76,842 CHILDREN SERVED DAILY
Project Stats
START DATE
2008
SCALE & SCOPE
66 sites
TARGET POPULATION
71,234 children
ESTIMATED COMPLETION
2018
CURRENT PROGRESS
100%
STRATEGIC EXIT
2019
Cambodia
The Kingdom of Cambodia continues to build on what is now two decades of relative stability post the horrors of the Khmer Rouge rule. While still heavily depending on foreign aid, Cambodia’s natural resources are drawing foreign aid from other Asian countries, allowing for a measure of economic independence. Sadly, coupled with that has always been deep-rooted corruption and poverty, with one-third of Cambodia’s population living on less than a dollar per day.
Population
16,010,000
40% of Cambodian children are classified as child laborers
THE GOAL
Become a fully localized, self-sustaining social enterprise.
Phnom Penh
METRO POPULATION
1,501,725
METRO POP. DENSITY
5,700/sq mi
When Splash launched in Cambodia in 2008, partnerships were forged with large NGOs working on behalf of children: pediatric hospitals, feeding centers, rescue homes and schools. This led Splash to become geographically disperse (and not as concentrated as in other countries of service) with 66 sites in 4 cities around the country. Through this trajectory, Splash has learned a great deal about national scale, and the practices that are the most promising in that regard.
What did we do?
Splash decided to analyze the model for greatest promise of sustainability. Splash worked with the Yunus Center at the Asia Institute of Technology to analyze financial and business practices that bear the greatest promise for the long range. Deep analysis has led us to believe that Splash’s greatest opportunity for impact in Cambodia will come through social enterprise: commercial endeavors that benefit social good.
2014 marked our first year of pushing toward this goal. In fact, when Splash installed water filtration systems in 2014, 100% came by way of Splash operating as a commercial-service (with paying customers) rather than a charity-provider (with customers served via philanthropy). Based on this experience, Splash transitioned to an exclusively social enterprise approach in Cambodia.
Currently, Splash sites are managed by a local contractor. Splash funds the remaining costs associated with our commitment to schools. Our contractor visits each site to see how our infrastructure is functioning, provides routine maintenance at about half of the sites, and shares his social enterprise so sites know who to contact for maintenance moving forward.
What did we learn?
We saw success and sustainability when supporting the efforts of other local NGOs. In these cases, the NGOs continued to pay for spare parts and services to ensure the system worked and would continue to serve their vulnerable populations.
With the successful transition of these sites from donor recipients to customers, we supported our local contractor to register a social enterprise which continues providing services and spare parts to sites that needed them.
Impact
Learn more about Splash's impact here.
Partnership
"Department of Education, Youth and Sport highly appreciate Splash’s working activities, and we strongly support its program which promotes health education for students in Phnom Penh city.”
Mr. Chea Cheat
Director
Department of Education, Youth and Sports
Department of Education, Youth and Sports
