Who/What: Green Shoots Foundation has launched a *new* overseas volunteering program with Socially Active Workshop Architecture (SAWA) and Brixton-based architect firm Squire & Partners called: DESIGN +TRAVEL, BUILD CAMBODIA.

It forms part of our Food, Agriculture & Social Entrepreneurship program in Cambodia. The focus is on skills for rural development (horticulture/climate change and livelihoods).  In July 2017 the government allocated 1.2 acres (0.5 Ha) for us to establish our own Agri-tech Centre- so now we can broaden to horticulture, eco-building and also water management.

Between August and December we have one or two week volunteer positions available to help with the delivery of a remarkable eco-build (below) designed by Edward Dale-Harris, founder of SAWA, for Squire & Partners.

Positions start at £ 500 –EXCLUDING FLIGHTS (including accommodation/ insurance/visa/ meals)

Where: Samraong Town, Oddar Meanchey Province, North West Cambodia (2 hours away from Siem Reap)

Why: You should apply if you want to be part of a grassroots lead architecture project, get involved with earthblock making, permaculture, bamboo weaving and setting up vegetable garden projects/ landscaping. AND an opportunity to win copies of “Sustainable [R]evolution”– a book documenting ecovillages and permaculture projects across the world.

How: it is simple. email volunteer@greenshootsfoundation.org to know more. OR fill in this googleform: https://goo.gl/forms/HCOB23dtpXgS9bUL2 and we will get back to you.

We can also help you set up an online fundraising platform so you can meet your target!

ps> see what volunteers have already been up to: https://www.greenshootsfoundation.org/blog/fasediaryweek4/

We’ve been very busy for the last week and a half, but here’s our final update!

After finishing all of the compression testing, the earth block production went into full swing. Based on our compression test results, we agreed to produce 3 different earth bricks consisting of 6%, 8% and 11% cement and use these to create a test wall for each.

For the walls and some additional testing we needed 40 bricks of each composition. We spent full days on Monday and Wednesday preparing blocks again with significant help from Miss Sokphea and Mr Peouch from CIDO. Being in the teething stages of building Earth Blocks we managed around 40 blocks a day, but with some learnings (now carried on by CIDO), some additional moulds and a mechanical mixer, this figure should easily be able to exceed 100 bricks per day with 3 people.

By Thursday we had completed all of the earth bricks needed for the test walls. While the remainder of these cured we began preparing foundations for the test walls. We decided to mix the foundation by hand by combining the earth, cement and grave. This ended up being particularly difficult, especially in the heat! However we persevered as we only needed enough for the 3 test walls. During the Agri Tech construction the building contractor will most likely use a cement mixer. We recommended for the earth brick production to use a mechanical mixer or cement mixer also as it will reduce the labor time spent in mixing by hand and will be better for the well-being of the people involved as well.

On Monday this week we met with a local contractor as part of our effort to continue the tendering process. This meeting offered a valuable insight into the Khmer tendering process and has enabled us to create a plan forward with CIDO and Green Shoots in order to award a contract before building commences in August.

On Tuesday it was back to the field to build the first of three test walls. The rationale behind the walls is to expose the Earth Blocks to local weather for a period of 2 months and monitor them for erosion or other signs of degradation. This should verify the results from our testing last week and will allow a final composition to be selected.

Aside from exposing that this might be the first wall we have ever built… building the test wall was a fun and successful exercise! Building on our foundations poured the week before, the wall pictured below was constructed from 8% cement Earth Blocks, with 2 rows of purchased sand-cement blocks as a base. Starting on earth blocks from research and investigation phase to testing and now to actually use them to build something has been a great development to work through!

As we’ve run out of time in this mission, a further 2 walls, using the 6% and 11% bricks, will be constructed over the next few weeks by the CIDO team.

On our final trip to the Agri-Tec site we prepared 6%, 8% and 11% cement samples to be sent to Phnom Penh in 3 weeks time for lab testing. This will verify the results we gained from our field testing.

Today is our final day working in Samrao

ng before we head back to Europe. The last month has been a fantastic experience. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Green Shoots and CIDO and have learned a lot from the project. We’d like to thank Ratana at CIDO and Muneezay at Green Shoots for organizing our mission.

This is a great project to get involved in and we would highly recommend doing so if you have some free time and want to contribute to an NGO making a meaningful difference in Cambodia.

