September 26th, 2010
These are the top 12 questions people have been asking our staff, listed in no particular order:
1. Why do you sell the pumps instead of giving them away?
We do not sell the pumps the same way as a business does, we sell them at a loss — a large loss. We buy the pumps, transport them, market them and then sell them for only a fraction of this cost. By selling the pumps we ensure that those who are best able to use the pumps get them, because only if they feel that the pump will change their lives will they invest so heavily.
2. Why are the pumps so expensive?
21 kilograms of steel isn’t cheap. We do our best to keep prices down. The ideal price for the Super MoneyMaker Pump is $95 and for the Hip pump $35. However currently we can offer the Hip pump only at $45 and we cannot offer the SMMP at any price until we get another shipment.
3. Can you give one to me? After all, you are a NGO and have lots of money.
We do not give our pumps away. Instead we allow farmers to invest in themselves; the cost of the pump is small compared to the new income that can be generated. Additionally we are not a rich NGO, we exist to empower farmers, not enrich ourselves financially.
4. Can I have a discount?
We do not currently offer discounts, since pumps are already sold at a loss. Instead of offering a discount, we offer $5 to pump buyers who directly refer other pump customers. We seek to partner with and reward local marketers who put time and effort into selling our pumps and pump parts.
5. Do we have spare parts to replace if needed?
These pumps are designed to last for years. The only parts you will need to replace — rarely — are the pistons, which are cheap and easy to replace. If you need new pistons you will be able to find them in your local store. And the more pumps we sell in an area, the more local stores will carry our parts and pumps.
6. Are the pumps easy to use?
Very. They use your own body weight to pump a fantastic amount of water.
7. Can they be used to water a rice field?
An average person can easily supply 20 – 30 liters of water per minute with the SMMP. For a vegetable farm this is an immense amount of water. But rice uses a lot more water. While the pump can feed a rice paddy the water it needs, it will be a lot more work then for a vegetable farm. We do not currently target rice farmers as potential buyers.
8.Do you make money from pump sales?
No, we lose money, a lot of money, on the sale of each pump. The sales cover the production cost, nothing more.
9. Is this a new project?
This project has existed for years in Africa, and has recently extended into Cambodia.
10. Do you have GPS/GIS?
No, we are poor, quite poor, and currently rely on poor-quality maps and cheap computers (all netbooks) to find our way around Cambodia.
11. Where do you operate?
Currently our area of operation covers around 800 square kilometers, mostly within Kampong Chhnang. We occasionally visit and market to other areas.
12. Can I pay in monthly installments without taking a micro-finance loan?
Paying monthly is micro-finance. We cannot and will not do installments ourselves, and we wish to work with micro-financiers who can handle these types of transactions. We have heard from some farmers that micro-financiers will charge 30-60% annual interest. This might be fear, or more. We will look into this issue.
September 20th, 2010
 A pump that the villagers use for drinking water. It cost the local political party 150+ to build. It's very far from their fields, and the political party will not let them use it for their crops, likely because it is shallow, and if it goes dry that might be bad for the political party's following. July 15 – Sept 15, two months of work
You all remember what our organization looked like two months ago, before I or any staff arrived. Now we look quite different. We have a furnished office, staffed with four people, and a constant supply of volunteers. We have moved from serving mainly just one village to having a target service area of 800 square kilometers. We knew little about the pump; now all staff are experts. Once we thought there was competition; now its very clear that none exists. At the same time, there was doubt about demand for the pumps; that has long been dispelled. All documents used with the pumps are now fully in Khmer, and all detailed to the specifics of Cambodia. We have grown, but we have grown responsibly, implementing cost-saving measures and collecting data.
Now let me elaborate on each point.
We have scouted our 800 sq km zone fully, chosen target areas, met with government officials, collected data, conducted plenty of pump demonstrations, and scheduled many more. We are already almost completely booked with demonstrations for the next month. Currently in this area we have one store set up to sell the hp pump, and several commune leaders who are eager to help sell them. Due to the fact that we have no extra SMMPs we cannot currently supply any of those for sale.
