Open Space - Cambodia - Street Children - Version 2 suitably inserted - long(ish)

Mon Aug 14 18:56:08 PDT 2006

Dear Nigel,

I am so deeply, deeply touched by your story.  There are tears in my eyes as I type.  What incredible vision you have.  What courageous action you have taken.

I am sending this to Andres Agudelo, with whom I worked in Colombia, so that he can share it with the people with whom we worked.  

humbled and honored,
Peggy

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NigelSeys-Phillips 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 3:10 AM
  Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Open Space - Cambodia - Street Children - Version 2 suitably inserted - long(ish)

  It's now upside down but hopefully still makes sense??

  See lower down if required!

  "A Better Future for Us - The Issues and Opportunities"

  Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

  As part of the World Bank's Asian initiative to communicate and connect with marginalized and minority groups, and in conjunction with the 2006 Annual Meeting being held in Singapore this September, a programme of Open Space meetings has been instigated from the Singapore regional office.

  Using Open Space, and inspired by Peggy Holman's piece from Columbia where she worked so successfully with 2000 street children, we have explored the opportunity of working with street children across Asia to really understand what is important for their future.

  The programme kicked off in Papua New Guinea where the indomitable Father Brian Bainbridge led a group of some 100 children and young adults

  My contribution to date - an amazing (to me!!) meeting in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, with some 150 street children.but with a difference.

  The children had all come from the horrendous circumstances of working for a living on the Phnom Penh city garbage dump - a literal mountain of fetid rubbish where garbage trucks arrive every few minutes to dump their waste directly onto this pile. The children made a living scrabbling for anything sellable the moment the back was opened, running in front of the bulldozer set to plough it down. Plastic, material, glass, food - anything sellable that might make them up to US$1 per day if they were truly lucky

  Taken in by an astounding NGO "Pour Un Sourire D'Enfant" they now work at school six days a week. They are fed three simple nutritious meals a day, given uniforms and books, and educated towards a career and a productive life. The vocational side of the school has a restaurant (teaches cooking but cooks all the meals) a laundry (teaching skills for housekeeping jobs) a child care centre, a sewing school (who also make the uniforms) a gardening section (who beautify the grounds) a hairdressing school, a bakery (where everybody gets delicious fresh French bread during the day) and a new mechanical school (which will ultimately maintain their vehicles). The school has about 750 children on the vocational side and almost 2000 on the general education side - and almost every single child graduating with vocational qualifications goes into a job and has the opportunity to break the grinding cycle of permanent poverty.

  Their parents are "paid" in rice for every day they are in school - without this they could not afford to let the children go to school because one less pair of working hands means one less income opportunity, which is not something they can even think about sparing.

  Open Space proved (to me for the very first time as facilitator, which is about as far away from a personal comfort zone that you could possibly get, I think, but then I was "created" in Open Space by Father Brian and Viv Walters - to whom I will be eternally grateful) its power yet again.

  My opening of the space was translated into Khmer, and with the exception of scheduled interventions by me over the two days all the other work was done in Khmer - a quite beautiful language to see when they finally wrote it down. But when everybody around you is speaking a totally foreign language (and where you haven't even learnt the essential, but probably deeply inappropriate, "Three beers please") meaning that you have absolutely no idea of the subject, the discussion or the questions being asked there is only one solution - just be there and keep smiling! 

   We tackled the theme -  

  "A better future for us - the Issues and Opportunities"

  And within the two days allowed we -

  a) Posted about 110 topics on the wall

  b) Reviewed, discussed and wrote notes for our Proceedings Book on 92 of those topics (which they proudly took home with them, alongside their Certificate of Attendance)

  c) Prioritized down to 10 and discussed and created action points

  What came up - and remember these are street children from approximately 12-18 years old?

  Well, some of it is still being translated but major topics prioritized included -

  1)      Corruption and how to reduce it in Cambodia

  2)      How to develop the economy in Cambodia to give us greater work opportunities

  3)      How to export more products made in Cambodia

  4)      How to limit illegal immigration so Cambodians aren't disadvantaged

  5)      How to use the results of the Khmer Rouge trials to benefit the people of Cambodia

  These, and the way the children came at them, are a great tribute to the power of Open Space and its ability to genuinely achieve openness and safety for those who would otherwise not have a voice.

  In our Closing Circle, where some very good English was inserted as their "thank you", the heart-warming physical gestures, the hugs and the beaming smiles that had replaced a degree of curiosity, the laughter and the absolute desire by so many to talk meant that, actually, no translation had been needed all along. We all understood what we had achieved, even if they had no real idea of the world I came from just 48 hours earlier and would soon go back to - and I can still not begin to understand the pain and hardship they have endured to get as far today as they have done, and the determination they have shown that will finally give them a life they could previously never have imagined.

  The "road show" continues and, amongst us, Open Space meetings will be held in Mongolia, Laos, Timor, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand, and we hope to be able to train others to take the programme deeper into the countries than we can ever possibly penetrate ourselves.

  As for the World Bank - they are learning the true issues and opportunities first hand from those who will be the future of their countries, and they will be able to positively impact on politicians and leaders alike, addressing the issues that matter 

  Nigel Seys-Phillips

  Fulcrum Business Management Solutions

  30 Mount Elizabeth

  #04-34 Highpoint

  Singapore 228519

  Tel: +65 9639 2510

  E-mail: nigel at fulcrum.com.sg

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of NigelSeys-Phillips
  Sent: Monday, 14 August 2006 6:04 PM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  Subject: Open Space - Cambodia - Street Children

  Dear All - and in particular Peggy,

  "A Better Future for Us - The Issues and Opportunities"

  Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

  I am afraid it is a bit long so I have, hopefully, attached it which means you don't have to read it if you don't want to.but I wanted, inspired by Peggy's amazing story, to recount how Open Space and the World Bank have started a series of meetings around South East Asia working with street children, and to share my personal experience with you. 

  There is little to add - it works!

  All the best

  Nigel

  Nigel Seys-Phillips

  Fulcrum Business Management Solutions

  30 Mount Elizabeth

  #04-34 Highpoint

  Singapore 228519

  Tel: +65 9639 2510

  E-mail: nigel at fulcrum.com.sg

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