September Newsletter

Greetings from the team at DDD! We had a busy summer, and would like to share with you some of our exciting headlines:

My name is Heng Chantheng and I was born in Kampong Cham Province , Cambodia . I am the only daughter in my family of 6. Growing up, we lived in Phnom Penh in my aunt's house. Our living condition was modest. My mother was a seller in the market and my father was a cigarette smuggler. In 1996 we started to have a better life and we were able to buy a house, but in 1997, when I was 13 years old, my father was robbed and shot. He became disabled so suddenly my mother was the main supporter in my family. She exchanged money and sold fruit in the market. My brother and I both studied, but after my father was shot we had to start selling bread in the market, so we had to change shifts with each other so that we could continue to go to school.

Before my father died, I started to study English for one hour every evening. After I graduated twelve class in 2001, I was unable to attend university so I sold rice and studied many short course skills like administration, sewing, Chinese and computer in any NGO that would charge a low fee or offer the courses for free. Even though my education was not smooth, I think that I am lucky and better off than those who wanted to study but could not. I am especially lucky that working at DDD gave me the opportunity practice and learn more about what I studied at university, while many of my friends who work in factories in a bad environment with long work hours say it is hard to find time to study.

I knew about DDD from friends who worked there and from the NGO CVCD. I tried again and gain to take test to work at DDD. I started working at DDD in 2003 when I was 20 years old. I chose to work at DDD because I heard that DDD helped disabled and poor students, and that the job was technology-related and qualifications were not too difficult. I worked at DDD for two years. I learned a lot from DDD, especially about computer technology. My skills in networking, hardware setup, software, network administration, HTML code, job management, communication, and teaching improved very much after working at DDD.

After I started working at DDD, I moved to study for a bachelor degree of computer science in a better university. I studied computer science because there are not very many female students who study this major so I saw it as a job opportunity for women. After working in DDD I was encouraged to study this subject and I like it more. My new job is a master trainer; I instruct teachers to teach Khmer software. I teach all teachers in Cambodia in both the city and provinces. I do not like my new job very much because the job is only related to technology a little bit and I cannot improve my skills. However, I like that I meet different people from every corner of Cambodia and I am improving my teaching skills. The skills that I learned at DDD that help me the most in my new job come from my experience as a computer trainer to DDD's women's training project and from working as an IT assistant.

DDD was really a good experience for me. I am always proud of myself that I worked at DDD. I had learned and practiced IT before when I studied at university, and I am one of the lucky ones who found a job related to technology. Very few of my friends found such a job. I want to thank DDD for giving me the opportunity.

DDD Creates Interactive Website for New England Boarding School

OHRSTROM LIBRARY

St. Paul 's School is a 149-year old private boarding school in Concord , Massachusetts with a rich history and active alumni base. DDD is digitizing100+ years of their alumni magazine and loading the contents onto an interactive website for students, faculty and alumni.

The project began with a ten-year pilot, during which operators in PhnomPenh and Battambang keyed and tagged nearly 2,000 scanned pages. The images, automatically generated text, and keyed headlines were then loaded into a database and used to create a dynamic website that allows users to browse and search for articles.

In September, DDD completed the second phase, which involved an additional 30 years of the magazine. Over the next six months, DDD will continue to add content. You can view the archive at http://sps.medarch.digitaldividedata.com/.

(back to the top)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Profile of DDD Donors Irving Levin and Stephanie Fowler

In the summer of 2000, Irving Levin and Stephanie Fowler visited Cambodia for the first time on a group trip. They thought the Angkor temples were beautiful, but they left focused on wanting to find a way to help the people. A friend put Irving and Stephanie in touch with DDD, and they were particularly interested in our social entrepreneurial approach to creating jobs and better futures for Cambodians.

Through their support, DDD was able to invest in growing our sales effort in the US , leading to an increase of sales from $300,000 in 2004 to $600,000 in 2005.

While Irving and Stephanie were involved with non-profits for many years, the sale of Irving 's company in 2000 gave them the opportunity to set up a foundation, named “Renaissance Foundation.” The foundation's initial approach focused on education and literacy, mostly for children, and almost always for kids in need. For the first three years, the foundation stuck to this initial vision and worked with local education organizations.

However, reflecting on their travels and worldwide disasters, Irving and Stephanie broadened the focus of the foundation three years after its founding. “If you go to Cambodia , see the state of things, you are struck by the need of people,” says Irving . Now the foundation is involved in more international endeavors such as Mercy Corps and environmental groups, and they are constantly balancing the desire to focus on their own back yard.

One of the foundation's goals is to work intensely with a smaller number of organizations, rather than spread themselves thin. Irving and Stephanie wanted to take a more long-term approach to non-profit aid and focus on sustainability and proper governance. They give to about 25 agencies, but that number is shrinking. According to Irving , “if we see a team with a vision that has a good chance of making it, we want to invest more, not less. We are always working on how to optimize the impact of the money.” Their first grant of $25,000 to DDD allowed us to expand our business development staff and publicity materials to attract more business.

Today Irving and Stephanie spend a lot of their time actively involved in working with the non-profits that they help fund. Irving also mentors business startups, and is active in Genesis, a company based in Portland that lends and buys assets. Stephanie was a journalist for many years and moderated a public policy TV show. She is also a psychotherapist and donates her time at a free clinic.

A new three-year business plan sets goals for DDD to grow its annual revenue to $750,000 and have 300 staff by June 2008. Over the same period, we will help train a total of 400 young leaders in Cambodia and Laos , with 100 staff moving into jobs in the private and public sectors paying at least $100 per month.

Grounded in our track-record and experience over the past four years—and informed by consultation with our board and staff--the new plan will enable DDD's business to become fully sustainable. In addition, our skilled and experienced "graduates" will make a significant impact in strengthening the human resource capacity of the emerging IT sector in the region.

The plan incorporates a concerted set of strategies to achieve these goals, including:

Improving gross margins from 30% to 40%
Identifying and launching new business segments
Implementing a merit-based employment policy
Strengthening training programs for our staff, and
Ensuring accountability and transparency throughout the organization

As we start our fifth year at DDD, we are excited to see the opportunities ahead to transform the lives of even more young people through work and training at DDD--and to have a broader impact on economic development in the region.

(back to the top)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About DDD

Digital Divide Data (DDD) is a social enterprise established in July 2001 to create jobs and educational opportunities in developing countries by providing outsourced data services to business and public sector customers. DDD is established in the U.S. as a 501(c)3 organization, as well as organized as a non-governmental organization in Cambodia . Our business employs disadvantaged individuals, including people with disabilities, landmine and polio victims, orphans, and abused women.

DDD relies on the support of individuals and institutions to supplement its revenue from client work and ensure that we achieve our social mission. Contributions of any amount are helpful and greatly appreciated.

Digital Divide Data Newsletter – September 2005