Trickle Up provides $100 grants to impoverished Cambodians living in Angkor Park who have no farmland or access to capital so that they can start businesses to support themselves and their families.
While tourism has helped bolster Cambodia’s sluggish economy, many people are excluded from vital economic development opportunities. Trickle Up works in partnership with APDO, a Cambodian NGO, to train poor villagers living alongside the ancient Angkor temples to improve the quality of their businesses to compete in the tourist market. Though surrounded by tourist dollars, the poorest lack skills and access to markets. Training and capital help them take the first step.
The poorest are given skills and business training followed by a $100 grant to start a business to improve their families’ lives. Entrepreneurs then can join the Village Bank, a savings and credit group, and the effect of each dollar multiplies.
Entrepreneurs will report better family nutrition and increased school attendance, savings and access to credit. Income will also increase: an impact study found that after 3 years APDO entrepreneurs saw daily per capita incomes increase by 133%.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
