Staff Profile: Chaiphet
Women in Laos generally experience a lower standard of living than men and suffer from gender disparities. They tend to work more, earn less, carry the primary responsibility for securing food for the family, and are scarcely recognized for their efforts. Fewer girls than boys are enrolled in school, and the proportion falls steadily as the level of education increases. You help us change this by supporting DDD.
DDD asks: “What’s next?”
It’s in large part thanks to you—the clients and supporters that make up the DDD family—that DDD has reached our current point of growth. We’ve trained more than 1,800 poor youth, employed more than 1,000, and graduated more than 400 of them to jobs where they make more than four times the average regional income. With recent sales successes under our belt, and with our productivity continuing to increase, DDD is fast reaching a point of, “what’s next?”. How do we continue to optimize our impact? This question prompted a planning initiative that has taken place over the last nine months.
Going Local
The majority of DDD’s business—more than 85%–comes from clients in the US and Europe. Importing demand and dollars from abroad contributes to economic growth in the countries in which we work. But as Cambodia and Laos grow, we are starting to see a shift toward more demand for DDD’s services in the local market.
World Statistics Day
Today, Wednesday October 20th, is the first ever World Statistics Day: a to-be annual event organized by the UN. The purpose of the day is to “acknowledge the service provided by the global statistical system at national and international level, and hope to help strengthen the awareness and trust of the public in official statistics.”
Battambang, Cambodia – Rice Paddies and IT hub?
When you walk around town, you’ll pass by grand colonial buildings and soon find yourself walking on a dirt road lined with small houses, mainly constructed from bamboo and thatched with palm leaves. At the same time, you’re just as likely to walk past IT and Communications colleges and glossy facades of international businesses.
The Weight of Young Responsibility
When describing the importance of the work that DDD does, one of the observations we’ve returned to several times here on the blog, is how the young Khmer and Lao people we have employed are characterized by working and studying hard. They take the opportunity and their responsibility very seriously at a young age.
News Highlights from Cambodia and Laos
Local news from Cambodia and Laos are not always the first to hit AP or Reuters, and therefore it can be hard for those outside the region to stay on top of the most recent developments. Naturally, we at DDD are always interested in, and often impacted by, political change and new business and philanthropic developments, so we follow the local news outlets closely. Below is a selection of the pieces that caught our eye in the past week.