Akun Chraan!

All the best,

Sakshi and Tom

You can still contribute towards this project via this link: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/greenshoots10nov

This week has been exciting and we have some great progress to share!

From having just the outline of the shelter prepped last Friday, with the help of the team at CIDO we managed to not only complete the shelter build but also our field compression testing and start on the brick making!

The shelter build was fantastic and involved a number of people and materials to take it to completion. We bought wood, borrowed spades and help from two different local farmers, bought sustainable roof materials made from local grass called “Tight” Roof and help from Sarin, Sokphea and Poeuch at CIDO.

On Monday we finished with the main structure in place, which consisted of eight strong wood logs dug 0.5m in the ground to outline the skeleton of the building.

On Tuesday we finished with further supporting and strengthening timber straights, walls made from thick waterproof plastic sheets (donated by a local shop) and our testing rig firmly in place within the shelter.

On Wednesday, the roof was finished and we started Round 1 of the field compression tests…

The test rig is built up of a single metal rod 1.5m in length with a metal “pin” 2cm in diameter welded on at 0.5m. This rod is then hinged on a bolt and metal blacking plate to allow 180 degrees movement. A thick wall piece of wood is used to bolt the backing plate into, so that it can be dug into the ground and hold its place when carrying out the testing.

Before we could begin testing, a testing criteria and strategy was established. The recommended strength for bricks in a single story building is approximately 2Mpa and double story 4Mpa.

The final earth bricks in the construction of the Agri Tech Centre will only be used as single story loading however to account for any future work or developments we tested to 4Mpa also. There is also the factor of the bricks getting wet and the subsequently the remaining strength after. After a bit of discussion with the engineers at Burro Happold and Ed at SAWA, our final testing plan was as follows:

Round 1 Testing

-Dry Compression Test upto 2Mpa

-Bucket (soak) test for 12 hrs or more

Round 2 Testing

-Wet Compression Test at 2Mpa and 4Mpa

-Make test walls and carry out drop tests and bridge tests

We calculated that approximately 19.3kg weight hung onto the end of the metal rod would result in a 2Mpa force being applied through the 2cm diameter metal pin onto the sample earth blocks. And double the weight equaled double the force of 4Mpa.

On Thursday, we finished all the compression testing and collated our results to share with our international team (via whatsapp). The key highlights from the testing were:

-The earth-only samples passed the dry testing but immediately fell apart in the water during the bucket test!

-There was measurable variance in the earth samples from the three different locations with earth sample from location 3 being generally the weakest.

-Cement mix ratios of 8, 11 and 15% tested the best with all the earth samples which meant that it didn’t matter where the earth came from, the samples were all strong enough for both 2MPa and 4Mpa.

Having the test results allowed us to narrow down the range of viable cement/earth ratios we could use to begin making the full size earth bricks.

On Friday we began mixing up the first batch of test bricks (a mix of earth with 8% cement). After a full day of trialing different mixing and molding methods we successfully produced 32 bricks. These we now have to leave in the shelter (protected from the weather) to cure and reach their full strength.

Next week we need to aim to complete round 2 of testing which means building some test walls and carrying out some drop tests and bridge tests. This will hopefully help us in narrowing down the choices a bit further and finish with the best earth brick mix possible for the Agri-tech centre construction!

Tom & Sakshi

You can still contribute towards this project via this link: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/greenshoots10nov

Focusing on our first task, the earth blocks, here is a quick run through of what we achieved so far.

With the office closed on Monday and Tuesday for the public holidays celebrating King Norodom Sihamoni’s Birthday, we picked up where we left off last week on Wednesday.

The big focus for us this week was to finalise everything we were going to need to complete field-testing on the earth blocks samples, as well as beginning to source equipment to create the full size earth block bricks.

Due to the lengthy waiting times for lab testing in Phnom Penh we have designed a rig (drawing) that will allow us to quickly perform fairly accurate impression/compression tests on the existing cement samples prepared by Ed Dale-Harris on a previous trip. (lab testing to act as a final confirmation at a later date. This will allow us to shortlist 3-4 final cement mixtures that we can make up into small batches (~100 total) of full sized bricks.

To make the full sized bricks we also designed some moulds that can be used both for testing and during larger scale production later in the year.

