January 13, 2013 10:51 A.M.
The last few days got away from me. I spent four days in an OPRECY training, the
premier training offered through Bopha’s organization. Bopha was excited that I
was able to attend this particular session, as it was led in English (I'm only up to about 5 words in Khmer) by
Cristopher Lee, the founder of the Human-Earth Development Center (HEDC). Cristopher is in his late 60’s, an Australian
citizen of Indonesian and Chinese heritage, who has lived and worked in
Cambodia for much of the last 16 years. He spent 34 years working on the
technical side of community development in developing countries. His specialty
is in fisheries, and trained rice farmers, who he said all over the world are poor
farmers, to add value to their farms by
also raising fish. However, after years providing technical training he found
that most people did not change their behaviors. He came to the conclusion that "it is wrong to assume if you teach people to know, they will do what
they know." He started HEDC in 1999 to build
leadership capacity through personal empowerment. His vision is global, but his
approach is individual. HEDC works to awaken the individual’s sense of purpose
and meaning, their fundamental love of life, in order to help free them from the
self-limiting thinking that holds so many people back from achieving their
goals, or even setting goals.
Christopher talked about the way that the scarcity and
danger become an operating system for so many people – their every decision is
filtered through the belief that inevitably the world is not safe and there
will not be enough. And while the message he delivers is that all people were
born to succeed – the truth remains that for many people in Cambodia, and all
over the world, resources are
limited and conditions are unsafe.
People are picked up every day here for being perceived as a threat to the
government. Three times in two days Olivia’s driver was forced to pay bribes to law enforcement. Children attend schools where teachers are paid $30 a month – ½
the salary of a garment worker, who make poverty wages – and the way many teachers
survive is to charge a “fee” for grades. The hundreds of begging amputees I
have seen in this short time are testament to the landmines that still litter
the country side. Every Cambodian is born to succeed- but if they do not, it is
not simply because they did not believe in themselves.
And, of course, I absolutely agree with the OPRECY model –
change is not possible unless we first believe it is possible.
I was struck by many things over the four days, but perhaps
most significant was an overwhelming awareness of the privilege of growing up positioned
in a social location where my safety was assured in my home, my neighborhood,
my state and my country . Where there was never a question that my basic needs
be met. Where a sense of agency – of my ability to dream and achieve - was
instilled early and reinforced often. And
this experience sharpens my purpose,
to continue to build communities in my own country where this is increasingly
true for all.
Mudhita, Bopha's youngest, playing with a stem.
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