Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
Smiling Gecko Switzerland was founded in 2012 to provide assistance and relief for families in need in the Cambodia. With a holistic and sustainable approach towards building an economically viable community, strongly focusing on education and training, Smiling Gecko Switzerland has won the support of many partners here in Switzerland. 4 years ago, the Smiling Gecko Carpentry as a part of the sustainable holistic Smiling Gecko project in Cambodia started to train apprentices, who are mainly from the slums. 4 years later, they graduate as full-fledged carpenters under the guidance of Lukas Koch, a Swiss carpenter who has dedicated his time and knowledge to help educate and train these apprentices. Now, they are making handmade products for sale, in order to raise funds for the next batch of apprentices to start their training. Each apprentice costs the school approximately CHF15’936 per year and we are hoping to raise funds to support these youths who want to make a change in their future. The funds raised here will be used for training the next batch of young apprentices for the next 4 years. We want to be able offer apprenticeships to the ones who want to learn a skill for their future so that they can find work in a developing country and feed their families and change the social sculpture of their community.
This project supports
youths from the most unprivileged part of society in Cambodia by offering them vocational training in carpentry and allowing them to find purpose and in future, a job or run their own business in their community. Despite most of them being illiterate when they started their training, patience and hard work from both the teacher, the mentors and the apprentices themselves have made all of these trainings possible. This handmade PepperMill is proof of their hard work over the last 4 years of apprenticeship at the Carpentry, supported by Smiling Gecko, an NGO that direct aid in the form of finance and other support to people in need in Cambodia, sponsoring projects that are sustainable both from an ecological and economic standpoint.
Some fun facts about the PepperMill | A newspaper writeup with Lukas Koch (in German).
Product Specification: *Palm Wood Pepper
Dimensions:
• Cylindrical Ø 5.0 cm
• Height: 210 mm
• Weight: approximately 400g
Components:
- Wood: Borassus flabellifer – Palmyra Palm
- Glue: Mirapur 9515 Rapid (Swiss Product)
- Grinder: Ceramic Grinder - CrushGrind® - Shaft (Product of Denmark)
- Surface treatment: TOA Teak Oil (Product of Thailand)
*This PepperMill is made from a tropical wood. Due the climate differences between Cambodia and Europe, it is possible that there might be slight cracks in the mill. However, this does not affect the functionality of the PepperMill.
** The ceramic grinder is especially good for the milling of the pepper.
