A Tribute To Our Hero – Dr. Mickey Sampson, Founder RDIC

All of our programs have been touched by Mickey’s influence.  To date, we’ve distributed over 250 RDI water filters in Chanleas Dai, decreasing the rates of diarrhea and disease and increasing attendance in primary schools.  RDI’s New World video series plays regularly at schools in our target area, teaching children literacy, health and hygiene, and lessons about the importance of community, forgiveness, and honesty.  Nutrient-rich plants from RDI grow in school lawns at Chanleas Dai, providing important sources of vitamins for teachers and students. An RDI foot-powered water-pump provides running water to our house in Chanleas Dai.  Even our teacher attendance tracking system was inspired by Mickey.  How we give, who we work with, how we work with the community, and how we find and treat the people on our team have all been influenced by watching Mickey, asking him countless questions, and following his actions.

Perhaps most importantly, through staff trips and trainings at RDI our staff have seen the power of possibility, the potential they have to be change agents using simple tools, and a little creativity.  We’ve sent dozens of former and current staff to learn from the RDI team.  From government teachers to our child educators, each one has come back inspired to reproduce some part of RDI’s positive impact back home.  After seeing the innovative rice-husk composting toilets, our child educators helped students create their own simple toilets in their backyards. Once they’d seen the karaoke videos and puppet shows developed by RDI’s design team, our English and Computer teachers began using song and media learning in the classroom. 

For me, Mickey’s influence has been less tangible, but constant.  Going to RDI with our tours or for meetings, I always left with a renewed sense of possibility, a stronger commitment to getting it right, and a faith that incremental change mattered.   Mickey taught me that good development work requires commitment, presence, and patience; that giving is never as good as guiding, and that each one of us has the potential to make changes of consequence.  

We cannot express how grateful we are as individuals and as an organization to have known and worked with Mickey.  We know that he has touched the lives of many of you as well, inspiring your lives, study, and work, and wanted to dedicate this newsletter to his example.   In the coming weeks once we know the needs of RDI we will be setting up a PEPY memorial fund in his name.  For those who would like to donate to support RDI and Mickey’s ongoing work through them, you can give online at RDI’s website or through PEPY.  Please note that your donation is for RDI support.

With gratitude and in respect, 


Maryann, Daniela, and The PEPY Team

PS – If you knew Mickey, or even if you didn’t but you have been inspired by hearing stories about his life and his work, please comment here and tell his family and friends how Mickey has affected your life. 
If you are in Phnom Penh this Saturday there will be a memorial service at RDIC.

MEETING A TRUE VISIONARY

byPEPY Volunteer Tom Wilson

Few people are blessed with the opportunity to see the work of a true visionary. And before meeting Mickey and seeing his ideas in action, I would never have imagined that one person could affect positive change on such a dazzlingly diverse scale. After spending a mere few hours with the man, however, I believe that I witnessed greatness, and feel truly fortunate to have had that experience. Never before have I met such a creative force in solving and preventing problems in the developing world. Nor have I seen a person able to not only envision the most brilliant of solutions, but also make each one a reality. What I will remember most, though, is not simply what he accomplished, but the way in which he did it. The visits to RDIC are some of my greatest memories from the PEPY trips, and I am truly sad to learn about his death. I will remember him fondly, and will strive to follow the example of such a brilliant and compassionate man.



To be sure, Mickey was an exceptional scientist, but to stop there would fail to even scratch the surface of his unique gifts. More astonishing to me was his ability to find elegant, multi-faceted, and remarkably simple solutions to a vast range of issues. Never content to look at a problem in isolation, he understood that interconnected problems in a developing country require their solutions to be equally holistic. And, perhaps more importantly, he understood that he would be unable to affect real change if only his fellow gifted scientists could understand his ideas. To that end, he created projects that anyone could grasp; 5 year olds, donors, hapless liberal arts trained volunteers – he made us all understand needs and solutions that in less gifted hands might have seemed overwhelmingly complex. I can’t count how many times my jaw dropped or my hand slapped my forehead as I was struck by the simplicity and sophistication of a Mickey project. And no sooner would I wrap my head around one idea than he would astound me with another.

There are many brilliant scientists, but Mickey was one of very few who could rightly be called a genius.

PREVIOUS PEPY TEAM JOURNAL POST

A plainclothes hero

First posted on January 19th 2001

byPEPY Managing Director Maryann Bylander

I think our entire team has a new definition of the word hero – Mickey Sampson. I wasn’t expecting my first hero to look so disarmingly normal, with a shallow southern accent, plain clothes and a laid back way of talking to us like we were already friends. Though he has a PhD in Chemistry, a vast knowledge of Cambodia, and some superhuman ability to understand the way people, society, and change works, Mickey spent 3 hours slowly and deliberately explaining the work of RDIC to our team in ways that we all could understand. I’m not even sure where to begin- this man and his incredible staff do EVERYTHING. 


