Prahok making loans
First income-generation loans knit strong links between riverside communities . . .
The UPDF's third loan took a detour from house-building into the pungent realm of fermented fish.
Through SUPF's active women's group in Roessei Keo District, 356 families in 19 riverside communities took loans in December 1999 to purchase the silver riel fish, earthen crocks, salt and sundry equipment necessary to make prahok, the popular Khmer-style fermented fish. In six or eight months, the fully ripe prahok comes out of the crocks and goes to market.
The loans were scheduled to match this cycle: during the fermentation, families paid only the interest, and only once the prahok had been sold did they repay their loans in full.
The 1999 - 2000 prahok loans were such a success (100% repayment!) that proposals for second and third rounds of prahok-making loans were approved and disbursed in subsequent seasons.
When the idea first came to UPDF, everybody saw in it an attractive loan proposition: the objective was clear, the simple procedures for making prahok were all well-known, the market was assured, the loan term was short and returns on the investment were guaranteed. But instead of simply issuing income generation loans to individual families, the UPDF proposed a district-wide process in which the women set up a special committee to survey all the families involved in the prahok business. In this way, prahok became a tool for linking communities in the district and strengthening the community process. The District Chief, who had joined SUPF leaders on exposure visits to Thailand and India, was supportive of the process and sat on the committee.
Now every year, when the district gathers all the prahok-making projects into a joint loan proposal, the bottom line is always very high - $50,000 or $60,000 - since so many people are vying for this opportunity. And every year, the UPDF plays tough and imposes ceilings that are well below the amount being proposed - $20,000 or 30,000. And every year it's very painful for committee members who have worked so hard and have had so many meetings! The compromises, the prioritizing and balancing that then happens works as a very potent community-process builder.
Photo coming soon
Riverside realities : It was a cold and windy day in December 1999, when the riverside communities in Roessei Keo District gathered to celebrate the disbursement of the first round of loans for making prahok. As part of the celebrations, honored guests were taken out in fishing boats onto the rough waters of the Tonle Sap River, where they had a good view of some of the riverside communities under threat of eviction for "beautifying the city."
Photo coming soon:
Khmers really know their prahok : During the months of December through February, the direction of the Tonle Sap River reverses and carries with it schools of tiny silver "riel" fish from the Tonle Sap Lake in northern Cambodia. For centuries, this has been the season when communities along the river buy basket-fulls of these fish from fishermen to preserve in brine in giant clay crocks beneath their stilted wooden houses.
