The end of my mission in Cambodia

As part of a steering committee within the Econocom group to assist Passerelles numériques, I have been in Cambodia for the last two weeks to volunteer and bring value in the fund raising business model of PN. During these two weeks I have coached local managers on their commercial skills and strategy and helped the sales team to increase efficiency in their local fund raising activity.

This mission has been of a strong interest to me and from the feedback I’ve received from PN Cambodia I know that this feeling is shared. As a first time being in Asia and a first time working with an NGO, I have been pleased to notice the possible bridges between private and non-profit organizations.

I would like to emphasise the fact that, before departure, I have been very well supported (both on content and logistic) by the PN team in Paris and was warmly welcomed by the local staff and students. If you add this to the natural friendly behaviour of Cambodian people towards
                                   foreigners, it makes this mission an unforgettable experience to me.

The main achievement of this mission is that the PN scholarship is turning into an offer for their local companies; that PN Cambodia can deliver added value to the local businesses and can sell it. The first steps in this direction have already been taken by the design of the scholarship offer, my mission has mainly been focused around the commercial skills and the changes for the commercial department organization to be taken.

After having made some company visits, I am positively surprised by the booming market of Cambodia. I am convinced that Passerelles numériques will benefit from this situation and become one of its main IT related NGO players.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Passerelles numériques in general for opening the organization to external people and give them the room to contribute. And of course a warm thank you to the staff and students of PN Cambodia without forgetting the Econocom people involved in this mission for their appreciated support.

Finishing the mission, I have the strong feeling that this is only the beginning of a long story...

From Charity to Investment

In business I have noticed that it’s quite a common belief that the opportunities of collaborating with non-profit organizations is seen as a one way direction: the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) ask private companies for funds, so they can achieve their mission in the field. And these companies usually provide them those funds in order to reach their Corporate Social Responsibility goals. According to this vision, it’s quite obvious that NGOs are often seen as in a pleading position.

What people do not know is that – and even more often than believed - NGOs can offer a varied range of services and benefits to the private sector. The programme ‘PN Scholarship’ designed by Passerelles numériques is a
                                             meaningful example of a fundraising strategy, that is mutually worthwhile for
                                             both NGOs and their collaborating companies.

The mechanism is simple: the company supports one or more students by paying 25% of their study fees during their training (2 years). Thanks to this contribution, the company will automatically profit from benefits such as;

• a 4-month internship(s) at the end of courses (free of allowance),
• an annual report on social impact indicators,
• interns and employed students’ performance follow-up via PN’s tutorship programme.

Moreover, in the Cambodia fast-growing and changing market, where one of the main concerns of companies is the continued employees turnover, PN ensures a minimum of 12 months loyalty from the recruited students and refunds 50% of the scholarship if these terms are not respected.

“From charity to investment”, as part of PN’s Company department mission, is to promote this new approach.

During my stay in Phnom Penh, I have the opportunity to work with the ‘Enterprise Relation Department’ and more closely with Saroem Run, who works as a Project Manager at PN Cambodia. Acting as a sales man for the NGO, Saroem’s main goal is to create new partnerships with IT related companies through the ‘PN Cambodia Scholarship’ program.

Spreading the idea of a fundraising strategy, that can turn out in a convenient investment for companies, is a daily and ambitious challenge for Saroem. Especially in a country like Cambodia, where the idea of Social Responsibility is still quite unknown in the local market. However, I am convinced that this creative approach will bring success and enables PN Cambodia to switch to new ways of raising funds!

How to select the most potential students?

Last week one of my meetings was an introduction to the Passerelles numériques' internship team and they explained to me how the PN students selection process works. This selection process entails many phases.  It starts with the information sessions, held in many high-schools all over the country, to inform potential candidates about the scholarship opportunities offered by PN. After this comes the written exams – designed to test the student’s abilities in English, logic and mathematics. The exams are followed by the student interviews, used to verify potential students’ motivations.  The process ends with social investigations, to ensure that only students
from very disadvantaged contexts are admitted. 

Keyfigures:

• This year the selection procedure took place in 18 provinces,
• 7000 students attended the information sessions,
• 1781 followed the written exam,
• 950 have met our selection team to prove their motivation.

