A Post Long Overdue from Srok Khmer

Jumreap Sua,
Sok sabai chier te? Somthou, kniom awt see ser =/

Ok, in English now...

Greetings Everybody,
How are you? Sorry for not having written =/ I have had to fine tune my plans a little bit but am back on track ;p

A lot has developed since I wrote you last from Bangkok: I am now in Phnom Penh, Cambodia! Where to begin in a city so tangled up in its phleu/preahs (streets), psars (markets), motodops (taximotos), keteouy stands (Khmer noodles)! So let me start with my daily activities and add a bit of randomness...

5:45 AM - No "rain or shine" here. I wake up and put my running gear on to treck my way over to the Independence Monument where I jog around the park for about 45 minutes. The weather is somewhat of a dictator in Cambodia, and in Southeast Asia for that matter (the news is literally flooded with updates on Typhoon Ketsana and her sibblings). Sunrise and sunset are the ideal times during the day to workout so as to dodge the tough mid-day heat which often reaches up to 90 degrees F. When I first adopted this park as my outdoor gym, I was surprised by the number of Cambodians doing just the same. They also attend aerobic dance classes (could be the national sport) around 5 PM when you'll find people jumping and punching in unison to one instructor's directions! Everybody is looking forward to November because it marks the end of the wet season and ushers in the dry season. So students, myself included, will no longer opt out of attending class that day because of monsoon rains! The Water Festival, a tradition since the 9th century, is a tribute to this transitional weather. Villagers from all of Cambodia's 24 provinces flock to Phnom Penh to celebrate. According to the reviews I've read..."During this time Phnom Penh takes on a carnival atmosphere, and as well as the river banks being lined with exuberant spectators there are also live concerts, hundreds of food stands, games of chance, fair rides, and at night fireworks light up the sky and people dance in the street. This truly is Cambodia’s Mardi Gras!" So I will definitely keep you posted on this party if I do decide to brave the roudy crowd!

7:40 AM - Say a little prayer, secure your helmets, and play "survival of the fittest"! I heard someone describe PP's traffic as a quest for the "survival of the fittest". The motodop comes from the French word "moto-double" to describe a motorcycle for two and is the most efficient way to get from point A to B in Phnom Penh to beat the neck-to-neck traffic. However, there certainly is an opportunity cost for a little bit of time-saving: the risk of colliding with a fellow motodop. The traffic lights and dividing lines are ornaments for PP's busy streets. You'll have somebody driving in the 'wrong' side of the lane and honking at you for being in their way...even though they clearly are breaking the 'law'. It's amusing that some neighborhoods in NYC slap a $250-$300 fine for honking your horn...boy, wouldn't PP'S revenues increase by at least 1000% if it passed this law. However, I am lucky to have found Pou Pi Rum to drive me to and fro work and school. Thanks to him, I'm almost fluent in traffic terminology and am starting to recognize street names.

Morning in Phnom Penh is my favourite time of the day..it is BURSTING with energy. Everybody is in keteouy (breakfast noodles) stalls enjoying their last minutes of freedom before heading to work, school kids are riding their kongs (bicycles) to school, and vendors are setting up their newspaper and fruit stands for the day, if they have not already done so.

8:00 AM - FOCUS TIME. I arrive at Cambodia Microfinance Association's (CMA) headquarters located on a residential street on the other side of the city. CMA is a professional association which acts as the hub for 20 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia. As you may recall, I proposed to examine the development of social enterprises in Cambodia. After having been in Bangkok for one week and in Phnom Penh for nearly three weeks now, I realize that my project proposal would be barren without properly defining the ‘social entrepreneurship’ field. I have already met with several social entrepreneurs, one of which I wrote about in a previous post (The Jaab Design Company) and the term applied to all three social entrepreneurs despite their very different natures. Given the all-inclusive application of the term, I choose to narrow the parameters of my research to highlight the growth of Cambodia's microfinance sector, one of entrepreneurship’s many lenses.

Unlike Bangladesh's microfinance sector which was sowed by Muhamad Yunus in the 1970s, Cambodia's microfinance sector has gained momentum only very recently thanks to a more politically stable government. Because the Khmer Rouge regime decimated Cambodia's population and bulldozed all legal institutions, the economy has had to rebuild itself from zilch. The government installed the National Bank of Cambodia to manage the country's economy, but like most countries emerging out of conflict, it tried to play catch up by only investing in large-scale projects and coordinating with interntional businesses, rather than nurturing its micro-level economies. Therefore a lack of investment in local agriculture and little support for small enterprises left most Cambodians out of the money scheme. International NGOs filled the gap creatd by the banking sector by providing microcredit loans to the poorer segments of Cambodian society. The first microfinance experiments were credit-oriented, to provide a kick-start to new business activities. After 1993 and the international recognition of a new Cambodian government, aid started to flow in the country...

This part gets a little dense so I will gradually fill you in as I continue my research with CMA and have the opportunity to meet with a few MFI representatives in PP, as well as in the provinces.

12:00 PM - Chong niam mawhob Khmer, mmmmmmmm. Lunch time =) I get back from work and am ready to feast on anything, be it a pumpkin soup, amhok (a traditional Khmer dish made out of prahok, aka very strong-smelling, some say repulsive, fish), or simply rice with tuk trey (fish sauce). By the time I'm done with whatever delicacy I will have enjoyed, I've been struck with hard-core itis. This is usually when I choose to explore the streets, get my chores taken care of, or practice for my next Khmer class.

