dispatches from the new world of work

A Passion for Change

This evening my organization, Clear Path International, was an invited guest of the McKnight Foundation at a dinner party for non-governmental organizations funded by McKnight and working in Cambodia. The room was filled with so many people working in their passions, that it is hard to remember which of my conversations with which program director was more inspiring. The director of medical education at the Angkor Hospital for Children? The program director of World Education? The country director of Cambodia Family Development Services? These good (and smart as hell) people are largely westerners whose passions (and an admitted hunger for adventure) have led them to a life well beyond their borders. All of us this evening were charged up by each other's commitment to our causes.

I am regularly inspired most, though, by my dear friend and colleague, Doeur Sarath. Executive Director of Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development (CVCD), Sarath (SAR-ROT) was four years old when he last saw his father, chained to a horse cart to be hauled off and killed by the Khmer Rouge. Sarath himself was a soldier as soon as he was strong enough to carry a gun.

Today, Sarath's army is a volunteer force of teachers in much needed literacy programs and vocational skills training courses in Phnom Penh and well into the rural reaches of Cambodia. They currently have classes teaching over 600 people of all ages how to read and write and have assisted 150 landmine survivors in adapting new skills after their accidents (yesterday I was recruited for a brief English class, my 'students' included three saffron robed Buddhist monks).

Sarath is well aware of the challenges facing Cambodians, but his eyes light up when he tells me of his program ideas and new, creative sources of funding ... just one example is CVCD, in partnership with my organization, is selling rice ... currently 30 tons a month... and putting the profits back into our joint programs to help build sustainability.

Tom often says passion trumps ambition; my friend Sarath has both in spades.

James Hathaway posted this on 02/08/05.

Comments

Let me introduce James Hathaway. You may have seen him in our comments before. Now he's on our front page, by Tom's invitation. He's traveling in Asia, and we're really looking forward to getting his observations here firsthand. Though you can visit his blog, too: http://www.cpi.org/cpiblog/

Welcome, James!

Posted by cathy at February 8, 2005 4:14 PM

Excellent work, James. We will hear your words with enthusiasm.

Posted by felix gerena at February 8, 2005 4:41 PM

Cathy & Tom- Thank you so much for the welcome and such a great forum.

Felix- Thank you for the kind words. This should be a great trip.

James

Posted by James Hathaway at February 8, 2005 6:53 PM

James/Jamie is an old pal. He is up to something Great. I am flattered that we can induce him to Blog here! It's why I love Blogging! We all need--desparately--to Learn & Grow & be Challenged!

Posted by tom peters at February 8, 2005 10:28 PM

Hello, my name is Doeur Sarath, CVCD executive director. Refering to the message of James I am really appreciated to what he mentioned. He is like a stereo recorder what I spoke to him he caught well as in his message. I would like to add CVCD is establihsed in 1992 by Mr. Petter Pond and his foster son, Arn Chorn Pond. At the moment CVCD is working with grassroot people in squatter communities in Phnom Penh and provinces: Kampong Cham and Takeo. In Phnom Penh CVCD is working to offer non-formal education classes to 600 children, aged from 6 to 14 yaears old, offer sewing skill to 40 vulnerable women, offer English /Computer literacy to around 400 poor young adults, in Kampong Cham CVCD offers vocational skill training: Mechanics, Electronics, and Sewing to 105 people with disability from landmine/UXO accidents and in Takeo province CVCD offers English classes and Social Morality/Peace Building trained by the buddhist monks to 170 young adults, aged from 14 to 24.

CVCD also has environmental awareness, HIV, Birth Control education to integrate in classes of CVCD. CVCD also offers on the job-training skills to undergraduated students and gradcated students who are interested in working with CVCD. CVCD hosts volunteers form abroad to share and exchange experiences between local volunteers and foreign volunteers. For more details visit our website www.cvcd.org.

Thank you for highly attention,

Doeur Sarath
CVCD

Posted by Sarath at February 9, 2005 10:47 PM