Article written by Triston Pang Erh Syen

Smile Village is a project in Cambodia maintained by Solutions to End Poverty (STEP). STEP reaches out to families living in slums and integrates them into a community where they are provided with better living conditions and are trained and equipped with necessary skills to allow them to step out of poverty through the village’s multiple social enterprises.

CAPT’s Social Innovation (SI) Wing was involved in liaising with STEP and Smile Village, and multiple discussions and a recce trip were conducted, where asset mapping of the village was done in order to pinpoint key issues and needs of the community. Design thinking was then employed to generate effective and sustainable solutions to address these needs. The team of 15 CAPTains then engaged the community with plans that involved digital literacy and gamified learning, a cultural exchange that would enhance the arts scene in the community, and an expansion of the markets and products available to the village enterprises. Click here to learn more about the trip.