Just a few examples:

– Creating ceramic water filters that are cheap, made on-site in Cambodia using local materials that are easily replacable. These filters have reduced diarrhea incidents by nearly 50 percent in families that use them. As diarrhea is one of the top causes of deaths in Cambodia, this is a staggering number. 

-Creating a recipe to make scabies and lice soap using natural oils that are accessible all over the country using easy technology. Mickey trains local women to make this soap and spreads the method when he travels, allowing them to make a living off of the soap (which is cheap enough for even poor rural families to buy). Scabies and lice affect the majority of Cambodian children, so this is a HUGE contribution.

POINTING THE FINGER IN THE MIRROR

First posted on January 28th 2008

by Former PEPY Intern Michael Woodward

“We as people, even though it may seem insignificant, need to start taking small steps towards change. Everyday we should be doing something that means something, because if everybody does a little something then the whole begins to shift.”

It is simple truths like this from Mickey Sampson, the founder of Resource Development International, that make him so captivating. Sampson, a former university chemistry professor, moved his family to Cambodia 10 years ago and soon after founded RDI. A self-admitted science nerd with a short attention span, he overflows with ideas and captures the attention of all around, his speech jumping naturally from scientific to layman, from serious facts to self-deprecating humor. A tour of the RDI facility with Sampson was inspiring, and it was challenging to absorb the immense amount of information he was so eager to impart. Combining education, technology, and sincerity, Mickey and his team at RDI manage a wide range of projects that empower Cambodians to help themselves.

Ask questions – Know where you are giving your money and ask questions when you work with or support development programs.



Speak up – If you see something that is wrong, don’t just sit there, do something about it!  Mickey didn’t go through life pointing fingers, he went through life solving problems, speaking up when he saw something he thought was wrong, and taking action to solve the problems that were most important to him.



Give – Be the change you wish to see in the world.  Give generously with your time and your money.  Give to RDIC to support the work Mickey started: www.rdic.org
.


Love – Care about the people you work with. “It’s all about the people,” as Mickey said.  If we all take more time to know the people around us, our lives and the lives of others will have more meaning.



Live Simply – Mickey embodied this.  He recognized that happiness could not be equated with material wealth.  



Make Time – Despite having more emails than anyone we knew and a higher impact to donation ratio than perhaps any other NGO working in Cambodia, Mickey made time to spend with his family EVERY day.  He prioritized spending at least an hour each night with his kids before they went to sleep and reminding them how much he loved them.



Don’t Give Up – Looking into a bathub full of brown water with which to bathe his children might have turned others away before they even started.  Dealing with corruption, failures, and the stresses of working in an NGO world, which can seem more competitive than the business world, would likely drive the rest of us home.  Mickey stayed.  

He believed that changing attitudes and lives takes time, and he was willing to put that time in.  If you believe in something, you CAN make a difference, especially i if you are willing to put the time in to figure out how to get it right.  Mickey proved that.  We can continue his legacy by living these values and the lessons he shared throughout his life.


We will miss you Mickey!  Thank you for making all of us better people for knowing you.

 

 
RDI’s main focus is to increase access and awareness of clean water resources in rural Cambodia.

Programs:

Water Sanitation: Each year, easily preventable water-born diseases kill thousands of Cambodians.  To tackle this problem, RDI has implemented many projects, including: water filtration, arsenic testing, rainwater harvesting, and water pumps for rural wells.

Finding practical and sustainable solutions to these problems is challenging, and Sampson recognized that it’s not feasible to just give things away because people must feel a sense of ownership, empowerment, and agency in the betterment of their lives and health. As he said, “We’ve got to take good business principles with good development principles, and meld those two so that we can really impact people.”

Soap Making: RDI provides local training for women to make soap from coconut toil, palm oil, and other natural local products. These soap sells for about 13 cents a bar, making it much more affordable than imported soaps. Because of the coconut oil content, the soap is very good for the hair and skin and also helps control scabies and lice, which poses a major problem for children.

Education: RDI produced a series of videos that teach lessons about health, hygiene, the environment, the Khmer language and morals. The videos, similar in style to Sesame Street, combine puppets, animation, and humans to make the lessons fun and engaging. An RDI trained team of Cambodian translators, composers, and computer and video editing specialists produce the Khmer language videos in RDI’s one-room studio. 
  

RDI Education Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rdicam

For more information visit: http://www.rdic.org

Questions? Comments?

Please contact us @

newsletter@pepyride.org

http://www.pepyride.org