With rough sketches for each in hand we headed to various machine shops and welders around Samroang. One of the local staff at CIDO, Sarin, helped significantly with translating the sketches and explaining the purpose of the moulds. Eventually we were able find a shop that could produce both of our designs in just a few days.

We visited the workshop the next morning for a check up, and they had already constructed the earth block moulds! Our initial impressions are that they will be durable enough to produce blocks for the entire building project, and that they are lightweight enough to be easily handled onsite.

All of our testing and trial block making will be conducted on the same site as the future Agritech centre. We have started preparing a test site and shelter that will house our testing rig, small scale earth block production, and should provide a useful shelter throughout the build of the Centre.

On Friday morning we visited the site to confirm a suitable location for the shelter, and begun clearing the proposed site with help from CIDO members Sarin, Sokphea and Poeuch.

Once completed this will provide a flat surface for creating the cement blocks, cover from the rain that that could erode the blocks while curing and, thankfully, shelter from the sun!

It has been great this week to get our hands dirty and see some tangible results, we are very excited to continue working on the project and are looking forward to sharing test results and producing some earth blocks in the next week!

Tom & Sakshi

You can still contribute towards this project via this link: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/greenshoots10nov

Hi our names are Sakshi Sircar and Tom McIntyre, and we have come from chilly Scotland all the way to sunny Samrong to work with CIDO and Green Shoots for the next four weeks.

CIDO and Green Shoots are embarking on an exciting project to build an Agri-Tech center to help them better facilitate the training that they have been rolling out around the schools in Odtar Meanchey Province. They are currently in the stages of researching and testing brick materials and setting up local contracts, ahead of the building works later this year.

With our engineering backgrounds, we plan to be able to progress some of these tasks in the time that we are here.

The sun was beating in the sky when we arrived here and one of the first things we did was to visit some local schools to see how the children were learning about farming and agriculture. It was really fun to the see the enthusiasm between all the kids which only makes it more important for the training centre to be built and come of use.

The building design is focused on the use of rammed earth bricks. Rammed earth bricks are more environmentally friendly, use local soils, simple to construct and can be strong and durable once adequately protected. The design also uses locally sourced materials to help local businesses and trade.

One of our first tasks here is to determine which composition of ingredients to make the earth bricks is optimum for the main building construction. This requires us to consider the environment that the bricks will be subject to, such as the high rainfall and sunshine and make sure that the bricks will be strong enough to survive this as well as bear loads such as the roof, windows and guttering, amongst other things. The composition of the bricks can vary in terms of how much cement or lime is mixed with local earth. It is likely that bricks comprising of only local earth will disintegrate under the loads or erode with the weather so we will probably have to include cement or lime as stabilizers. There were a range of samples created already (with different levels of cement and lime) so our job is to test these to determine which one best suits our needs, i.e. meets the required strength criteria for the lowest price. The tests we plan to do are compression tests (force applied on top of the brick) and ‘Bucket’ tests (repeat the compression tests after a period of soaking to establish the structural effects of saturation).

It is important that the building survives the test of time so it can be used for as long as it’s needed and allow CIDO and Green Shoots to spread their knowledge!

Our first few days have been a great experience and we are looking forward to settling in and continuing to work with the local CIDO staff and businesses.

Until next week!

Sakshi & Tom

Architect, Edward Dale-Harris reports on making Compressed Earth Blocks- a more sustainable option to bricks. Not only do they keep the room cooler, the emissions from brick making are extremely high. Compressed Earth blocks also have a quicker drying time, making them more efficient and they use readily available materials- rather than costly cement which might have to be transported from elsewhere.

Will this be a worthwhile technique to apply in the Green Shoots Agritech Centre? Read more »

I felt the biggest challenge on 10 November 2017 would be the smooth running of our fundraising event in Brixton- however, that was until I had to parallel park outside the venue!

A few months in planning, the fundraising event was to unveil the designs architect firm Squire & Partners had been working on for a brand new Agri-tech training Centre for Green Shoots in Cambodia. Read more »

The week before I started repeatedly checking the weather forecast. Organising an outdoor event in October has its drawbacks- and on Thursday it went from being clear skies to overcast. Soon, rain was to follow. However, that was not going to come in the way of Green Shoots and Bandstand Beds joint fundraising picnic, A Taste of Asia on the Common, at the community run vegetable garden in South London. Read more »

It is coming up to three years since Green Shoots Foundation held their first teacher training, or Training of Trainers session, in Samrong town, Odar Meanchay Province NW Cambodia. Part of their Agriculture Skills in Public Schools (ASPUS) Project.

