Summary:
- I came upon the decision that I will be continuing the idea of using waste combined with natural resource to make product, and my final product intervention will be shoes-Shoes possibly made out of rice stems, maybe combined with rubber or plastic if accessable. (From my research, the major plastic and industrial company that generate waste are in the Camboida Capital and it is simply not economic for the company to transfer their waste to these rural villages that's 3 to 4 hours away. The waste of these companies goes to a trash dump located right outside of Cambodia's capital.)
-Why shoes?
Shoes are essential for agricultural workers (who most of these families are) and for everyone. the 2 biggest problem that rural cambodia is facing is water and road:
"Water and roads are two key elements for rural poor communities in Cambodia to improve both their infrastructure and their access to services and resources.Rural people are cut off from central administration, with no infrastructure, no roads, no communications that link the rural zones to the city …. Rural roads provide access to schools, education, health centres, rural markets and even to towns, thereby narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor ….Then you have water supply …only 26% of our rural people have access to safe drinking water … approximately 7 million Cambodian people do not have access to safe drinking water. Just outside Phnom Penh, our capital, you find people who use water from the pond, water from the river, water that’s not safe …. During the dry season, women walk long distances to get water …. Safe water will prevent people from getting sick … and from getting poor …. Because of unsafe water they get malaria, diarrhoea, dengue – all those diseases make people poor because they then have to pay for medical treatment and sell their property and so on.”
He Ly Thuch, Minister for Rural Development
It is too ambitious for me to be building roads and there are well constructed system for clean water that other charities are doing, so i decided to do shoes, which i believe will first be used domestically, and maybe be exported in the future.
- For the past two weeks, I have contacted the NIKE headquarter production manger-Patrick and Bottega Veneta's production manager. Just to get a sense of the whole production process of shoes. Bottega is one of the most high end hand made Italian leather woven shoes and i just wondered if somehow Cambodia can achieve the same - high quality hand made shoes. But for now, I will be prototyping shoes made from rice stems. since rice stem is the most accessible natural resources for rural cambodia.
-Len suggested me to look at the shoes that buddhist monk wear, they have very simple form, yet durable, I will make a trip this week down to the buddhist foundation and buy a pair, open it up, and see how it is structured.
To summarize all above point and report my progress and thoughts:
I am creating a method of woven rice stem shoes that are durable enough for the farmers or workers in Cambodia, these shoes will be woven by their wives or their daughters to show the males that even though females can't do heavy agriculture work like they do, the females can still contribute to the family by weaving these durable and comfortable shoes, Once this concept is established, then maybe in the future there are opportunities for export.
6 comments:
Hi Angela,
Well, it appears that you have made a very difficult decision and completely changed the direction of your thesis project. This is sometimes unavoidable. Your original project idea turned out, after a lot of effort and thought by you, to be very difficult. When it is such a struggle to solve a problem, it often means that the problem is not solvable (through design), and you have to reconsider your early assumptions. While I know that this is a painful realization, the steps you are taking now to rethink your project are correct and necessary, and I am ready to work with you, Len, Mary and Patty as you change your focus and revise your ambitions for creating a product that will improve living conditions for impoverished people living in Cambodia.
Your reasoning for deciding to work on shoes makes sense, given your research on conditions in Cambodia. The lack of paved roads makes traveling to and between rural towns very hard and slow, so there is a real need for sturdy shoes that are appropriate for walking under these conditions. You correctly identify the need to carry water and other essential materials is a key to giving people the tools to lift themselves out of poverty. And, by developing a design for a shoe that could be fabricated using locally available materials or waste products, you could create a way for them to create jobs while also supplying themselves with a product that will directly contribute to their well-being. There are other important benefits to having sturdy shoes; for example, walking barefoot exposes villagers to picking up parasites through their feet. One serious outcome of this kind of parasitic exposure is river blindness, which renders millions of poor people blind, which reduces them to begging for the rest of their lives. so, the simple act of providing durable shoes has multiple positive implications, and is an excellent topic for you.
Unfortunately, because of this change, you are now way behind, and you need to make very rapid progress. You need to identify which materials they will use to create these shoes, and then start making prototypes right away, so that you can run tests and improve the design. Please let me know how I can help.
steven
Dear Steven,
Tnankyou for the thoughtful reply.
I am excited about this new changed direction of my project and is ready to take on the challenge of finding the right materials, forms of the shoes...etc. Len had kindly pointed me in the direction of maybe looking at the shoes that buddhist monk wears, because it is the most simple formed but yet sturdy shoes.
For the material of the shoes, as i pointed out in my blog post, i will be using the stem part of the rice to weave out the shoes, reason being that this technique had already existed since ancient time, and is well known through out china, japan and korea. (they are called "grass shoes")
I have been putting my effort in getting a grip on shoe production and understanding the construction of a shoes and I am finally making my prototype.
I am certain that this is the absolute right direction to go in and i am ready to take on the challenge of being behind.
I BELIEVE that making a junk design without proper research is meaningless and i am very happy with where i am now.
I will bring in rich prototype and research on Monday.
thanks
Angela
Great, Angela. I am glad that you have reached this point. Your decisions are clear and you have a strong new direction for your project, so I am really looking forward to meeting with you on Monday.
steven
oh and also, i don't think i have made a very difficult decision and completely changed my thesis project at all . My aim is still to produce something out of "nothing" and that was why i was testing on making building materials, which through my research proved won't be doable due to my lack of knowledge of traditional cambodia architecture and also their resources of "waste".
Most company in Cambodia that produces waste are all centered in their capital, and as poor as cambodia is, it will be extremely difficult for the companies to agree on transporting their waste to these rural villages.
I proposed rice stem because it is a natural resource that can be get almost everywhere, especially when rural Cambodians are mostly farmers.
thank you :)
ill see you monday!
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