Energy & Fuel
Savong School is located in Bakong District, part of Siem Reap province which despite the tourism boom based around Angkor Wat remains the second poorest province out of 24 in all Cambodia.
What do they use for lighting and cooking? In the west we take household energy for granted, that‟s for sure. Electricity is there at the flick of a switch. It is relatively cheap. But in rural Cambodia the fuel and energy needed for cooking, lighting or other household appliances is a really expensive component of the household budget.
The figures for household lighting tell some of the story. In Cambodia, outside the cities, just 8% of home lighting is powered from the national grid. By contrast 17% is battery powered—and a typical system is for a village to have one businessperson making a living by charging car batteries and for households to swap charged batteries for their discharged batteries, for a dollar or two.
Meanwhile 70% of households use kerosene lamps for lighting.
Cooking is the big user of fuel however, and in Siem Reap 93% of households use firewood for cooking. A small percentage use charcoal. This is expensive, and increasingly so, and wood is going to be in increasingly short supply in years to come.
Vietnam has faced a similar crisis and one increasingly used option is the development of bio-gas generators, using animal manure. Tens of thousands of these units—cess pits with a domed „collector‟ have been installed successfully. So far there does not appear to be a similar program in Cambodia. Another solution is to install wood stoves with a much more efficient design - and again, initiatives along this line are apparent in Africa, but not so far in Cambodia.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Short Takes
Power to the children. Many thanks to fund raising efforts from a Singapore school, the SOC now has a solar converter installed. These are extremely useful in Cambodia—turning bounteous sunshine into 12v electricity via batteries which are used to power TV sets, radios, or charge up laptops and mo-bile phones. No-tech to Hi-tech in one single jump.
Fish and Chicken. Meanwhile with the second fishpond com-pleted, also courtesy of the Singapore students, the next step is a chicken farm. A Tasmanian community (Newstead College) has raised money for this project which again enhances the capacity for the SOC to be more self-sufficient in terms of food. Work on the fencing begins in early January.
Communication improvements. We‟re getting more systematic with communications and while this newsletter will continue—out every couple of months, sponsors of children at SOC will get quarterly statements giving progress on each child. Elsewhere, to facilitate a smoother volunteer experience and avoid peak-time clashes, we‟ve added a Volunteer Bookings Calendar to the web-site so you can check ahead.
Fish and Chicken. Meanwhile with the second fishpond com-pleted, also courtesy of the Singapore students, the next step is a chicken farm. A Tasmanian community (Newstead College) has raised money for this project which again enhances the capacity for the SOC to be more self-sufficient in terms of food. Work on the fencing begins in early January.
Communication improvements. We‟re getting more systematic with communications and while this newsletter will continue—out every couple of months, sponsors of children at SOC will get quarterly statements giving progress on each child. Elsewhere, to facilitate a smoother volunteer experience and avoid peak-time clashes, we‟ve added a Volunteer Bookings Calendar to the web-site so you can check ahead.
Letter from Duncan
The zone around Siem Reap and Angkor Wat is largely gov-erned by a regional authority: the Apsara Authority and until recently it has taken a fairly hands-off approach to such issues as building permits. Where in the UK, USA or here in my little country - New Zealand - it might take weeks or even months to get permission to build a house or even make additions, in Siem Reap we‟ve experienced no such hassle. The school went up with scarcely any intervention, and so did the library and the SOC buildings.
But this year the Apsara authority has been flexing its muscle. One of its mandates is to ensure that the traditional character of the region is being preserved and this causes real difficulties for locals. If you want to build a new rural house, then in theory it has be traditional in style—made of native hardwoods and con-structed on stilts. Of course there‟s another law which says you are not allow to fell traditional hardwood timbers, and the pen-alty for getting caught is extremely steep. You are fined, your timber is confiscated and if its on a truck, then the truck is con-fiscated as well. So herein lies the riddle: how do the people of Siem Reap region make progress?
This year Savong encountered the problem three times. The first was during the construction of the medical centre when the authority delayed the work unexpectedly. Four weeks ago dur-ing the rainy season, Savong decided to put in a few concrete slabs as raised paving so the kids could avoid getting muddy. Again the authority came in and halted progress: this time de-manding that all concrete and bricks be removed or else these would be confiscated. It took a meeting between Savong, the Authority and the local police to come to a suitable agreement. Most recently, plans to build the fence for the new chicken run have had to be modified. Fences are usually started with a base layer of bricks to stop sand and soil erosion—but not this time: the Authority has deemed that the fence have no brickwork.
While Savong finds these things frustrating, I‟m glad at these times that he‟s there to navi-gate the problems and find solutions. This is where overseas-run NGOs can sometimes run into real grief—tangling with a changing bureaucratic landscape.
There are other difficulties in the neighbourhood from time to time, and these are not bureaucratic. Last week a small group of unemployed boys—they‟re referred to as gangsters—were har-assing students as they spilled out into the night-time after class. One evening a fight broke out, with these boys attacking some of the students.
