Dear Friends of DDD,

While we had a close call, I am relieved to let you know that all of DDD’s 428 employees in Cambodia are safe after the recent stampede. We are thankful to our local management team who were able to contact all but 5 of our staff within 12 hours of the event. The final 5 were accounted for the next morning when DDD’s offices re-opened after the water festival holiday. Our team in Asia was touched by our friends around the world who expressed concern about Cambodia and DDD’s staff in particular. We are sad to be mourning the loss of so many in Cambodia.

DDD pitched at the SE Asia Symposium in Bangkok last week!

Challenge: To break the cycle of poverty for disadvantaged youth, who cannot afford education and therefore don’t have access to good employment.

Solution: To provide the training and education necessary to access the global marketplace and take advantage of the growth opportunities it presents.

Want to hear more?

Thankful for the safety of the DDD family

We are relieved to confirm that all of our DDD staff are safe after the tragedy in Phnom Penh.

Our thoughts are with Cambodia

We at DDD are devastated by the tragedy that took place last night in Phnom Penh.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Phnom Penh

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Cambodia earlier this week. On Monday, November 1st, she spoke at a Town Hall Meeting with Cambodian youth. Eight of DDD’s employees in Phnom Penh were invited to join the event.

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.

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.

Do we have to choose between impact and profits?

Much of the challenging dynamics faced by social enterprises center around the question of how profitability and impact relate.

DDD’s Other Graduates

To build capacity in Southeast Asia, we often call upon talent from abroad to mentor our managers. And in doing so, we’ve almost inadvertently created another corps of leaders: the league of volunteers, fellows and staff from the US, other parts of Asia, Australia and Europe that have passed through DDD’s doors. After shaping and being shaped by DDD, so many have “graduated” on but remained engaged in the world of social change.