4:00 PM - Repeat after me: Kaw, Khaw, Ko, Kho, Ngo, Tchaw, Tchaww, Tcho, Tchoo, Nio. Great, you can join us at the Royal University of Phnom Penh for our daily Khmer for Foreigners course! But make sure you come everyday because catch-up is hard for this class. There are about 24 eyeballs scrambling between the workbook and the patient professor, desperately trying to adjust our phoenitics to the beautiful twists and turns of the Khmer language. Khmer is derived from Sanskrit, and in fact a lot of Khmer culture has its roots in Hinduism.

5:30 PM - See where the night takes us. Back home to wind down with Tata Annie (my lovely aunt), try one of PP's delicious interntional cuisines, or meet with new and old friends;)...Goodnight!

I hope you got to read what my daily schedule looks like. The weekend varies from week to week: I was in Svay Rieng last week and had the privilege to see where my Mak Yeay, and my aunt's and uncle's parents, were born. I'm headed off to Siem Reap this weekend to visit the enchanting temples of the Angkor Empire (both adventures will be elaborately illustrated in the next couple of posts). Feel free to write back and definitely keep me updated on your happenings.

Cheers!

Just Voted!

Just casted my vote for my favorite idea on Project 10 to the 100th. Which one did you vote for?

The Jaab Design Company: The "Cool" Original Hand Painted Cards...

After sharing my project idea with business-savvy Aunt Bonnie on Monday morning, she immediately phoned her friend Mrs. Judith Saengprathum (Mrs. S), CEO of The Jaab Design Company, for us to meet. On that Wednesday, I started my transit from the highly congested Saphan Khwai district, maneuvered my way through Bangkok’s infamous bottle-neck traffic, and made discrete left and right turns onto several Sois (Thai word for ‘small street’) to finally arrive at the company’s homely headquarters. Seated in her office, Mrs. S and I discussed everything Jaab (Thai slang for ‘cool’)…

I invite you to browse through the selection of The Jaab Design Company cards, one of which I have sampled for you below. If our aesthetic tastes are remotely similar to each other's, you are to fall in love with these cards (I say this without any intention of influencing you ;). Reading the back flap of each card will give you even more reasons to enjoy these social works of art:

"Part of the proceeds goes to: The Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer Foundation who run a Breast Cancer Outreach Project that offers Breast Cancer education, screening and treatment to Underprivileged women in Thailand.

Also supporting:
· Traditional Thai Handicraft
· Fair Trade employment for women
· Environmentally safe Thai mulberry paper"

After having been in the fashion industry for most of her career, Mrs. S fueled her business idea from the materialistic excesses produced by the 80s’ and 90s’. Mrs. S moved from the UK to the Lat Phrao suburb of Bangkok on a contract with Channel in 1996. During her first few months in Bangkok, she was disturbed by the living conditions in the slums and decided to dedicate her time to help alleviate the poverty level within these geographic confinements. She met a couple from New Zealand who had given up their privileged lives to live amongst the slum villagers and who made their living by teaching their neighbors how to produce mulberry paper, a traditional Thai product made from fibers from the bark of the mulberry tree.

Mrs. S developed the business idea of selling greeting cards crafted on mulberry paper by an underprivileged population. She brought art supplies and her card designs to the Suan Plu slum and essentially outsourced the production of her cards to the local slum dwellers. Business was running smoothly until the slum suddenly caught on fire on April 23, 2004. Hundreds of people lost their homes and Mrs. S had lost all of her investments. Fortunately charities and civil society groups were organized to assist the victims of the big fire and Mrs. S moved her business a little closer to home…

Mrs. S’ neighborhood is neither affluent nor comparable to Bangkok’s many slums. Its population dances around the margin, which means that there are individuals who fall above the margin and those who fall short of it. Unfortunately, these are the communities which are often overlooked by local governments as the income inequality is buffered by the average GDP of both the better off and the not-so-well off. The most vulnerable group within this community includes young women with either or all of the following characteristics:

a. Come from low-income families
b. Sexually abused
c. Pregnant and disowned

Mrs. S took it personally when she discovered that her housekeeper lived in an illegal house (landlord rented out 8 rooms to different individuals/families) and was pregnant with her first child at the age of 16. Mrs. S gradually converted her home into the headquarters and working studio of The Jaab Design Company. She reached out to local girls of her community who were looking for employment and set out to teach them the business of card production in exchange for a generous package. Mrs. S also has offered the young women the opportunity to move up the business. For example she sent one of the girls to night school to develop her computer skills.

Mrs. S now has a full staff with an executive assistant, an accountant, a chief painter, and usually about12 ‘makers’ at a time. The card production process is modeled after a ladder system:
Mrs. S designs each card -> the chief painter reproduces it and gets it approved by Mrs. S -> the chief painter teaches the makers how to mass produce them.

The mass production does not require any use of machines or modern technology. Each card is hand-painted by the makers, placed on drying racks and packaged in sets of 6. They are then sent to the 13 outlets in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Int’l Airport or sent to their happy owners all over the globe who place their orders online.

Although today’s economic recession has provided a great challenge company operations, The Jaab Design Company has managed to retain its head over water. The gross profits earned from the net card sales, are distributed accordingly:

• 10% of it goes directly to the The Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer Foundation
• Each young woman earns a salary equivalent to Thailand’s minimum wage (210 baht per day, or approximately 7 US dollars), social security benefits, healthcare, sick and maternity leave, and rice for lunch.
• Overhead cost, but relatively low with help of internet sales
• Business tax
• Mrs. S' salary

Being that the definition of a social business remains an ongoing debate, it is always challenging to categorize any organization as a social business. So is The Jaab Design Company a social business? In my humble opinion, it is a loud 'yes'.