Spreading the wealth through schools - Front Lines - Brief Article

Chief Executive, The, May, 2002

When Michael Hawley, Dreyfoos Professor of Media Technology at MIT and principal investigator for the "Things That Think" project at MIT's Media Lab, went on sabbatical, he decided to go someplace very different from the high-tech environment in which he lived. He traveled to rural Cambodia, spending time in some of the poorest villages in the world, places without plumbing or electricity, never mind high-speed Internet connections.

"Yet despite the undercurrents of tragedy," Hawley says, referring to the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, "I've never been to a happier place."

Hawley discovered that many children in Phnom Penh, some of them orphans, have managed to learn computer skills. They then travel to remote villages as "computer teachers," where they are treated as intellectual heroes. "Families compete to be their foster home," Hawley says, "giving them room and board -- and a real family. Kids in schools look up to the orphan teachers. In fact, if you ask any kids there what they want to be when they grow up, the answer is instant: 'I want to be a teacher. I want to help my family, my village.'"

Sadly, there aren't enough teachers or schools. But Hawley learned that the World Bank would match a $14,000 gift to build a new school, with solar power, computers, even a satellite link. He was inspired to help these kids.

So, it turns out, were others. After Hawley returned, he wrote a short article for Technology Review about the program. The response, he says, was overwhelming: Within a week, 10 people had sent gifts to build more schools. One came from an American school whose students had heard about it and raised the funds. For roughly the cost of one cheese pizza per family in their town, they built a school for children they didn't even know in Cambodia.

This month, Hawley launches the non-profit Friendly Planet to stimulate more investment. Not everyone can afford to donate $14,000, of course, so Friendly Planet provides alternatives. "For $100, you can own a 'share' in Friendly Planet, and I guarantee it will be worth a lot more than your dot-com write-offs," says Hawley. "As start-up companies go, Friendly Planet is a lot more interesting and much more deeply satisfying than any of the countless high-tech enterprises I've worked with."

Friendly Planet also published a book, Growing Up in Cambodia, that contains 200 stunning photos that show the beauties of life in Cambodia as seen through the eyes of the youngsters. For $100 apiece, Friendly Planet offers gift copies of Growing Up in Cambodia, each wrapped in a cotton krama (Cambodian scarf) with a silk sash and stuffed with goodies. Sales should generate $1 million, half of which will go toward building 20 new schools in Cambodia. The balance goes toward publishing costs as well as similar books planned for Bhutan and Jordan, to which Friendly Planet is expanding.