Community Eateries Grant Report

8/9/2019 Community Eateries Grant Report

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2010SINGAPORE

MANAGEMENT

UNIVERSITY

THA SOTHUN

[COMMUNITY EATERIES GRANT

REPORT] This is Sothun, graduate in Business Management from Singapore Management University (SMU).

This article will run you through my brief biographical background and explain how it inspires me to

initiate and co-lead Project Aphireak. It also reflects on my striking learning experience that I had

never expected and how I really appreciate your giving me the chance to spearhead and successfully

carry out this meaningful project.

PROJECT APHIREAK

http://aphireak.wordpress.com/community-background/



INSPIRING, EMPOWERING…



A KAMPONG BOY.

I was born in the province of Kampong Cham, Cambodia, in 1985 in which

the cold-war-driven civil war in the country was still raging. I remembered

my family and the whole village would always pack up and leave the village

at around 2pm or 3pm everyday to avoid being raid by the Khmer Rouge

struggling fighters as my village was at the frontline of the battle. One of the

morning we came back to see that a big mortar had beautifully torn a big

hole in one of side of our concrete bungalow worker house left over from

the previous regime.

I lived in a family of four children, my mum a fish monger cum farmer and my

father a commune clerk. I was lucky enough that my father instilled the love

of study in me from young and I did it well up to my university. I lost some

inspirations and strengths at various points in time along the way, but I have

never forgotten that I would need to strive hard for the family.

When I was about 10 years old, my father ran away with his mistress leaving my mum alone to take

care of the four kids. It was not so sad when he left us because he hardly saw us either before then.

Probably we were just too small to ever feel the sadness although each one of us did cry the

moment he told us he was leaving. However, I think my mum at least felt a bit of relief thereafter as

she would not suffer any more violence or abuse from him; a relief from the most miserable

moments in life.

Unfortunately, the relief did not last any long

after all of us growing up a few years later and

needing more and more money to go to school.

My eldest brother stopped schooling at Primary

grade 2 while my second were forced to finish his

study at grade 7 to help out the family. I was

fortunate to have a few of my teachers and

neighbors convince my mum to strive to push me

up to her best efforts because I always achieved the first grades at school. Perhaps, it was also

because I didn’t have the charms or skills selling fish, pickles, deserts, snacks, lotto, or sugarcane

juice as my second brother did nor could I herd the cows or do farming like my eldest.

Everyone did their great jobs in keeping me out of their businesses and up in school. How I admired

my mum giving me that new bicycle in grade 11 and how I appreciated my brother giving me that

first-ever pair of popular Volentino leather sandals at grade 12 to go for the National Mathematic

Champion competition. It was love and encouragement. It was an inspiration and empowerment for

me. With that every little act of care, though explicit, I have the drive to dream and promise myself

how I can pay back all these uncountable debts.

Through time up to my university, the burden was getting heavier and tighter though I could save

quite a big sum of spending by staying with monks in a city pagoda. I was sometimes rethinking and

reconsidering if what I was doing was right or if I had been too selfish to keep it on. “Should I stop

Host family's grandson aka jungle boy

kenny (leader), Host's son Naroth, Tommi. I really like Naroth as he always smiles and

dreams too. He needs around US$500 to be a middle man to bring his village products to

sell in the market because it’s just too far and costly for individual farmers to do that.



here?” I always asked myself. Very many people in this country go jobless and crawl back home

despite having university degree, a waste of time and money. And a shame!

But it was those few other people who

influenced me personally and emotionally. I

overheard that there was this one gentlemanwho earned over US$500 just doing French

translation and interpretation. Later on I heard

that this other man earned over US$1000 after

working several years with an international

non-governmental organization. So my fantasy

changed over time from being a translator to a

nice manager of some organization. I then

heard that there was this nice countryside guy

winning a Japanese scholarship and coming back with so much a pride that he made almost US$2000

a month. Emm… “I’ve got to make it too” I was dreaming.

HOPES AND DREAMS!

The love. The encouragement. The inspiration. The drive. And the hope… I have them all. I must

achieve it. My dream… my bright future. And I would be able to pay back everyone. I want you all to

smile with hopes and dreams just like I do.

I nervously and wishfully went to search and apply for the first scholarship to Japan. I failed. I didn’t

make it even in the first round. But I came back to

the village to tell my mum, brothers and sister that I

should and I would get one. They were happy; of

course I was too. After two years of relentless

efforts picking up English, I finally made it through

all the three rounds. I was given the 4-year

scholarship award to Singapore to study in the

prestigious Singapore Management University.

