A new decade for a localized PEPY
Today PEPY got a makeover, one that is distinctly more Cambodian.
For the last year and a half the PEPY team in Cambodia and the board of directors of the US registered non-profit organization have been working on a plan to localize PEPY. Papers have been filed and approved with the Ministry of Interior to register a new local NGO, a new all-Cambodia-based board was formed and is now operating, new bank accounts have been opened, many MOUs and asset transfer agreements have been signed, contracts have been shifted from the old entity to the new one, a new logo was designed, and as of today, January 1, 2015, PEPY Empowering Youth, a new local NGO was launched.
This comes just a few days after our PEPY 10 Year anniversary. PEPY was named and our first website was made in December 2004. Last week we had a party to mark the launch of the new local NGO and celebrate 10 years of our work together, and over 100 people were in attendance including current staff and board members, former staff and volunteers, scholarship students, cyclists on the 10th annual PEPY Ride, and friends of the organization. PEPY’s university scholarship students designed and decorated the event and Kimline Nuch gave a presentation about the future of PEPY.
On the one hand, it feels like SO long ago that we first started planning an “educational bike ride across Cambodia” and named it PEPY. This was our first logo:
And our second:
And here was a logo we later made, when we were still in the habit of giving things away:
From the start, the many friends of PEPY around the world helped in designing, connecting, inspiring, and co-creating the organization, pushing us to learn more, plan more, and listen more. What we finally listened to were the voices, initially externally and increasingly internally, speaking to the power of local leadership. As we wrap up a decade with a board leadership team mostly made up of Americans, I’m eagerly anticipating the work and dynamics that this new local NGO will bring in the coming years.
Congratulations to Kimline Nuch and her team, as well as all the members of the PEPY team who spent many days in the depths of legalese (a language I aspire to never completely understand though I’m so glad we have team members who do). Your work has made this transition a smooth one. I plan to take more time in the coming weeks to share more about this transition, but for now, high-fives and thanks are in order all around.
You can read more about the transition here on our old website: http://pepycambodia.org/ or go straight to PEPY Empowering Youth’s new website http://pepyempoweringyouth.org/ (content still being updated in the coming month).