Discover What PEPY Means

A Letter from the Director

Welcome to PEPY Tours

PEPY was founded by a group of young social entrepreneurs who believe in our two-part model for change. Seeing a need for educational resources and advocacy in developing areas as well as a global desire for meaningful travel options, PEPY's founders have created an organization that fills this space at the intersection of development and tourism.

The idea for this organization started as a cycle trip across Cambodia which I co-lead with my friend Greta Arnquist. We rode from Thailand to Vietnam through the red dusty back roads of Cambodia to raise funds for educational projects. Four of our friends joined, and our team of people from five countries spent five weeks visiting schools and orphanages, teaching the first PEPY environmental lessons. The team raised enough money to fund the construction of The PEPY Ride School in rural Chanleas Dai, Cambodia. To mark the school opening ceremony on December 31, 2005, 35 people joined us for a one-week trip to explore beautiful Cambodia and support the school opening.

A group from that original volunteer team saw the impact this had on both the travelers and the community of Chanleas Dai and quickly founded The PEPY Ride, an international NGO now registered both in the USA and Cambodia. We bring together rural Cambodian people who might not know about or have access to the services of organizations in the city and travelers who are looking to give back but do not know where to best invest their time and money. Travelers who join a PEPY Tour are able to give back while they travel, support our on-going development projects, learn about this fast-changing country, and perhaps alter their lives because of these experiences. The communities and programs we support benefit both from the international exchange and time donated by the volunteers, as well as the funding for educational programs.

Many voluntours offer "episodic spectacles for the sake of tourism", to quote one of our board members. By creating a non-governmental organization (NGO) on the ground in Cambodia, we are able to operate sustainable development programs and offer short term visitors the chance to be a part of something ongoing. In addition to providing funding and time in support of our programs, participants come on our tours as advocates for all those who have donated to PEPY, to see our projects, learn about our mission, and have a chance to live what they give. Donating to an organization can be rewarding, but I believe that following up on that investment, seeing the good your money can do, and being a PART of the organization makes your involvement more meaningful.

On the development front, we at PEPY do not wish to ride alone, oblivious to the great work done by other organizations. Keeping our wheels true requires us to seek out the best NGO programs with similar missions to PEPY. So many organizations work as independent silos, rarely sharing their information, storing their knowledge to compete for limited funding, and very often repeating work. Some of that is inevitable, but we feel that so much can be shared and many millions of dollars in donor funding can be saved if organizations find the best practices among themselves and work together. PEPY is looking to be a bridge between organizations, gathering the best we can find in the areas of education, health, and the environment and delivering that to rural areas which are often overlooked in the race for development funding.

PEPY stands for "Protect the Earth. Protect Yourself" because we teach about the relationship between the environment and our health. Protect the Earth, and, in effect, you also Protect Yourself. In today's world, with so many partisan debates about "Is global warming happening?" and "Is carbon offsetting good?", there is often too much talk and not enough action. Rather than argue about if/when/how we are harming the earth, we at PEPY acknowledge that we are inarguably harming the earth in many ways and we need to ACT, beginning by making small changes in our daily lives. Global warming or not, we all agree that we are part of this changing planet, and by protecting it, we are protecting ourselves. This is the message we bring as we cycle and visit organizations throughout Cambodia.

In these first two years of PEPY trips, I have seen people blossom, grow, and take actions to improve their lives. Past participants have told us that the experiences they had here in Cambodia and the friends they made have given them new direction and inspiration. Seeing the students at the PEPY Ride School come to school with a new passion for learning and hearing their parents talk about their commitment to education through a greater understanding of the opportunities available to them have led me to make my commitment to PEPY. I believe that through this model we can combat illiteracy, help more children in rural areas continue on to secondary school, spread environmental and health education, and multiply our impact a thousand-fold for each traveler we inspire. PEPY is a testament to the power of the individual and we hope to prove to each participant that they too can be the change they wish to see in the world.

So, to answer the question "What is PEPY?", we are an educational NGO funded through a responsible tour operator. Or, we are an adventure voluntour operator funding sustainable educational projects. We split into two organizations for accounting and legal purposes, but in reality our NGO, The PEPY Ride, and tour company, PEPY Tours are working toward the same goals: inspiring and empowering people to improve their lives.

Thank you to our staff and team of volunteer interns here in Cambodia and to the hundreds of virtual volunteers and past PEPY participants who continue to support us daily, especially through the best marketing tool available, word-of-mouth! Thank you for visiting us and choosing to learn more about PEPY!

Protecting with Pedals,

Daniela Papi
PEPY Director

P.S. Continue to explore this section to learn more about the PEPY ethos, our Responsible Tourism Statement gives a detailed explanation as to how this ethos acts as the driving force behind PEPY. We continually look for ways to improve our organization and we appreciate constructive feedback. Thanks for visiting us!