We have learned a lot about the pumps. We now know how to use them. We know how to take them apart as effectively as a marine does his rifle. Beyond this our Khmer staff have become experts at explaining why an NGO would sell pumps, and convincing the people that it is their success that we care about, not the sales of the pump. We have also decided on a system to make the pumps compatible with the pipes available in Cambodia. This saves farmers time and money, and most importantly prevents the farmers from attempting to melt PVC piping onto the pump — which is a terrible idea that leads to massive problems. All of our pumps now come with minor attachments, increasing our costs minimally, but guaranteeing that farmers will not have any issues.
With this pump knowledge we have conducted many demos in all kinds of environments. While the hip pump is generally appreciated and somewhat sought after the SMMP always wins over the hearts and minds of the crowd. With our demos thus far we have secured 2 guaranteed SMMP sales, and many possible sales of both pumps when the farmers have more money after their next harvest. The only issue with these sales is that we have already sold out of SMMPs and we must wait to make most of the actual sales. When we receive a shipment of SMMPs it is my goal to already have customers lined up so we can deplete the majority of our stock within a week.
We have developed the basic infrastructure to succeed. We have been working closely with Village Development Committees (VLCs) to set up demo times and spaces for us; we are working with the Ministry of Rural Development to get tax exempt status on imports; and we have managed to scour the government ministries for an incredible array of maps of rural data. Finding the maps was very difficult and many many times bribes were solicited, although none were paid.
We have implemented cost-saving measures. While we rented a car once to conduct demos, we have abandoned that idea as it was too costly. Now we attach a cart to a motorbike and transport the pumps to the demo sites. It slower going and more annoying for the staff, but it saves 80 percent of the money it would otherwise cost. The office is kept cool not by an air conditioner, but by 3 cheap fans, saving us an immense amount of money. But even our office saves us money. Our office is not like other NGOs, we are not on the ground floor, we do not have a fancy location, but we do have cheap rent that includes plenty of space, and all of the furniture for any and all of our needs. Finally, and regrettably, we have been saving money by not paying the majority of our staff, unlike the above, this is something that, as Paula says, must change.
Thank you for these two wonderful months.
Eric Gonzalez
September 17th, 2010
On September 14, we sent our first grant application to Apex Foundation. From Paula Shirk, our founder:
To the BB2C team,
I feel a little emotional sending this e-mail. This morning we sent off our first grant proposal. All our grant writers came on board with no experience (with the exception of Ufei, who came on later and has been unfailingly generous with her experience.)
The task is not just writing the proposal but finding the appropriate funder, and then keeping all those details organized. (The last thanks to Shahreen, our program administrator on the Brooklyn side.)
Murray, our consultant, commented that the staff is a little green. But we decided that we like green. Green, as Garth writes, shows up for work each day:
“One of the first things that compelled me to join Brooklyn Bridge to Cambodia is the organization’s genuine grassroots culture. Paula Shirk’s initial experience in helping one family has in essence become the experience of everyone involved in the organization! I think it’s this ability to internalize BB2C’s history and mission that makes its mostly volunteer staff show up for work each day. I’m excited that our reward isn’t just another paycheck; it’s the creation of sustainable economic stimulus in a very neglected poverty-stricken corner of the world.”
Thank you, Robert, Valerio, Ufei, Garth, Veronica, Elisabeth, our green grant writers.
Paula
September 17th, 2010
Colin Taylor, our Program Officer, filed this field report on September 8, after visiting several communities in the area.
Kimlan and I took a trip to Sanmeakki Mean Chey this past Wednesday. After my last trip to Chuk Sor and the info from Adam, I decided that to streamline the scouting process it’s better to work with these commune leaders, who are called Village Development Committees, I think. They were compiling average incomes of villages in their communes at the time and seem to be quite knowledgeable. They said that economic activity there generally consists of wet season rice farming and then dry season garment factory work, and they felt there could be some demand for the pump, but not that much.
