Siem Reap hotel, Cambodia
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We have deliberately made our programs such that the dignity and pride of the local people is never jeopardized. We demonstrate graphically just how much a little amount of money when used properly can start a family on the road to full sustainability. Whether the students at the Institute or the families that receive donations, they are taught to work towards their own betterment. We will fail students if they don’t learn their lessons and we will stop funding families if they don’t work towards improving their family’s life. An example, with a water well donation goes seeds. If they don’t clear and prepare the land properly, they will not get additional donations which will help them to work themselves out of poverty.
When visiting the villages we will only take a maximum of 5 visitors and restrict it to the actual donors so that there always is a personal connection. Because we are strict with the recipients to use the donations to work towards becoming self sustained, we stop them from adopting a ‘begging type’ of attitude.
We have hired from a local orphanage, a group of young dancers to perform weekly a series of traditional Khmer dances for our guests during the Khmer Dinner. Guests are given the opportunity to inter act with the students and in fact will often give separate donations to the orphanage after the dinner. We also offer our honeymoon guests to have a traditional Cambodian Monk Blessing ceremony while staying in the hotel.
We have engaged local partners in the village to build water wells, houses, breeding piglets so that we can buy them for other poor families. We also purchase some local ingredients such as tomato, corn, sugar cane and chilly from the under-privileged who have benefited from our support program. This is to encourage them to produce more than what are needed for their family so that they can have extra income. We buy most of our hotel food locally and all furnishings are locally purchased. 42 out of 43 of our employees are local people, all of the hotel maintenance is carried out by local people and we encourage guests to support the local economy and support community development programmes.
We work together with the Siem Reap branch of AusAid and provide them with our used cooking oil which they process into a kind of engine oil for generators and other machines to help farmers and poor people to have energy for their farming.
Left over food from the restaurant, kitchen and staff canteen is used by the underprivileged to feed their pigs, cows, chicken, ducks and so on. We use organic produces such as vegetables, rice, coffee etc which are locally produced by the under-privileged, which also encourages less use of chemicals in framing.
Community Support Projects
As part of our ongoing commitment to the local community, we are pleased to offer an opportunity for you to participate in the local community support projects.
- Build a Home US $1250
- Water Wells with Hand Pumps + vegetable seeds US $90
- Pair of Piglets US $70
- 50kg of Rice + 6 bottles of Fish Sauce and Soya Sauce from US $25
- School Attire & Supplies US $15
Community
About 1.2 billion young people will enter the global labor pool over the next 10 years, yet there are scarce opportunities for employment, high rates of school dropout and low rates of secondary school enrollment and completion in many countries (ILO, 2004).
There are 3 billion children and young adults on the planet; about 50 percent of the entire population is under the age of 25 (UNFPA, 2004).
In the least developed countries, close to 70 percent of the population is under the age of 25 (UNFPA, 2004).
Over 500 million youth live on less than $2 per day. Some 238 million, or 22.5 percent of the world's youth live in extreme poverty, on less than $1 dollar per day (UNFPA, 2004).
Approximately 106 million youth live in extreme poverty in South Asia, 60 million in sub-Saharan Africa, 51 million in East Asia and the Pacific, and 15 million in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNFPA, 2004).
Despite progress in some countries, there is still a growing wealth divide; a growing digital divide and a growing education divide (World Bank, 2005).
The World Bank estimates than in order to maintain current employment rates, there is the need for the creation of 80 million new jobs in the MENA region alone by 2020
We are committed to
Education and Training
• Facilitating literacy programs for staff.
• Coordinating training programs to develop local business skills.
Procurement
• Ensuring local suppliers are used wherever possible.
• Selling craft made by local people.
• Using natural and recyclable materials wherever possible.
Health management and Awareness
• Providing first aid training and facilities for staff and local people.
• Making staff and guests aware of ways to prevent malaria and HIV/AIDS.
• Offering a health clinic for the local community.
Waste
• Reducing the amount of waste we generate.
• Separating waste and linking with a local recycling scheme.
• Recycling used cooking oil.
Water
• Fitting dual-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads.
• Reusing water from bathrooms and kitchens for irrigation.
Nature Conservation
• Planting indigenous trees and removing alien vegetation.
• Supporting a local wildlife conservation program.
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