Lessons I Learned

I am looking forward to the day that the BBC and all of the world’s networks are featuring Cambodia for a very positive story. Yesterday’s tragedy, a human stampede which left around 350 people dead in the nation’s capital, is yet another heart-breaking story from this place I have been living in and learning about for the past 5 years. Cambodia gets featured for ongoing tragedies, like last week’s article on the Guardian’s site about orphanages which are turning profits for “owners” who give little to no care to the children living there. It gets featured around the world for judicial remnants of the tragedies of the Khmer Rouge. And yesterday, the Bon Om Touk festival, which should have been a celebration for the nation, brought worldwide attention to Cambodia about yet another great loss of lives.

I got emails today from friends around the world, some I had not heard from in a number of years, checking to see if I am ok.

I am ok.

So are all of our staff at PEPY.

(I am thankful that so many people care about us and our families.)

It seems that many of the deaths were of people from the provinces surrounding Phnom Penh who had traveled great distances to see the city and enjoy the festival. They had left families behind to celebrate their free and growing nation. They came to see the King who waves to the oarsmen as they paddle by in the boat races. They came all the way to the city, many for the first time, so these were the ones who stayed to the end – to see the final ceremony, on a newly created island built on “contested” land.

The people of Phnom Penh are lighting incense throughout the streets tonight as the nation mourns. May they all live to see stories of joy, success, innovation, and prosperity reach the worlds ears from their country.

We want to know that our money went to “the right place”. We have been taught to be fearful that our donations might aid corruption or not be used in the way we had intended. As such, it’s easier for us to build buildings than invest time in people through things like trainings & education programs.

If we fund a building, we can see it and touch it and know that our money went where we had intended it to go.

But, what are we missing when we invest only in things we can put our name on?

We are missing out on investing in real change.

The changes we say that we want to see in the world—in health, education, the environment, and in all of the social ills plaguing our schools, families, and our planet—cannot be fixed by investing in things. More schools, more bednets, more health centers, more books, and more school uniforms are not going to solve these problems, no matter how many we give away.

We can’t emblazon our name on a person’s forehead the way we can on a hospital building: Funded by the Smith Family. Investing in people isn’t as rewarding in the short term – you don’t see a space turn from empty to full, a building go up brick by brick, or books lining shelves. But, as we fill people with knowledge and skills, connect them to the ideas and resources they need to make the changes they want to see in the world, and create opportunities that didn’t exist before, we start to fill the real voids we have in the world: people with the skills and passion to go out and make the changes they believe in.

We made this mistake at PEPY. We came to Cambodia and built a school, thinking that a new building would improve education, not realizing that a safe space is only the tip of the iceberg of what is needed to improve the quality of education in a place. The rest has to do with human beings. We need a revolution of philanthropy. We need fewer people donating to build a well with their name on it or to build empty schools and health centers with beautiful plaques hanging on the walls, and more people supporting educational opportunities for people to learn the skills and bring in the income to solve their problems on their own. I’ve invested in the wrong things many times and I’ve seen what it takes to make changes. I know now: buildings don’t change lives. PEOPLE do. So rather than writing our names on more buildings, let’s get out our tattoo pens and start investing in people to change the world.

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Disclaimer: The author does not REALLY think that we should write on people. She does though really think that we should INVEST in people, even though we can’t put a name plate on them. Please note that no people were harmed in the taking of these photos and that all investment in all of us in the images was in the form of opportunities to connect and learn, not tattoo ink.

On October 21^st Wild Asia held its annual Responsible Tourism Awards ceremony at the International Travel Bureau conference in Singapore. PEPY Tours, a finalist for the RT award, was invited to speak to an audience of peers—that is, folks in the tourism industry who likewise work in the growing field of RT. The PEPY Tours talk, delivered by Chief Tourmaster Eric Lewis, was slated under a segment called “Successful RT Case Studies from Tour Providers around Asia.” The following is a transcript of that talk.

