IF you love nature and you like the idea of helping the less fortunate you could set up a company that covers both. That’s what electronics engineer Vuthy Taing from Cambodia has done.
Taing and his family were refugees who fled Cambodia during the war with Vietnam and found themselves in Australia in the 1980s. He grew up and learnt English there. After graduating from university there in the mid-90s, he moved to Singapore which was booming at the time.
His work there often brought him to Malaysia, where - as fate would have it - he met and fell in love with a local girl. He ended up getting married and settling down in the country.
Considering himself fortunate in life, he wanted to do something to promote tourism to his country of origin and help the rural folks back there. That’s how The Green Home (www.thegreenhome.org) got started.
HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR WIFE?
It was really by chance. In 1996, I got a job with a Singaporean company that also had a factory in Labis, Johor. So, I had to travel there a lot.
Normally, I travelled with a team of engineers by car but there was one trip where I was required to stay back longer so I had to find my own way back to Singapore. I decided to take a train.
A young Malaysian woman sat next to me. Since I wasn’t familiar with the route, I kept asking her when we would reach Singapore. From there, a conversation picked up and by the time it came for us to alight, we had exchanged phone numbers.
SO DID YOU TWO CALL EACH OTHER A LOT?
Actually those were the days before mobile phones were common so I used a pager. Once in a while she’d page me from Johor and I would then have to find a public phone so I could call her back. I think all my savings went into phone calls to Johor! Two years after that, we got married.
WHAT DOES YOUR WIFE DO?
My wife is a kindergarten teacher. She teaches in the morning, and in the late afternoon she takes care of our three daughters.
WHAT’S THE MAIN ACTIVITY OF THE GREEN HOME?
We work with homestay owners in Cambodia to market their homes and develop unique local travel experiences for visitors. By doing so, we bring tourists dollar to the local communities.
We also have a very strong feel for the environment. We’re now teaching and influencing our home owners to take responsibility for recycling organic waste to use as fertiliser, reduce electric consumption through the use of LED bulbs and reduce the use of plastic.
WHAT’S A TYPICAL “GREEN HOME” TOUR LIKE?
In the outskirts of Siem Reap, we have a day tour around the village where guests can experience ox-cart riding, touch and feel the vegetables and paddy fields, do a bit of bird watching and then proceed to a local homestay where the locals guide teach them how to cook Khmer food.
By spending the day with us, the guests actually help to spread the wealth and uplift the livelihood of the villagers.
The ox-cart team gets paid for providing guests with traditional transportation. The farmer is paid a token for showing us how they grow their vegetables. The local women get paid for sharing their cooking knowledge and some workers are paid for helping to clean up.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO WANT TO GO INTO THE JUNGLE?
We have that too. A few hours outside of Siem Reap, there’s a forest where we can arrange for trekking and overnight camping.
Again, the local community benefits from this. The men who volunteer as rangers are paid for leading the trekking and taking care of security while the ladies get paid for cooking.
DO VISITORS GET TO SEE WILDLIFE?
Cambodia has some unique wildlife and our guests will get to see elephants and river dolphins.
As a bonus, we also bring them to meet the local tribes or what you call Orang Asli. They’re paid for taking care of the elephants and the boat operators are paid to bring us to see the very rare Irrawaddy dolphins.
BESIDES SHORING UP THE LOCAL ECONOMY IN THE VILLAGES AND FOREST COMMUNITIES, WHAT ELSE DOES YOUR COMPANY DO AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?
We help to provide free English lessons in temples. Our goal is to have many English classes in various temples across Cambodia. Malaysians who go to Cambodia for a Green Homes holiday can spend some of their time volunteering as English teachers to rural students.
This, I think, makes for a much more engaged and interesting experience for the Malaysian tourist, to be able to interact with the locals and to help them in some way.
WHY THE EMPHASIS ON ENGLISH?
I realise how much English has helped me. English is the lingua franca of the world. By knowing English, children will have a better opportunity to find employment.
We plan to teach English primarily in coordination with local temples because the infrastructure is already there and also because we can engage the monks to inculcate good moral values.
It’s sort of grounding the kids at a young age so they can navigate their lives in this fast paced world we live in.
HOW DOES THAT WORK EXACTLY SINCE TOURISTS DON’T USUALLY HAVE TIME TO DO VOLUNTEER WORK?
If a tourist has just one hour, we can find something for them to do. They could tell the students the story of their lives or they can read a book to them.
Volunteers who have more time can learn our syllabus and teach proper classes to the students. So, what a volunteer does will vary from person to person depending on the amount of time they can devote to this.
DO YOU PLAN TO MARKET TOURISM FROM CAMBODIA TO MALAYSIA?
Currently we’re marketing Cambodia as a preferred socially-responsible tourist destination. But yes, we do have plans to also do the same for Malaysia.
The national parks, waterfalls and gazetted forests here are beautiful. I’m sure Cambodians would love to visit Malaysia.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT MALAYSIA?
There are many things to like: friendly people, fantastic food. It’s also great that Malaysia is shielded from natural disasters like earth quakes and volcanoes. So, it’s very safe here.
You’ve also got great roads that allow people to travel from place to place easily. But most of all, I’m impressed with how Malaysians of different races and religions can live together and thrive.