For Week 47, one of my dearest friends since college days, inspires us through her efforts to benefit the communities to which she travels — and she travels a lot! Here’s a report of Lisa’s latest voyage and Impact Effort with her partner, Ken. (Nils’ and my round-up follows tomorrow)
Khnar Village school
“The Khmer Rouge thing is in the past, I don’t complain about it,” said Ponheary Ly, a formidable woman and founder of the Ponheary Ly Foundation, whose mission is to make education available to the disenfranchised in the rural communities of Siem Reap, Cambodia. “What I focus on is how we can change the future. Education is the answer.”
Ken and I had the amazing experience of meeting Ponheary Ly and her family, and staying at their Seven Candles Guesthouse in Siem Reap, when we visited there in November (approx. $20 USD per night for a lovely room and en-suite bathroom – best value ever). Four of the six Ly siblings are tour guides, taking visitors to the Angkor Wat temples and surrounding areas. But the real focus of the Ly family is working tirelessly and passionately for the Foundation which supports over 2000 students. This includes providing uniforms, school supplies, a nutritious breakfast when necessary and pays monthly stipends to teachers, bicycles to students who live long distances from the schools and more.
Lisa and Ponheary
Ponheary Ly was nominated for a CNN 2010 Hero of the Year Award. It is humbling to listen to her video and how before the Foundation was established, started by using her tips to help support children in rural areas go to school. I think her message crystallizes what the 52 weeks blog demonstrates: that it can be the small impacts that can make the difference. For those who would like to connect with, donate to, or find out about volunteering, check out Ponheary Ly on Facebook.
My personal philosophy when travelling to developing countries is to do whatever possible to ensure the visit benefits the local community. Where we choose to sleep, eat, shop and sightsee can all make a difference to the people of the area and to us. Researching this in advance is part of my routine travel planning in addition to identifying at least one school or local charity which are in need of supplies and bringing these over.
There are many websites you can access for this information, depending on where you are travelling to. The main sites I used in planning my trip were www.stayanotherdaycambodia.com (click HERE for a PDF brochure) which promotes sustainable tourism and offers (or at least used to offer before the site was being updated) a search feature by location and type of activity. I found loads of great shopping and restaurant ideas – all affiliated with local charities. Most of the meals we ate in Cambodia and places where we shopped we learned of on this website and came out tops on our list.
A website which I wish I had known about prior to the trip is www.stuffyourrucksack.com. This online community set up by Kate Humble, UK broadcaster and journalist, puts travellers in touch with a range of charities across the globe and lists what items they are looking for such as clothes or textbooks that we can fit into our rucksack. What a great idea!
If you are using a travel agent, ask them if there are any affiliations with a local school or charity and what you can bring over.
Pondheary Ly Foundation
The Ponheary Ly Foundation website includes a wish list of items for travelers to bring over as well as a link to a more extensive wish list on Amazon. Armed with this information, Ken and I paid a visit to one of the 99p stores (like “dollar stores”) near where we live in the UK and came away with bags of stuff to bring over: pens, alphabeads (which they use to teach the children how to spell their names), band-aids, stencils, markers and more. On a personal note, one of the pluses of packing your suitcase with items to leave in country, is it gives you room to pack the treasures from your journey that you want to take back!
A sample of what we donated to the Ponheary Ly Foundation schools
Through correspondence with Lori Carlson, the manager of the guesthouse and President of the Foundation, I had learned that there was a need for USBs. So we went through our desk drawers and found a bunch of them. Ken also happened to be attending a technology exhibition prior to our trip and asked exhibitors for pens that we could bring over for the schools. These pens were especially well received as they either lit up or had other cool features. Lori has since told me that these “fancy” pens are being used at the computer lab as prizes for various games and that the kids were specifically enthralled that they were “technology pens” and “clicker pens” which is apparently a novelty. The USBs we brought over are being distributed to the students as they start learning about how to move and share documents.
Khnar Primary School
During our visit to Siem Reap, Ponheary took us to visit Khnar Primary School in Khnar Village, outside Siem Reap. 400+ students attend half-day, morning or afternoon kindergarten through 6th grade. Children who attend morning classes are given a simple breakfast cooked by the village women of rice and canned mackerel fish, provided by the World Food Program (WFP), and sometimes supplemented, donations permitting, with vegetables from the market. To ensure all students can partake in the breakfast, the class schedule rotates monthly.
At this school, the Ponheary Ly Foundation has put in a clean water tank to replace the previous well and has made improvements to the recreational area. The principal of the school has also set up a catfish pond and planted a vegetable garden with a view to providing a more sustainable model for the breakfasts served at the school.
In Lori’s email to me after we left when I commented on how wonderful and enchanting the people are, she wrote “the kids are the source of Cambodia’s greatest hope.”
Wherever you travel I urge you to research and plan into your trip some opportunities to support and share with the local community. Your trip will be enriched and rewarded by the experience. I know ours was.
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We’ve found Lisa’s way of Traveling (with) Impact so inspiring that when we travel to developing countries or to areas where there might be specific needs, we, too, do what we can to benefit the local community.
