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

Tue Aug 15 04:55:30 PDT 2006

Dear Nigel,

How inspiring indeed!

I've just posted your story on the listserv
reseauforumouvert at yahoogroups.com, which has about 150
people on it, primarily Haitians but expats too who
are either using or interested in using open space.

thank you again!

john

> 
>   ----- 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 
=== message truncated ===

http://circlesofchange.com participatory learning & leadership 
http://harvesttime.cc harvesting for justice that all may have enough
http://beyondborders.net changing lives through education and exchange

email: john at johnengle.net 
telephone: 202-236-6532

John Engle
P.O. Box 337
Hershey, PA 17033

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