Just at this time, PN is running the social investigations. Their team is visiting 656 families. The aim of these investigations is to verify if the students position matches the PN’s financial criteria. They gather information concerning the number of the family’s members, the parents’ job – if they work – and salary, any debts, the goods they own, their health conditions, and their motivation. Basically, all information concerning the family living conditions are taken into account to make the final choice. Finally, on the basis of their knowledge of the English language, general skills and motivation, 200 students will be selected to enroll at PN Cambodia.

Mr. Thaina Seang, selection manager of PN said to me: "The selection process is quite complex and definitely one of the most challenging phases of Passerelles numériques job. The most difficult part for the selection team are the social investigations: every year we have to meet about 600 families on average in 4 months. They often live in landlocked villages, very difficult to reach by public transports. We leave Phnom Penh by motorbike and we often face rain and mud, especially during the rainy season when racetracks are pretty impracticable. In spite of these difficulties, our staff works with high motivation to achieve our goal in time”.

5 Cultural facts about Cambodia

1. Family first
Family is the heart of the Cambodian social life. A Cambodian will only trust the closest members of their family (relatives). Of course they also have friends, but these friendships have a more superficial character. With friends they drink a beer or have dinner, but it’s not likely that they will share or discuss their difficulties in life. That is only done with the immediate family.

2. Kindness without a birthday cake
Visitors praise the kindness and the smiles of the Cambodians. It’s easy to make contact and they are open to foreign influences. In that respect Cambodians are more open than many other Asian cultures. Unlike most other cultures, Cambodians do not celebrate birthdays. In fact, many older people may not even know the exact date of their birth.

3. A manifestation of greatness
The Cambodian art has barely survived the Khmer Rouge period. As artists and intellectuals were a target for the Khmer Rouge, almost all artefacts were destroyed. That the temple ruins of  Angkor still exist, is due to the fact that the Khmer Rouge considered temples as a manifestation of greatness of the Khmer People. Besides the sculptures and carvings, you’ll retrieve the Khmer culture especially in music and dance. The traditional dance is called ‘Apsaras’.

4. The Khmer language
The Cambodian language is special. Although the writing is very similar to Thai and the language also has some words in common, Khmer and Thai cannot understand each other. Which is peculiar, because Khmer and Thai have a common origin: the Indian languages ​​Sanskrit and Pali. Khmer can’t be categorized as a so-called tone language, where the tone indicates the meaning of a word, such as Thai, Vietnamese and Laotian. The letters of the Cambodia alfabet are often called ´noodles´, because of the way they look.

5. Good food and other ‘delicacies’
A famous national dish is Amok: fish steamed in a curry, traditionally served in a banana leaf basket. Besides the many delicious dishes, there are some "snacks" that we consider - to put it mildly - strange. Some Cambodians eat fried grasshoppers or other insects like spiders and crickets. And a pigs ear is considered a "delicacy", which is often served at weddings.

Click here for the recipe for Amok on Gordon Ramsay’s ‘great escape recipes’ website

How to make the best possible use of a gift

In March 2010 Econocom offered Passerelles numériques (PN) a new 25-seat truck. Since that day they have been using this convenient gift in many different ways:
When students arrive. About 90% of students of Passerelles numériques’ students come from the countryside of Cambodia. At the beginning of their 1st year at school they move to Phnom Penh. On their first day they arrive at the train station, usually accompanied by their parents or other members of their family.

In general they carry quite light luggage with some personal items (basically a few clothes and the national scholar uniform). However, some of them also bring a sack, 10 to 20 kilos of rice [1]  that they are going to use all along the year [2]. They use the truck to transfer students, families and of course the rice to the school for this orientation day.

Integration Days. At the beginning of the new school year, PN organizes the ‘Integration Days’ for new enrolled students. During these 2 or 3 days students have the opportunity to introduce themselves and to meet the other students. This is also the occasion for them to become familiar with PN’s center rules and to meet some of PN’s staff and alumni. The ‘Integration Days’ also include a visit of some of the main places of interest in Phnom Penh (as most of students have never visited the capital before): the truck comes in handy in these occasions as well!

