market where I bought my bike:

Expanding the business at their barbershop:

On a street where everyone had some kind of business, sells fruit (papayas & pineapples) to market and local neighborhood:

Grows and sells chilis, cabbage and other vegetables:

Sells shellfish in as much of the year as possible and augments with vegetable sales in the rainy season.  (Note a couple of things!  The completely adorable, blissed-out baby in the hammock.  The shells completely covering the ground — I cannot figure out how the little kids were running around barefoot without just shredding their feet.  Ouch!!!)

An extended family of 17 living together who took out a loan to be able to sell shellfish at the market:

And back home, the team tallying up and wrapping up at the end of the day:

This weekend I got to join the JWOC teams on their trips out to the villages.  It was a terrific experience — I learned how to make compost to prepare the sandy soil for a garden, as well as how to dig a well… both of which take a tremendous amount of work!!  It was inspiring to see the commitment shown both by the villagers in working to improve their lives and by our scholarship student volunteers in providing training and encouragement to support their efforts.

Home Gardens

On Saturday I went out with the Home Gardens team, and the trip was almost as interesting as the destination!  As most of the team sped off on Motos, four of us headed out in a tuk-tuk with some of the supplies.     While there was lots to see along the whole journey (I plan to do an entire blog entry later on the amazing things people are able to transport via Moto!), as we got closer to the village, the trip really got interesting!  We encountered uneven road conditions… A bit of traffic here and there…  And at one point what seemed like an impasse!!….   But we simply disembarked and unloaded the tuk-tuk and the driver drove it down the embankment, around the small lake, and back up again… and off we went!

When we got to the village, the training was in full swing.  JWOC has brought in an instructor who has long experience with farming himself and is highly sought-after for his expertise.  Last week, they covered composting and this week the topic was best practices in crop rotation to maximize yield.

 (Note that the blue writing on the walls is a listing of the villagers who contributed funds for the construction of the common building they are in, along with the amounts each contributed.)

While the training continued, Konthea gave me a bit of a tour through the village to see the garden plot that the team leader had created following their last training session, including a look into the wet composting pot.  (She also explained what goes into wet composting, but I’ll leave that part out!).

There are about 175 families in this village.  Their primary source of income is the rice that they are able to grow in the rainy season (starting soon/now).  Some of the men travel to Siem Reap to do construction and other jobs, and many of the women weave baskets — they can do about 5 baskets/day which nets them about $2.50.   So, the prospect of being able to grow vegetables to augment the food supply for their own families — and in many cases to be able to sell some surplus — can have a significant impact on both their nutrition and economic well-being.

Clean Water

Sunday’s trip was with the Clean Water team.  This time, I too sped off on the back of a Moto… but I forgot to have anyone take pictures!  (Bear with me as I’m just getting the hang of this blog thing — the pics will hopefully continue to improve as time goes on!).

As part of all of their programs and in all of the villages and schools that they work with, JWOC incorporates hygiene training.  For this weekend, that was the focus of the trip as they are still in the planning stages of the wells for this particular village.  The scholarship students had fabulous rapport with the audience, and even I was laughing, despite not being able to understand a word they said!  In addition to a few other topics, the main focus was on proper hand washing and teeth brushing technique (I had to sheepishly admit that I only brush twice a day and not three times…).  The most fun was when they brought up people to demo — it got to be quite a good-natured competition to see who could be most thorough and most entertaining at the demos.

On the way home, Seng took me on an extra stop to see one of the wells that’s underway in another village.  They’ve discovered that the water table is so deep in this area that they need to install a different kind of well than usual.  This one will be 7 meters deep and lined with concrete pipe.  

How does one dig down that far you ask?  Pretty straightforward… one guy climbs down into the well, scoops up dirt and rocks in a bucket…   And his buddy hauls it out…   Over and over and over again…  I’m not exactly sure how the guy gets out of the well.  I’m hoping there is a rope ladder or something that they drop down there as it’s hard to believe he climbs up the rope or his buddy pulls him all the way up….   As I said at the beginning of this post, truly amazing the commitment and work the people we met are putting into improving life for their communities and families.

