Consuming Helpfully

One weak spot Becca and I definitely have is the myriad restaurants and shops set up to help support people facing difficult situations.  We found quite a few of these businesses in Cambodia and Vietnam.  The premise of these operations is simple but effective.  The organization targets a socially marginalized group, whether sex workers, street children or the disabled.  Instead of simply giving them a hand-out, they provide sustainable training that allows beneficiaries to permanently improve their lives.

• Daughters: This is an organization in Phnom Penh that helps young women leave the sex industry.  Many prostitutes want to quit the work, but they seldom have real alternatives.  Daughters offers former sex workers careers in retail, crafting, spa treatments and food services.  They train the women and help them support themselves and their children through work that will sustain them for the rest of their lives.  They also make some delicious baked goods.
  
• Friends: Based in Phnom Penh, this umbrella organization targets street children.  They run a school, two restaurants, a clothing store and a souvenir shop.  Revenue from the businesses helps to support rescued children's education and housing.  They also serve as training opportunities for graduates as they transition to life on their own. 
  
• Epic Arts Cafe: Located in Kampot on the southern coast of Cambodia, this is a little cafe with excellent food which employs the deaf.  It's quite a fun experience because the menu has a small signing dictionary to communicate with the staff.
  
• Huong Lai: We found this restaurant in Saigon.  It was a rather upscale French-Vietnamese fusion place.  They train former street children and young people in difficult situations.
  
• Reaching Out: This store is located in Hoi An and sells traditional handcrafted items.  All of the merchandise is produced by disabled people in the area.  Landmines and Agent Orange affect a very large number of people in Vietnam and are especially tragic because they keep on causing problems even though the war is long over.
  
• LifeStart: Also based in Hoi An, this is an organization that sells crafts made by people (especially children) in poverty.  They also provide housing, scholarships and English lessons.  We took a painting and lantern-making class through them.  We started off painting a note card at an artists' workshop, a former beneficiary who is enjoying a successful career on his own.  We then moved on to make lanterns at the main location.  Everyone was very friendly and talented.
  
• Japanse Restaurant: Located in Hue, this restaurant supports a school for street children.  The Japanese schoolteacher who started it came on vacation in the 1990s and was so moved by the people he saw that he eventually moved and started his organization.
  
• Smile Cafe: We stopped in at this little air-conditioned place to get away from the Hanoi heat.  The restaurant and cafe is part of an organization started by Vietnamese former teachers in North Vietnam who set up schools for disadvantaged and street children.  They also run a hotel and cafe in Sapa on the border with China.
  
• KOTO: Stands for Know One, Teach One.  It is a very successful and well-recognized institution which takes at-risk kids and gives them a home and training in the restaurant business.  This was a special treat for Becca's birthday.  We had an excellent meal followed by pineapple creme brule and a cashew-chocolate layer cake that can only be described as heaven.
  
• Baguette & Chocolat: A French cafe run by the same group that founded Smile Cafe, the hot chocolate here was incredible.