Woohoo…

I must accept that I was not among the best or the

smartest of all the over 500 applicants, but I appreciated the interviewers giving me the chance. I

should have noted down their contacts so that I could personally thank them now. It means so much

to me and I think it is so to others as well; the chance… the empowerment.

In Singapore, the problems or rather challenges were even bigger. It took me at least two years to

catch up with others. There was so much pain and humiliation, but that only made me bigger,

stronger and bolder. I value all the time I have been spending here. I appreciate the opportunity and

the empowerment I receive here. For every year, I have been dreaming bigger and bigger and I have

always achieved at least an important milestone for myself that I can be proud of. And that I can

reinforce my belief, my value and my dreams: The Inspirations and The Empowerment.

Small little gifts from our own pockets that hopefully can inspire them to work hard.

This little half-faced chap on the right really followed us all days. On the last day, he

wrote me a letter that would enlight en me whenever I read it.



I BELIEVE..

I do what I believe in. I believe in helping the unfortunate. I believe in inspiring people to dream and

to strive for their dreams. I believe in empowering people to walk their dreams. And I believe I can do

it and I do it.

With CCD staff & local mgmt team Help in construction First Aid training

I came to Project Aphireak for the same motivation, the same belief, and the same agenda. Initially,

a few of my friends and I were discussing on leading another meaningful project before graduation.

We thought that we would have less time and less resource to do such things when starting work.

After a few recce trips personally and with my teammates, we finally decided on taking up this

pro ject to support the local initiative to improve their people’s living conditions and natural

conservations.

“Project Aphireak aims, through the eco-tourism development in the community, at creating new

income sources for the people of Konleng Phe village, Kampong Chhnang province, while at the same

time enhancing the sustainability of natural resources and wild lives.”

The main scopes of our project are fundraising for the construction of a

home-stay facility for visitors and training on business management and

natural conservation to the management team of the facility.

Yeah, it sounds very big and challenging. We discussed among ourselves

if we could achieve that vision or even just the few missions for this first

phase we planned. Personally I was reluctant and scared.

However, I was convinced by my teammate to take the lead. In fact, I

was also inspired meeting and talking to them, the villagers. I wasimpressed by how they struggle together to work through their various

problems with their limited knowledge and resources. I was driven to

think how I can possibly help them go on with their full energy to achieve

what they believe in.

I was convinced that to accomplish the vision we need to maintain the

people’s commitment and dedication and at least produce an important real outcome for them to

continue on. In other words, we need to inspire and empower them to pursue their dreams. And the

scopes of our work do just that, giving them and us some starting point to work on to meet the goals

Me & Kenny who convinced me about the

project. To my surprise, he told me how he

dream and plan to develop the village using a

creative business model.



together.

Time was running fast. We could no longer hang over and concern so much. The dream told us to

put our hands and feet together and work. Through small little things such as BBQ, sales of food and

snacks, accessories, clothing, and crafts, we managed to raise quite a handsome amount of money

but still to nowhere close to our budget. And that was how I learnt to value every little support fromothers and to give others supports – however little it is. Thanks to every one of our friends and little

men on the road, we could relieve ourselves not a little but a lot. Our sponsor City Development

Limited (CDL) was really kind to fill up the gap in the last minute and recharge our battery full for the

exciting and challenging work ahead in the village.

We have two main objectives in the village – firstly to share

with the management team of the homestay facility on

business management and natural resource conservation,

and secondly to assist our host organization to gather the

information for the marketing brochure.

Over the course of our own knowledge and researches, we

managed to share with them quite a bit on the two

subjects but we also learnt a great deal from them

especially on the natural resource management. What

really amazed me and all my teammates were the

experiences interacting with the locals there. I couldn’t

imagine how we bonded so well with them within just a

few days and felt so much fun and enriching. The planned daily workshop of 2 hours became all-day-

long class. Until late night there were still many kids and teens coming for English lessons. Over the

evening or lunch break, there were always locals to share with us their stories and experiences.

Besides, we learnt to do many new things… say planting rice, plugging and planting lotus, cooking

the various local dishes and special food delights such as the tasty sticky bamboo rice and many

yummy deserts. We couldn’t just remind ourselves that it wasn’t meant to be a fantastic holiday

resort. But the experience tickled us that our project would shine and we smiled and laughed

quietly.

