The RDIC water-purification system in Cambodia involves filtering water through a clay pot into a plastic receptacle.courier-journal.com
December 24, 2008
I can't tell this Christmas story in the space that's available for a column.
What I can tell you is that Mickey Sampson came into my office yesterday, handing out Cambodian currency worth a little more than a penny, U.S.
The tale that he had to tell was worth much more -- about how he and his wife, Wendi, both from Louisville, decamped some 11 years ago with four young children and the intention of putting Mickey's University of Louisville inorganic chemistry doctorate to use as a teacher at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
In the intervening years, the Sampsons have made the country we associate with the Khmer Rouge killing fields their home and have created Resource Development International Cambodia, which describes itself as serving people in dynamic ways that "combine technology, education and heart."
For example, by modernizing an ancient Asian technique, RDIC has developed a clay pot water filtration system -- producing 35,000 of them this year and reaching more than 200,000 people with safe water, which is vitally important given the fact that one out of five Cambodian children dies before the age of 5, most often with diarrhea-related illness.
Here's how the non-profit's approach works:
"RDI visits a community and meets with village leaders. We propose a rain water harvesting tank and drinking water station project at the village school. Generally speaking, this is proposal is warmly received. … As the water projects in the area begin, relationships with the community leaders are formed. RDI begins water and health education in the classrooms of the school. The education continues to the families of the community when we introduce educational karaoke, films and other live performances and storying."
Karaoke? Yes. Cambodians are wild about karaoke. Most every village has at least a battery-operated TV and karaoke setup.
"As new health concepts are taught, individuals with particular needs become apparent, and our medical staff can attend to those who need our help. By this time, bathrooms, water tanks, water filtration and drinking stations are implemented at the school, and RDI has established relationships that allow us to begin agriculture and larger scale community farming projects."
They came up with odorless pigs. More on that later.
"By teaching farming to those with financial needs, further needs are met. … All of these different techniques are approached with the idea that we are implementing sustainable change to the health and economy of the village, and as a result the process is slow and methodical and only successful after building trusting relationships with the people of the community."
The whole enterprise -- at once simple and complex -- began when the Sampsons first arrived in Phnom Penh and Wendi Sampson tried to fill up the bathtub but only got a few inches of water so dirty that she couldn't see the bottom.
It was a long way from the Auburndale neighborhood where Mickey grew up and his parents still live, from Beth Haven where he was schooled and Shively Baptist where he was churched, to the Cambodian hamlet where he finds time for everything from doing hands-on rural development to writing scholarly research tomes like "Arsenicosis in Cambodia: Case Studies and Policy Response." (Arsenic levels in Cambodian groundwater are a serious problem.)
It's the Sampsons' first time back in the U.S. in four years. The family will return to Cambodia just after the first of the year, during the annual visit from a team of Louisville folks who want to help and learn.
"What is life about?" Mickey asks. "It's about impacting people. We've found peace and contentment by helping others."
Besides, it must be fun to rescue and reapply ancient technology, or figure out how to fumigate the sty. (Their deodorized porkers occupy a pen with a bed of rice husks three feet thick, which absorbs urea.)
"We don't want to be donor driven," Mickey insists. "We want to be people driven." An example: They sell the filtration pots, and find that those who pay for them use them longer, use them properly and are more likely to replace them as needed.
Give yourself a Christmas gift. Visit www.rdic.org, or go see the real thing. But note the Web site's warning: "Ninety percent of the current RDI team originally planned to just 'visit.' RDI cannot guarantee that visitors will not fall in love with the country and the people and commit to giving large portions of their lives to work here. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause family and friends."
David Hawpe's columns appear Wednesdays and Sundays in the Community Forum. E-mail him at dhawpe@courier-journal.com.
I can't tell this Christmas story in the space that's available for a column.
What I can tell you is that Mickey Sampson came into my office yesterday, handing out Cambodian currency worth a little more than a penny, U.S.
The tale that he had to tell was worth much more -- about how he and his wife, Wendi, both from Louisville, decamped some 11 years ago with four young children and the intention of putting Mickey's University of Louisville inorganic chemistry doctorate to use as a teacher at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
In the intervening years, the Sampsons have made the country we associate with the Khmer Rouge killing fields their home and have created Resource Development International Cambodia, which describes itself as serving people in dynamic ways that "combine technology, education and heart."
For example, by modernizing an ancient Asian technique, RDIC has developed a clay pot water filtration system -- producing 35,000 of them this year and reaching more than 200,000 people with safe water, which is vitally important given the fact that one out of five Cambodian children dies before the age of 5, most often with diarrhea-related illness.
Here's how the non-profit's approach works:
"RDI visits a community and meets with village leaders. We propose a rain water harvesting tank and drinking water station project at the village school. Generally speaking, this is proposal is warmly received. … As the water projects in the area begin, relationships with the community leaders are formed. RDI begins water and health education in the classrooms of the school. The education continues to the families of the community when we introduce educational karaoke, films and other live performances and storying."
Karaoke? Yes. Cambodians are wild about karaoke. Most every village has at least a battery-operated TV and karaoke setup.
"As new health concepts are taught, individuals with particular needs become apparent, and our medical staff can attend to those who need our help. By this time, bathrooms, water tanks, water filtration and drinking stations are implemented at the school, and RDI has established relationships that allow us to begin agriculture and larger scale community farming projects."
They came up with odorless pigs. More on that later.
"By teaching farming to those with financial needs, further needs are met. … All of these different techniques are approached with the idea that we are implementing sustainable change to the health and economy of the village, and as a result the process is slow and methodical and only successful after building trusting relationships with the people of the community."
The whole enterprise -- at once simple and complex -- began when the Sampsons first arrived in Phnom Penh and Wendi Sampson tried to fill up the bathtub but only got a few inches of water so dirty that she couldn't see the bottom.
It was a long way from the Auburndale neighborhood where Mickey grew up and his parents still live, from Beth Haven where he was schooled and Shively Baptist where he was churched, to the Cambodian hamlet where he finds time for everything from doing hands-on rural development to writing scholarly research tomes like "Arsenicosis in Cambodia: Case Studies and Policy Response." (Arsenic levels in Cambodian groundwater are a serious problem.)
It's the Sampsons' first time back in the U.S. in four years. The family will return to Cambodia just after the first of the year, during the annual visit from a team of Louisville folks who want to help and learn.
"What is life about?" Mickey asks. "It's about impacting people. We've found peace and contentment by helping others."
Besides, it must be fun to rescue and reapply ancient technology, or figure out how to fumigate the sty. (Their deodorized porkers occupy a pen with a bed of rice husks three feet thick, which absorbs urea.)
"We don't want to be donor driven," Mickey insists. "We want to be people driven." An example: They sell the filtration pots, and find that those who pay for them use them longer, use them properly and are more likely to replace them as needed.
Give yourself a Christmas gift. Visit www.rdic.org, or go see the real thing. But note the Web site's warning: "Ninety percent of the current RDI team originally planned to just 'visit.' RDI cannot guarantee that visitors will not fall in love with the country and the people and commit to giving large portions of their lives to work here. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause family and friends."
David Hawpe's columns appear Wednesdays and Sundays in the Community Forum. E-mail him at dhawpe@courier-journal.com.
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