Playing soccer in Laos
It’s 5:30 AM… why am I doing this? I ask myself this question every day on my way to work. So often I wonder if I made the right decision taking this job 8,000 miles from home. Sure, my work involves my passion,–soccer, or “tae bahn” as it is known here–and sure, I interact with wonderfully pleasant Laotians who enrich my life in countless ways, but getting up before 5am every day sometimes seem like a sacrifice that outweighs every possible redeeming factor.
Key Furniture: None
I am sitting on the back of a motorbike in central Laos. It is 95 degrees, the sun is blazing down from above, and the fine red dust adamantly finds its way into every possible crevice. We have just turned down another dirt road when we encounter our first flat tire of the day. Fortunately, there is a repair shop just a short walk away, and while a Laotian mother squats to fix our tire, we talk about why we are out here.
A Generation of Change: Chhavy’s story (Correction Included)
Like most of our employees in Cambodia, Chhavy is a daughter of the post-genocide era in Phnom Penh. She graduated from DDD earlier this year and now works to improve the future of some of Cambodia’s least fortunate children, and she dreams about starting her own business.
Opening Space Empowers Staff to Talk about How We Work
At our annual management retreat, Open Space gave our managers the opportunity to raise concerns and make suggestions about how DDD can improve how we do business and better achieve our social mission. The chance to speak up to propose topics, to talk with peers about the issues that concern them most, and to report back to the full group was enormously empowering, and inspired all of us to action.
Experiential Learning in Hong Kong
While I was still in Thailand for the Global Social Venture Symposium, I told Mai Siriphongpanh, our COO in DDD, about my experience as a guest speaker at the Symposium. She congratulated me on my achievement, as she knew that I was really not comfortable with public speaking. Then she told me that she had a new challenge for me: To represent Laos and DDD at the GIFT Institute’s Young Leadership Program in Hong Kong.
Coming Back To Cambodia
While growing up in France, my elementary school friends and I always dreamed of going back to Cambodia one day to help my parents’ motherland. When I first learned about DDD four years ago from a BBC article, I was awed by the social impact of the organization. I immediately contacted the CEO Jeremy Hockenstein to ask how I, of Cambodia origins, could best utilize my skills to help Cambodia.
Celebrating the Cambodian Diaspora Through Remembering …
Socheata was born in a Thai refugee camp to Cambodian parents who fled the Khmer Rouge. She was 22 when her parents revealed to her that her older sisters were in fact her first cousins (whose parents perished under Pol Pot). Her older brother was actually her half brother – a child who survived her mother’s murdered first husband.
Please Meet Odai, Thipkesone, Thongsouk and Addy
Odai, Thipkesone, Thongsouk, and Addy work as data-entry operators in our office in Vientiane, Laos. I asked them about their lives before and after they joined DDD.
Volunteers – Are They Really Of Any Use At All?
Every year, a myriad of expats come to Southeast Asia to volunteer for NGOs or social enterprises. They settle down in a country far from home, where they come to accept geckos as housemates, they get used to sore stomachs, and they discover the real value of Skype. They bring valuable skills and knowledge with them. But they don’t stay.
DDD Battambang Has A New Office
On the first day in the new office building, April 5, 2010, there were 110 people working there. It was a very exciting moment to see everyone working together in a larger and more widely accessible office environment. Our management – from the General Manager to team leaders – all began as data entry operators and worked hard to develop a stronger team and expand our program to accommodate more disadvantaged people in Battambang and elsewhere in Cambodia.