Ni ht time En lish lessonsCookingteam

Cleaning team



I ACHIEVED.. As a team, we successfully carried out the missions of the project though we had a big challenge to

raise the funds much bigger than the typical ones. Personally, I also fulfilled my objectives and, to my

amaze, I achieved much more than I had expected.

Not only did I take part to give hopes to those

committed villagers, but I also learned and improved

myself on few various things. I learned to work better

as a team and as a leader. I learned more about myself

through self reflection and feedbacks from teammates.

My mindset has changed. I had probably given too

little attention or value to small little thing that I only

realized later how much it is worth as mentioned

earlier. I am so happy to have influenced these

few little kids to envision their future in hopes,which I myself never realized only until much

later age. I have, in my belief, inspired and

empowered many people and even myself over

the trip. And I am really very happy!

All the work and achievements my team and I made did also come from the encouragement and

empowerment from many other parties.

Firstly, our host organization Community Capacities for Development (CCD), www.ccdcambodia.org, is to be admired for their continuous efforts in strengthening and supporting community livelihood

initiatives and programmes and promoting the conservation of natural resources. Besides being the

backbone for the success of our project, the organisation did also provide invaluable lessons for us

all to learn from. The individual accounts of the founder and the organisation team personally

inspired me to a great extent. The whole team, I believe, was also greatly impacted. “They have been

fighting many hard ways for their life, and we commit suicide just because our GPA falls,” said one of

my teammate.

Secondly, our school Singapore Management University or SMU, www.smu.edu.sg, is to be credited

for its committed spirit to serve communities, and actively encourage and support, financially andemotionally, students to go out and explore their potentials to give back to the society while at the

Last group picture

Host as cook & her assistance

2 CCD staff, Bunnath and Socheat with me and Kenny

during recce trip

http://www.ccdcambodia.org/



http://www.smu.edu.sg/







same time improving their individual calibre. Personally I am proud of and

appreciate the opportunity to join the SMU community.

Lastly, I, on behalf of my whole team, would like to thank every one of our

friends, donors and sponsors who supports us in this exciting opportunity

to improve ourselves and help the community. Also I would like to deeplythank the sponsor of my community service grant who helped me

personally in the financial term so that I have the chance to reinforce my

value and to act on my belief. You have boosted my energy level and I am

now pursuing my dreams further with smiles and inspirations. ;-)

Mr Chhoern aka Peter Pan, village chief Mr Phon, our host Mdm Puch. Mr Peter Pan was the head of the community fishery committee,

one of the first few with CCD founder and director to fight against

the rich men, fishing-lot owners, who illegally claimed that they

owned everything as far as the water reached and that no villagers

were allowed to fish even in the water below their flooded house.

He has been advocate for human rights and communitydevelopment programmes and been invited to share his

experiences in seminars and talks and to mentor other

communities throughout the country as well as in many other

countries including Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, etc. His

life as of those other advocates was threatened from time to time

in many real shocking occasions including the surrounding of his

house by guards equipped with guns and rifles. His head was

widely known to be worth around US$2,000 if I remember

correctly. He has been accredited with many certificates and

awards hanging on one of side of his wall in acknowledgment of

his work and achievements. Yet, he still depends so much on his

farming and fishing that he needs to struggle just to send his

children for higher education in the local town of Kampong

Chhang.

Though poor and not so well educated, Mr Chhoern is a man of

respects and inspirations.

Mr Thoern, current head of the community

fishery community, playing sei (chatei). Mr

Thoern is admired for the contribution of a

piece of his land for the home-stay facility

location.

Fruit bat settlement. Thanks to Mr Choern and Mr Thoern and their whole committee, the

fruit bat settlement is now under c onservation. No one would be allowed to hunt and

disturb their sleep anymore.

Entrance to Roang Domrei (Elephant Shelter) conservation area, consisting of 5-hectare

lake, forest, and wild animal s. It is the fi rst achievement of their conservation work.



THANKS FOR THE INSPIRATIONS & EMPOWERMENT!

Symbol of my inspirations.

I’m Thab Soknet, 6th grade at Konleng Phe village, Kok Bonteay commune, Rolear Pha’ier

district, Kampong Chhnang. I will study hard like brothers and sisters to serve the country.Since you all came here, I love you very much because everyone of you is kind, gentle,

and friendly. When you go back, I’ll miss you all a lot. Lastly, I, Soknet, wish you all a

happy trip back home. Wish you all happiness. Thank you.

Konleng Phe, 19/12/09. Signature

Thab Soknet.

On the left is the letter from the boy I mentioned earlier. Below is the translation:

Documents

Community Eateries Grant Report