A couple of last sites of interest: the library, a shop, and the meeting table at the village chief’s home: 

I’ve had a great first couple of days getting introduced and settled in to JWOC!  For those of you who haven’t already heard me talk about it, JWOC is a non-profit I’ve been involved with for a few years (thanks to my loooooooong-time friend, Jane Price!), and whose Board I joined last fall.  JWOC’s mission is to reduce poverty levels by increasing educational and economic opportunity for recipients in Southeast Asia, with the primary focus here in Siem Reap.  Through its programs, JWOC works to empower both those recipients and our supporters to drive positive and ongoing social change in their communities.  

The centerpiece of the organization is the Scholarship Program, which covers the full cost of university tuition and textbooks for students who could not otherwise afford to attend.  In turn, those students also serve as JWOC’s fundamental engine as they become the volunteer teachers and staff that make the other programs possible.  In the process, we are able to not only assist directly with the cost of their education, but also to build on their potential and to develop their working skills, experience, teaching and leadership capabilities more broadly.  Our expectation is that many of them will become future local and national leaders and the idea of giving back will be something they embrace.  

Our other core programs are also education-focused, consisting of Free Classes for children, youth and adults.  These classes provide critical school-readiness and job-readiness preparation for individuals who would not otherwise be able to afford or access such opportunities.  In addition, the volunteer force of Scholarship Students allows JWOC to meet other high-priority needs in Siem Reap and the surrounding villages including Clean Water & Hygiene Training, Microfinance, and Emergency Disaster Relief programs. 

One of the really cool aspects (as the name conveys!) is that JWOC was born from within the community, founded in 2005 by Andrea and Brandon Ross, owners of the Journeys Within Tour Company and Boutique Hotel based in Siem Reap.  While their tour and hotel guests were struck by the beauty of Cambodia and warmth of its people, they were equally struck by the vastness of the need they saw around them and asked how they could help.  Because Andrea and Brandon lived in the community, their neighbors also sought them out for support.  And they continue to work in concert with the community to identify and prioritize needs and to act together to address them, in keeping with the JWOC motto of “See a Problem… Solve a Problem.” Always maintaining a focus on providing opportunities, not handouts, focusing on giving people access to the education and tools they need to make positive changes for themselves, ensuring that even if JWOC disappeared tomorrow the difference we have made will remain.

In just 2 days, I’ve been introduced to all of the staff as well as several of the Scholarship Students, participated in Conversation Class as a native English speaker, and mapped out our plans and projects for my next 6 weeks.  Intros included a terrific lunch of traditional Khmer dishes yesterday with the gang (you can see me peeking out down on the right, sitting between Chhunlay, our Computer Teacher/IT Supervisor, and Konthea, our Community Liaison Program Manager) :

And today, I presented an “Erin Overview” that included a brief visual history of my life path:  

Got the biggest laugh when I said I was spending my kids’ college money on myself since they both got scholarships!  Got the biggest “wow” for my apartment in NYC — not for the view, but for the fact that I lived on the 29th floor.   (By the way – thanks, Mom, for the cool photo collage that provided me with several of the pics — and sorry, Matt, I didn’t have a more recent good baseball shot of you so had to somehow place Univ of Tennessee in Southern California…. I don’t think anyone noticed!!)

I’m looking forward to a busy 6 weeks as we’ve identified several project areas for me to work on with the team.   A few of the first ones will be to develop and facilitate a training session for the Scholarship Students on critical thinking using some JWOC-specific case studies; putting together a strategy to pursue foundation/corporate funding grants (we actually worked together and submitted one of our first to Team4Tech immediately prior to me leaving NY); and also getting the chance to attend teacher development workshops and teacher observations so I can start my “Education” education while I’m here.  Lots of good stuff to come!!