6 year anniversary!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 6 years since I bravely put my hand up to speak at an Earth Day event in 2015. I was pretty new to Siem Reap, I’d been thinking about how I could run a Plastic Free July awareness event and the call for speakers came up. I said yes before I could chicken out and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done!

If you want to read more of that story, you can read it here

The journey has evolved and things continued to grow, I went for spending time on my days off from work to do free workshops, chat with people about sustainability and join clean ups, to needing to shift the focus in late 2016 to put PFSEA as my first priority and do freelance work to pay the bills.

2018 was a magical year when what had been Plastic Free Cambodia became Plastic Free Southeast Asia as more and more engagements were called for in other countries in the region, businesses were facing similar challenges with single-use plastic throughout SEA. 

And then in late 2019 I decided to take the leap and move back to Australia to focus on both SEA and Australia. (Let’s not talk about how that leap ended in a belly flop, but then 2020 was a belly flop year for pretty much everyone, right?!)

One of the things that I’m most proud of, is that during 2020, despite the difficulties, the communities in Southeast Asia, and I’m especially aware of the community in my ‘other hometown’ of Siem Reap, continued to stick together and keep environment a high priority even in these difficult circumstances.

And as I write this, I think of the struggles the Cambodian community are now having with Covid19 and wish them safety and perseverance to reach the other side.

To each and every one of you who’s been on this journey, thank you! If you’ve joined an event (online or in real life), hired me or my team for workshops, or just read the occasional email – thank you, you’re part of this story too. Feel free to share it with me by reply email 🙂 

Below, I’d like to share a few photos from the last 6 years – there are so many but I’ll choose just a few.

Sarah, Sambath and Sam, 2015
Plastic Free July award winners 2016
community workshop with art from trash
community eco fair talk
Kristen leaving her green thumb print
with Steffi at Babel Eco Store, Siem Reap, Cambodia