The 2018 Diving Deep, Going Far Grants
Ten percent of the income from sales of Diving Deep, Going Far is being used to support grassroots women’s leadership initiatives in Cambodia. At the end of 2018, we gave out our first two grants. Read on for an update on which initiatives we supported and why.
Harpswell university students mentor rural high school students
Our first grant was awarded to a team of five students from the Harpswell Foundation, a dorm and leadership center for selected female students in Phnom Penh. The team, lead by fourth-year International Relations student Noeun Sony, requested funding to follow up on an earlier project, where the students visited a rural high school to mentor the local school children. According to Sony, most students in rural schools have very limited knowledge about academic options and career paths. As a result of this and other factors, most children in rural Cambodia never finish high school, let alone leave their community to attend university. In order to address this issue, Sony and her team visited a school in rural Kampong Cham province and shared their stories of life in the capital and studying in university, and helped the students think about different options for academic majors. In addition, they taught them about leadership skills and provided several books about personal leadership.
The first visit Sony and her team did was funded by the Harpswell Foundation, but now the team wanted to a follow-up visit, where they continue to discuss academic options with the students, and especially get them to talk about what they learned from reading the leadership books. The Diving Deep, Going Far Grants committee decided to provide Sony and her team with the necessary funding to cover travel and other expenses for their visit, and to buy books, pens and other material for the students. In addition, we provided them with ten copies of the Khmer version of Diving Deep, Going Far, to be shared among the students in Kampong Cham.
Cambo Bio Green: a start-up aimed at reducing plastic waste
The second Diving Deep, Going Far Grant of 2018 was awarded to Sea Longsreyneath (‘Sreyneath’) and her start-up Cambo Bio Green. Sreyneath is a recently graduated chemical engineer who works as a lab technician at the renowned Institut Pasteur in Phnom Penh. She is also the founder of Cambo Bio Green, a company that produces biodegradable food packaging made of cassava. The aim of her company is to combat plastic waste, which is a major problem around Cambodia, but especially in Phnom Penh, by replacing traditional styrofoam food boxes with biodegradable alternatives. In addition, Sreyneath hopes to support the local agriculture sector, which is heavily dependent on rice exports, to diversify and generate a sustainable income from growing products like cassava.
Cambo Bio Green is currently in its very early stages, where a working product has been developed, but significant work will have to be done in order to make it marketable on a large scale - not least because of cost concerns. The Diving Deep, Going Far Grants committee recognized Cambo Bio Green’s potential, and decided to support Sreyneath on her path to finding more sizable and sustainable investment. We provided her with a grant to conduct additional market research, which will help her both optimize her product offering, as well as support any future investor pitches.
Keep an eye on this blog to learn more about Sreyneath and her company, as we will soon publish a full-length interview with her!
Click here to learn more about Diving Deep, Going Far Grants and our other initiatives to support women leadership in Cambodia.