Company visits. The ‘Econocom’-truck is also very useful during the ‘Company visits’. One of the main concerns of PN is to get students ready to face up to the responsibilities and the commitment demanded in a working environment. Helping them to better understand what a ‘working environment’ is in view of their internship, they organize some visits of local and/or international companies based in Phnom Penh.

Every year PN organizes 11 visits for each class.

Cultural visits. Passerelles numériques regularly organizes some special visits for its students (often conducted by our History and Geography teachers) to the Royal Palace, the Independence Monument, the National Museum, the Museum of Genocide, etc.

Helping a partner. Passerelles numériques also lends the truck to its partner ‘Enfants du Mékong’. They basically use it during cultural visits for their students.

[1] Cambodians eat rice at almost every meal, either steamed, fried or as noodles. Rice flour is a useful ingredient in cakes and pastries. Rice is so important to Cambodians that they have over 100 words for it in their language. Most people eat it several times a day. For poor families, rice may be their only food most days, and an adult might eat as much as four cups at one meal. Cambodians have been growing rice for over 2000 years. Source: http://cambodia.worldvision.org.nz

[2] The average person in Cambodia eats about 160 kg of rice each year. Source: http://www.rice.ws

First day at work with Passerelles numériques

Monday was my first day at work in Cambodia. I visited the first school Passerelles numériques (PN) created in order to help disadvantaged students by getting access to a high level of education, and finding qualified employment. I’ve been friendly welcomed by the complete staff and students. The school building, located in Phnom Penh and built in 2005, is well situated, it has good facilities and offers the students a very good studying environment.

The training program of PN has been designed to provide students a set of professional skills, specific technical IT skills and they teach them to speak English fluently. The program is constantly updated to meet the growing needs of a constantly changing market.

I also had my first meetings with the fund raising-, internship- and job placement team. After graduating, the students can still count on Passerelles numériques support, thanks to this job placement service. I find it amazing that all students find a job within 3 months after graduating. Since 2005, 607 Cambodian students have graduated from this training center, from whom 358 completed a 2-year training program as IT technician. Now that’s what I consider a job well done!

My calendar for this week is scheduled, I will be mixing sales training's with brain storming sessions and also have some interesting visits to prospects planned. I am looking forward to it!

From left to right: Sopheak, Saroem, myself, also Sopheak (the same name is used for a male and female) and Channita.

Traveling to and arriving in Cambodia

“Flight MH017 to Kuala Lumpur is ready for take-off”. After all the necessary preparations during the last couple of months, my Cambodian adventure, volunteering for Passerelles numériques, has now actually begun. After saying goodbye to my family and friends, I first travelled in approximately 12 hours to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, which was recently renewed and is now one of the biggest airports of the world. After that I flew for another 2 hours straight to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Both flights with Malaysia Airlines were good, they served tasteful food, the crew was dedicated and my seats were comfortable. Their large choice of video entertainment on board helped me through time.

After my arrival on Phnom Penh International Airport, I was warmly welcomed by Mr. Pierre de Roquefeuil, who is general manager of the Passerelles numériques organization in Cambodia. He personally transferred me to my hotel where I unpacked and accommodated for a little while. Flying first ahead and then backwards in time caused a bit of disoriented feeling with time in general and my bio-rhythm, but I’m sure this will pass in a few days.

In the afternoon I went for a tour in the city center of Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia with over 1.3 million citizens. Besides the warmth (which of course is a huge change from the somewhat disappointing temperatures of the current Dutch summer), I noticed that the streets are very crowded. It’s almost impossible to cross the main boulevard of Phnom Penh as a pedestrian; there are motorbikes and cars everywhere. I also immediately noticed the big difference in life standards; a brand new big Range Rover is driving just beside a very old Tuk Tuk.


I took some pictures and created a short video to share with you my first impressions of a regular Sunday afternoon in Phnom Penh; the  traffic, the Royal Palace, a group of Buddhist monks and the ferry crossing the “Tonlé Sap” river.


Click here to view my photo-album.

The Cambodian people are indeed, like I was told upfront,  very friendly, cheerful and open for conversation. They smile easily and are making me feel welcome right from the start.