The teachers were quickly onto the scene, Sopheak phoning the police who have an office just a few hundred metres away. They broke up the fight and at three of the gangsters was later apprehended.
Now here comes the tricky part. What would you do? On Savong‟s say-so the police offered to send the gangsters to jail for a year. (Justice, such as it is, is swift in Cambodia.) It would be Savong‟s decision the police said.
I spoke to Savong about this decision and he wasn‟t sure what to do—to offer some kind of restorative solution or to take a hard line. He told me: “Whatever I do, it must be seen by my students to be the right thing.” So on that basis he went to dis-cuss the options with the students who were affected.
In the end Savong met up with the gangsters and their families at the police station and in light of their ages (around 20, 21) Savong gave the offenders a second chance even while the po-liceman (whom I‟ve met—a genial man) played “bad cop” and urged jail. The meeting had its effect, and we frankly doubt if the gangsters will be trouble again. Again, Savong was adept at navigating the local system.
But this year the Apsara authority has been flexing its muscle. One of its mandates is to ensure that the traditional character of the region is being preserved and this causes real difficulties for locals. If you want to build a new rural house, then in theory it has be traditional in style—made of native hardwoods and con-structed on stilts. Of course there‟s another law which says you are not allow to fell traditional hardwood timbers, and the pen-alty for getting caught is extremely steep. You are fined, your timber is confiscated and if its on a truck, then the truck is con-fiscated as well. So herein lies the riddle: how do the people of Siem Reap region make progress?
This year Savong encountered the problem three times. The first was during the construction of the medical centre when the authority delayed the work unexpectedly. Four weeks ago dur-ing the rainy season, Savong decided to put in a few concrete slabs as raised paving so the kids could avoid getting muddy. Again the authority came in and halted progress: this time de-manding that all concrete and bricks be removed or else these would be confiscated. It took a meeting between Savong, the Authority and the local police to come to a suitable agreement. Most recently, plans to build the fence for the new chicken run have had to be modified. Fences are usually started with a base layer of bricks to stop sand and soil erosion—but not this time: the Authority has deemed that the fence have no brickwork.
While Savong finds these things frustrating, I‟m glad at these times that he‟s there to navi-gate the problems and find solutions. This is where overseas-run NGOs can sometimes run into real grief—tangling with a changing bureaucratic landscape.
There are other difficulties in the neighbourhood from time to time, and these are not bureaucratic. Last week a small group of unemployed boys—they‟re referred to as gangsters—were har-assing students as they spilled out into the night-time after class. One evening a fight broke out, with these boys attacking some of the students.
The teachers were quickly onto the scene, Sopheak phoning the police who have an office just a few hundred metres away. They broke up the fight and at three of the gangsters was later apprehended.
Now here comes the tricky part. What would you do? On Savong‟s say-so the police offered to send the gangsters to jail for a year. (Justice, such as it is, is swift in Cambodia.) It would be Savong‟s decision the police said.
I spoke to Savong about this decision and he wasn‟t sure what to do—to offer some kind of restorative solution or to take a hard line. He told me: “Whatever I do, it must be seen by my students to be the right thing.” So on that basis he went to dis-cuss the options with the students who were affected.
In the end Savong met up with the gangsters and their families at the police station and in light of their ages (around 20, 21) Savong gave the offenders a second chance even while the po-liceman (whom I‟ve met—a genial man) played “bad cop” and urged jail. The meeting had its effect, and we frankly doubt if the gangsters will be trouble again. Again, Savong was adept at navigating the local system.
Savong's School Round Up 2010
All the following articles/posts can be found on the main website (Savong) and have been lovingly crafted by Duncan, our amiable Kiwi pal who continues to burn the candle at both ends with full time work and helping enormously with the school/orphanage. See you in Siem Reap in April/May of 2011, mate, first round is on us.
Well, 2010 is all wrapped up and it has been a monumental year for Savong‟s project. During the last 12 months the school has experienced record attendance, four senior stu-dents have been granted uni-versity scholarships, the num-ber of children in care of the Savong orphan Centre (SOC) has increased to 35, the SOC has a more sustainable food supply thanks to the new fish ponds and vegetable gardens, and the centre has introduced two community schemes—one in the form of sewing classes for local women, and the sec-ond in the form of a health clinic which provides free medical diagnosis and care for the local community.
The growth has been matched, mostly, by an expanding support base for the project with an increased number of volunteers and individual sponsors, as well as sig-nificant fund-raising initiatives in Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand—each making a timely difference.
All growth comes with a few pangs and two issues include Savong‟s sheer busy-ness (he‟s stretched too thin) and consequently inconsistent communication with arriving vol-unteers.
Another issue—increasing and fairly unhelpful pressure from the local Apsara authority who are placing real restrictions on new building, paving and fencing work.
Cha Senh, one of the boys at the SOC cools down at Kulen Mountains waterfalls. The children have been on a number of whole-day excursions this year and these greatly enrich their experience as a group.
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