As a prelude I’ll give you the elevator-version of what PEPY is. PEPY is one organization that comprises two separate legal entities: a development nonprofit, and a for-profit tours company. The nonprofit aims to empower Cambodians to improve their quality of life, with a focus on increased access to quality education. The for-profit arm, PEPY Tours, operates adventure travel in Cambodia that emphasizes social action and accountability, while also raising awareness and funding for our ongoing non-profit programs.

So that’s where I’m coming from—PEPY Tours has a triple bottom line.

The subtitle of this segment is “Successful Responsible Tourism Case Studies,” and I’d like to dissect that title, because the word ‘successful’ carries some implications that I’d like to address before we really get underway here.

By definition, an organization that is successful has either

a) achieved its goals,

or

b) turned a profit.

And these two are often the same, where the goal is profit.

Now Wild Asia has decided that PEPY Tours represents success in our industry, and ostensibly I’m here to share the secrets of our success. And that’s very flattering. But the nomination presents a bit of a paradox. What I mean is that if we are successful by traditional standards then we may actually be unsuccessful according to our own.

This sounds strange, I know. Let me explain. Continue Reading

Guilt. . . it sounds like such a bad word. But maybe we should start to look at it a little more lovingly. It’s our morals, our values, and our hopes for the future rising up within us to remind us what we believe in. HOW we present those beliefs, and our ability to express our feelings without “forcing” guilt on someone, is important to consider and will significantly impact the reaction of those around us (and that is something I need to continually remind myself).But trying to avoid all guilt might be just as harmful. I say, bring on the guilt! If we DON’T, our planet and our future are in trouble!

Have you ever been in a situation where someone in the room makes a statement that they are about to go do something “responsible” (sort through the recycling at the end of a party, saying no to the dessert offering, etc.) and, when you see they have made this choice and you haven’t you say, “What, are you trying to make me feel guilty?!”?

Is feeling guilty when we do something we know is bad for the environment, bad for ourselves, or irresponsible a bad thing? We often tiptoe around our real thoughts or intentions, worried that we might make others feel guilty about their actions if we state our own choices. Continue Reading

Less than two weeks ago, the day after I landed in the US for a month-long trip of meetings/fundraising/family, I got a call from our staff in the Siem Reap office. They wanted to know if it was ok for them to pursue a new idea they had come up with which they were calling “The Power of 10“.

Their idea was to create a powerful video which would inform people about why we do the work we do at PEPY – to gather interest, support, and awareness.  They wanted to launch it on 10/10/10.

I suggested we wait until 11/11/11…. how would it be possible to get this off the ground in only 12 days? They expressed how much they REALLY wanted to try, and I told them to go ahead, thinking it would be nearly impossible to find an animator to do what we were looking for in such a short amount of time.

But, they did it.  The team in Siem Reap worked through the weekends and their holiday this week, they found an animator, and they made a new website: www.jointhepowerof10.org and they did it because they believed in this idea and they owned it.  It was their idea to push it and their idea to make it huge.  And they have reminded me to be more optimistic, that huge things CAN happen, if people are passionate and have ownership in their ideas.

Thanks to the PEPY team who put 12 days of work into making this happen, Soe who made yet another beautiful website for PEPY, Rick who made the animation at lighting speed, and Tess who did our logo and branding. With only $75 invested in this project and a lot of volunteer hours, this sites is proof that saying yes to peoples big ideas a way to empower them to make the ideas come true.  I’m excited to see where this leads us…..!

We’d love it if you would “Join the Power of 10“.

I just read through and commented on this blog by Jane Reitsma about the local vs global volunteering debate.  She wrote it in response to my post about ideas for how to add value in your volunteer placement.

You can see in my comments on Jane’s piece that I recently had an experience where I got a new perspective of the potential of voluntourism.  I have usually seen wealthy people come through on voluntourism experiences, both the ones I have organized and the ones I myself had joined which started me on this journey.  Usually, it was a bunch of us who came from “privileged” backgrounds learning about just how privileged we were.

That is indeed a powerful experience, but listen to this:

http://reader.pepyride.org/a-travelers-transformation-from-voluntourism

Lesly’s story was the first personal account I had heard of someone who had had a life of gangs and anger whose life was dramatically changed through a voluntourism experience. I asked my friend, the founder of Global Potential, the organization Lesly had traveled with, if I could meet Lesly. Last week, when I was traveling through NY, I visited his school and joined the global potential group there for a presentation/discussion. I was SO impressed with these students. They had such self-confidence and, for many, a new found awareness about their ability to do good in the world.  I wrote more of my thoughts on this in the comments on Jane’s article (above).

