Lessons I Learned

Wow! Check it out! We gave out 106 bikes year year for the fourth installment of our Bike-to-School Program.

This year, we have nearly 100% increase in students graduating from grade six since we started PEPY and nearly 1000% increase in the number of kids completing grade seven. A huge factor in that is that the junior high school programs are now much closer to the student’s homes thanks to so many of you.

Yeah! http://journal.pepyride.org/pepy-news-and-updates/367-bikes?tag=PEP…

I wrote a comment today on our Geotourism Challenge site which I wanted to share: http://geotourism.changemakers.com/en-us/node/21932

It seems that a lot of people have been voting for PEPY on the site (THANK YOU!) and some have also gone so far as to write nice comments for us on our page. I was writing back to one from Aileen Cameron and I wanted to share it below.

Thank you to the PEPY staff who made the nomination as a Geotourism Challenge Finalist possible, and who work to make our programs successful every day. Continue Reading

Thank you for being a part of the PEPY Cause! Only 5 years ago PEPY hadn’t even been named yet, and now we are one of 10 finalists in a 600+ entry contest by Nat Geo/Ashoka thanks to the lives our small group has helped to change and the over $1 million dollars y’all have helped to raise. WOW.

We need the help from ALL those of you in our little tribe to gain more exposure for PEPY by winning this contest. You can help support PEPY by giving us a few minutes of your time today, and that will make us smile, support education in rural Cambodia, and get you good karma points to cash in later All you need to do are steps 1-3 (the rest are extra karma bonus points!)

1) go to http://geotourism.changemakers.com/en-us/node/16599/vote

2) click “login or register to vote” in the middle of the page above the list of finalists

3) vote for THREE finalists (we hope one of them is PEPY!). They will not register your vote unless you vote for three finalists Continue Reading

This blog post is my response to a post calling for regulation of the NGO industry. It can be found here:http://talesfromethehood.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/regulation-anyone…

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An “industry-wide conversation about regulation” is not going to happen until there is an “industry-wide conversation about honesty”. Why would you politely tell that person that you agreed with where they gave there money if you don’t? Here in lies a big problem, I think. Let’s all BE HONEST! When people ask us about NGOs that we don’t think are doing a good job, we NEED to tell them the truth, in the nicest way possible. PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR THAT! You say, “But nothing really happens to those NGOs who don’t feel like following best-practices or participating coordination meetings.” – If we all spoke up – there would be – popular opinion would go down; people would redirect their giving. We NEED to be honest! You say, “It makes me cranky to think that such organizations can implement such bad relief” – so start talking to us about WHAT you have seen! There are no real examples in here – TELL US THE STORIES! Let people learn from your experience. Continue Reading

This is a very similar blog to my previous post – actually it is the first draft of what I wrote there (and by “draft” I mean – the first things that came out of my head after I read this blog – un-edited and very conversational, as my writing tends to be). Here is the blog I am commenting on.

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What does a “professional” mean to you? Your degree in Cultural Anthropology, does that make you a “professional”? In what fields? Development overall? Agricultural projects? Does one need a PhD to be put in charge of the lives of others? Does someone with an accounting degree who has never left the US but is volunteering with an NGO to improve accounting practices count as a “professional”? What if they are teaching math?

You said “Relief and development work frequently defies generalization.” I would argue that PhD’s and people outside of the projects can generalize all they like, just like you and I do on our blogs, about things we only have a small hand in, but at the end of the day it ALL defies the type of generalization that uses words like “volunteers should/shouldn’t” and “it must be done by ‘professionals.'” Continue Reading

I was recently asked what I thought about the argument that international volunteers often take work away from local people. I thoroughly considered this objection when we designed our trips at PEPY, and I’m constantly aware of the question. At the same time I believe that it is important to encourage a spirit of volunteerism, because even in completely local projects, where the community is encouraged to provide volunteer services, it is always difficult to establish a good balance. As I reflected on the projects we have done, groups I have worked with, or other volunteer experiences offered in Cambodia, I expected to come across a great deal of local labor displacement. Instead, my initial relfection could be summed up as “there is less displacement than you would think.” My initial response to the question is summed up below in the “Physical Labor” section. After thinking about it for a few more days, I realized that I mistakenly omitted volunteer teaching and service positions from my review, because those positions are less subject to the “lost labor” criticism voiced by opponents of voluntourism. Instead I came to understand that it is precisely those types of teaching projects that I DO believe deprive local labor resources of opportunities. Continue Reading

Someone asked what the impact of many tour companies and individuals looking to offer philanthropic opportunities in developing areas might be…. here are my thoughts and a story from my experiences in Cambodia.

I think that it can be a tricky line to walk for those entering a new culture or area and looking to help. Knowing who to trust, what to do/give, where to put support, what that support should be designed like, if/how their should be community by-in/support/funding to make it happen, who will monitor it, how changes will be made, etc etc, is a lot to take on. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t but it means there is a lot to learn, and even more to learn once we start and make mistakes. There are so many groups in Cambodia coming in and digging wells or giving away filters and sometimes those things do harm (wells leeching arsenic from bedrock, breaking and sitting unfixed as there is no local ownership, etc). Here’s a story for you:

Continue Reading