I first arrived in Samrong in October 2013. It was small, nondescript and dusty- however; in just a few years it has become one of the most beloved locations on my travel calendar.

In September 2014 Green Shoots Foundation, along with our local partners CIDO, finalized a Training of Trainers program for teachers in 42 local schools to introduce skills for setting up and maintaining vegetable gardens. Not only that, we made sure the training schedule included information on how to impart this knowledge to their students and measure the progress of each garden. Teacher feedback on training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPXmNZ_Q-ec

Each school signed a three year contract stating that (annually) they would have at least three batches of 30-35 students, they will grow 5 types of vegetables and in return they would be provided with all the necessary equipment, training, technical support and have their water resources updated if needed. This is in line with Green Shoots holistic outlook of “a comprehensive approach coupled with routinely monitoring and evaluating to keep the project grounded and assess realistic impact”

http://foodtank.com/news/2015/05/growing-a-future-the-green-shoots-foundation-works-to-empower-cambodian-you

Since September 2014, 42 schools have set up vegetable gardens and selected batches of 35 students per school to be trained. Out of which, a number of schools are already on their second or third batch. Adding up the numbers shows almost 5,000 students have been trained and working on vegetable gardens. Video of students in the garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTaUO47AAqM

Students have been at the core of ASPUS, taking home not only the skills learnt but also produce that is harvested. The remaining produce is sold in the local markets and each garden can earn, on average, USD 50 per harvest.

Besides students, another aspect central to this project is the community. A year into the program we can envisage the dynamic being established where the vegetable garden, with its newly dug ponds and fresh produce, could play a strong part in community cohesion and showcasing best practices. It reinforces our aim of “demonstrating to youth that a rural economy can be thriving”.

However, the past few years have not been easy. A commitment to having an organic, chemical free harvest comes at a cost- and this can at times be the morale of teachers and students. How do you keep up spirits when produce is prone to pests and disease can spread quickly?

Green Shoots Foundation focuses on building the capacity of local partners, by brainstorming and sharing knowledge we aim to improve on project delivery and keep best practices fresh. This in turn encourages teachers to experiment and seek new ways. For example, we will source and share information on improving the “recipe” for natural pesticide and herbicide. Our local partner will make, on average, 8 technical visits per quarter- checking up on health of gardens and making sure products are applied at the right time and in the correct quantities.

Another crucial success factor in vegetable gardens is a management plan – and this is truer for shared spaces such as school gardens. It is imperative for teachers to have a plan for student management. For example, dividing up students in groups to look after specific portions.

Going forward, we actively encourage small competitions within the school gardens and organizing refreshers courses for teachers to top-up skills. Trial and error is one of the most common ways of establishing a productive garden. So another ingenious solution could be “pairing up” of schools to co-develop each other’s skills. Another option could be to provide a “loan” to schools which incentivises them to preform better and then feeds into a larger revolving fund.

However, there can be gaps within local knowledge and Green Shoots is adamant to bring new skills and techniques to its partner. We both recognize that combating climate change is another key success factor. This can include, boosting our partner and subsequent vegetable gardens capacity to prepare for hot weather, lack of water and an increase in pests and disease.

What happens next?

As a program designed for youth to ensure livelihood opportunities, we plan to follow our “graduates” into the next stage of their life.

In 2018 we will be entering a new realm of agri-training. We hope to be at a stage where we can offer that plan B to motivated students interested in pursuing agriculture as a career option. This will involve not only a vocational training centre but also providing scholarships for higher education in agriculture…..so watch this space.

As a charity registered in the UK and the USA we are open to partnerships that can improve on knowledgeshare. If you are interested in sponsoring a vegetable garden, or learning more, you can contact us to help meet targets and bring skills and healthy local produce to students in Cambodia!

Thank you for your interest in helping raise funds for the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2017!

We at Green Shoots believe FUN-draising can be, well, really fun! While long-term fundraising involves meetings, application forms, and lots of admin, raising money for the Big Give challenge each year allows us to be a lot more creative.

Read more »