It relates to the experience these “deportees” (or “returnees”) have had in Cambodia:

http://current.com/participate/vc2/86520671_cambodia-tiny-toons-break-dancing-for-life.htm

Please watch this and listen to the part, around 5 minutes and 20 seconds in where one of the teachers (an ex-gang member in the US) says: “If there was a program like that for me, I would not have turned out this way….. If you are exposed to it, to know you can do good, then you don’t end up… using drugs, be in a gang, etc.  This gives them the chance to grow up to be the person they might be able to be.”

Areas of our modern societies seem to have taken away a necessary part of what makes us do good: we need to be needed.  We need to know HOW we can do good in the world.  Once we are exposed to that – these two stories above – are proof that it is addictive, life changing, inspiring…. if we know how to do good, if we know how it FEELs to do good, if we know that we have the skills/talent/desire/energy to do good in the world we become compelled to continue to do so.

What do you think?  Why do YOU try to do good in the world?  If it is because it helps YOU, because it changes YOUR life, that is ok!  Actually – that’s great!  Because the more we change and improve ourselves, the more we learn HOW to do good, the more we continue to pursue a life of positive impact for others, and the more our potential for doing good increases.

I am part of a panel at the Notre Dame Forum next week, and I was asked to write a piece about the “Common Good” as it relates to businesses and the work place.  Here is my take, from the perspective of growing PEPY.

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When you work in the social sector, some are quick to think you are a martyr, sacrificing for others. People sometimes talk about a concern for the “Common Good” as if it were contradictory to a concern for “Our Own Personal Good.” But the two are not mutually exclusive, or at least, they don’t have to be.

We named the organization we founded in Cambodia “Protect the Earth. Protect Yourself.” (PEPY for short). The name alludes to the relationship between common and individual goods – the environment is a common good we need to protect in order to ensure our own safety. By protecting the earth, we are thereby protecting ourselves. Telling a Cambodian family to reduce pesticides to protect the common good of our global environment bears little weight if that family is struggling to feed its own children. When they learn that the poisons they are putting into the ground enter their water source and harm their children’s health, the issue becomes a much more compelling reason to do less environmental damage.

Similarly, working in a job where you are helping others can also be a self-serving choice – not just in the general sense of “making the world a better place,” but also in a way that more directly benefits yourself. In my opinion, the best joys you can receive in life come from helping others to succeed and reach their own potential. That is my aim through my job, not only because it is good for the world, but also because it is good for ME. My favorite quote is by Harold Thurman and it says:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and then go out and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Doing a job that you love is indeed like coming alive, like entering Narnia, like turning on a switch that makes you wake up in the morning eager to be part of a day spent creating something in which you believe. There is no substitute for loving what you do – you can’t fake it, to the world or to yourself. Do you wake up eager to begin the day, itching to make change and move forward, or secretly wishing for a snow day? By doing what makes you come alive, and finding ways to spread that passion you have for your work, you are adding to the common good: there is nothing more motivating than seeing someone come alive.

The organization I run has a branch offering educational, adventure, and service-learning tours, and recently I have been approached by a few people who are interested in entering this business sector. They typically start by asking about the business model and wondering how they can increase their income from tours, and my advice is always to focus on impact over income. If we continue to hold income as the measuring stick for success with and as the aim of our companies, we will continue to breed more transparency-resistant and contagious strains of damaging business models. If, instead, we hold impact as our gold standard and strive to be the best at what we do, there is no question that income will follow. In a world where “green initiatives” and “CSR” are becoming marketing techniques, we spend too much time trying to “craft our story” and describe our impact and not nearly enough time accomplishing it. Once again, there is no substitute for doing good: if you are working towards it, others will see that and follow along.

Let’s do what we love and focus on doing it the best way that we can – the people, the funds, and the addition to the common good will indeed follow.