After this meeting we stopped because we saw a house with 2 wells right next to each other and were asking about dry season depths and such, which were around 6 meters in one, which is different from the reported average of 10-15 m. The people at the house were interested in the pumps and I thought it could be good if they had one because they’re in a very visible location.
After a few more conversations with farmers and lots of driving we crossed the railroad tracks, which aren’t technically operational, but saw a wooden platform with about 12 people on it rolling through the countryside. They were using the lever type system you see in western movies to move it.
We then went to the commune office of Thlok Vien. They had quite the staff (about 4) at this office and seemed very interested in the idea. There’s a lake nearby that people use for some vegetable growing and we set up a demo for all the village leaders.
Then we moved onto Khnaar Chhmaar where the officials were on lunch break but the neighbors of the office insisted on us going to the leader’s house. This man was extremely generous and welcoming offering us lunch and tea. His children had surprising levels of English for the villages. He seemed to have a decent standard of living for this area and is interested in buying a pump because there’s a well in front of the govt office and many locals use it and he would like them to use a pump with it, though he wants a discount.
I think we’ll stick with the method of first contacting all the government officials in the areas, it’s definitely more efficient and we’re putting them into our database which include well depths and other water sources.
However, there’s a lot of places that I plan to go back and see for myself. The commune officials seem to know a lot, but they could always be overlooking, forgetting, or unaware of many things. But I think it’s important to work with them. As they can invite us to meetings with all the village leaders, who then decide if they want us to demo for their particular village
Colin
September 15th, 2010
 An SMMP Pump On August 27, Eric Gonzalez, our Program Administrator, sent this e-mail to the BB2C team about his day demonstrating water pumps in Chuk Sor and Andoung Tramong. More news to come!
Today the staff traveled to the community (khum in Khmer) Chuk Sor, and conducted several demos. Everyone loved the pumps. However these same people also commented that they cannot currently afford the pumps; they felt that when their next harvest came, they would be able to consider buying the pumps. Some of the farmers were interested in micro-loans and others could likely be convinced to accept micro-loans if they knew more. Due to this, we will try to work more closely with mirco-lenders who might be able to help us.
On the hip pump and how tiring it is; Benjamin, through no fault of his own, was using the pump incorrectly. The user’s manual is misleading, and according to how understood it, the hip pump would exhaust a sturdy farmer in 15 minutes. However, today at our demos we taught everyone how to use it correctly; an old woman who used the pump correctly pumped dozens of liters of water. She said, “It’s so easy I could do it all day.”
As for the SMMP, [Super MoneyMaker Pump] the price [$140] seems to be daunting, but its power is unquestioned, lots of “ooohs”, and “ahhs”. There is no doubt that the farmers know that this pump could really help them.
In Andoung Tramong, the leader who saw the demo last year choose not to buy because “it was too hard to use.” Today during the demo, while using the pumps he said, “Is this the same pump?” Compared to last year we now have an immensely better piping system, and we know the correct posture to use when pushing the hip pump.
We now have one store set up. Our proprietor is a previous buyer; she now knows how to use the pump, and she has agreed to help us sell it by demonstrating her pump. She will receive $5 from any sale.
Lep Los, the leader of a village, and a very hospitable man, chose to return his pump, but I made a strategic deal with him. The deal is that he can keep the pump, in return we can use his home for pump and piping storage, meaning that we can have small teams conducting local demos without having to transport the wares from Phnom Penh, which on a motor bike would be incredibly difficult. This should reduce the cost of doing local demos to only a few dollars per day.
Today wasn’t cheap, but now everyone has lots of field experience, and we have plenty of data to go to micro-lenders with. The cost was about $65 (car-$45 Fuel-$20)–more then I expected. Until we get more SMMPs there will not be a next time in the villages with the car and the SMMP. Instead we will stick to hip pumps unless we develop a better transportation method.
People who have the pumps seem to love their new manuals that we have given them. We also finally managed to get an ACCURATE map of the area from the government office. The previous maps were very very useless.
Our next scheduled demo is on Monday with Asian Outreach Cambodia.
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