On the outskirts of Siem Reap, not-for-profit organisation Rokhak is altering the lives of Cambodian ladies and serving to the setting on the similar time. It’s additionally a model new Intrepid expertise for 2023. We sat down with founder, Hor Sounsrors, to learn how invasive weeds can be utilized for good.
Looking out over Tonlé Sap lake in northwest Cambodia, you possibly can see large clumps of greenery dotting the water, floating between the stilt homes of Kompong Khleang. It appears fairly, however that greenery is definitely water hyacinth, an invasive species from the higher Amazon Basin, half a world away – and it’s an enormous ecological drawback.
“When it grows, it grows thick,” says Hor Sounsrors, often known as ‘Sros’, who runs Cambodian not-for-profit Rokhak. “It means there’s no sunlight getting into the water, so the fish and other species below can’t get enough oxygen. In some places you can actually walk on it.”
Turning pest into revenue
Water hyacinth can double in dimension each two weeks. It’s a virulent pest, choking the waterways and blocking the passage of boats. But Sros based Rokhak to deal with the issue in a novel manner. The centre employs native Cambodian ladies to gather hyacinth from Tonlé Sap and the encompassing rivers, dry it out, steam it, and weave it into baskets, rugs and different handicrafts.
It’s a double win for native individuals: they’re serving to the ecosystem breathe and creating priceless employment on the similar time.
“Three years ago, I went to this village and found an old woman living in a tent – just a plastic bag stretched across as a roof,” Sros says. “But she was living next to all this water hyacinth. So we trained her to collect the plants, and then people started buying the stems from her, and now she earns a good living. She uses the profits to plant fruit and vegetables, which she can sell as well.”
Locals can accumulate as much as 200 hyacinth stems at a time; they’re introduced again to Rokhak, dried within the solar, then steamed over charcoal to deepen the color and kill any micro organism. The stems are then fastidiously woven by hand, turning an ecological catastrophe into one thing helpful – and better of all, priceless.
Empowering native ladies
Sros says she’s presently coaching 13 ladies to weave the water hyacinth, and Rokhak employs 5 extra full-time within the workshop, producing merchandise for native companies in Siem Reap, or for friends that go to the centre.
Travellers can purchase intricate rugs, lovely baggage and hand-woven plant baskets, and all of the earnings get funnelled again into the local people. Rokhak additionally runs workshops the place guests can observe their hyacinth-weaving expertise.
“Travellers will get to make the small bowls themselves as a souvenir,” Sros says. “It’s really hands-on. We train them the same way we train women in the villages.”
This coaching has actual financial worth. It would possibly take three artisans a couple of weeks to weave a single rug, however every rug can promote for as much as $300 – greater than most Cambodians see in a month.
Beyond its ecological affect, Rokhak modifications the lives of native ladies. The centre’s actual product, and its ongoing legacy, is employment and monetary independence. It takes about two weeks to learn to weave water hyacinth, however after you have that ability, you’ve obtained a commerce for all times.
This is a giant deal in Cambodia, the place the International Labor Organization estimates ladies spend a massively disproportionate period of time on unpaid care work (about 188 minutes per day, in comparison with 18 minutes for males). It’s a gender-based inequality that has actual affect on ladies’s lives, and livelihoods.
Looking to the longer term
“When you have no income, you have no voice,” Sros says. “Most ladies within the floating villages have 5 – 6 kids. Many children don’t go to high school, and there’s all the time housekeeping to do. I respect that a lot, however when you ask these ladies what they do, they’ll say, ‘I don’t have a job. I’m only a housewife’.
“My mother always told me, ‘You have to be independent. You have to stand by yourself.’ These women still have to raise their children, of course, but now we can give them the skills to make a living and work from home.”
Sros started her profession as an accountant, however instructing was all the time the dream. Having lately earned her Bachelor of Education, she says the last word purpose for Rokhak is to increase the centre, practice extra ladies, and finally launch academic packages for the native children.
“I do some fun activities for the kids in my village,” Sros says. “Cooking, painting, drawing, and they get to experience the weaving as well. Running a not-for-profit is hard – the money to start Rokhak came from my own savings – but these women and these children keep me going.”
Have older children of your personal? Experience Rokhak for your self on our Cambodia Family Holiday with Teenagers.