Smiling Gecko Cambodia (SGC) was founded in 2014 as a local NGO by photo artist Hannes Schmid. Under the motto “Cambodians for Cambodians”, a new model community was to be created on an entrepreneurial basis and with the people’s own efforts on their own rural land, providing people with training and a regular income in the agricultural, tourism, industrial and craft sectors. The holistic approach – modeled on our Swiss villages – is intended to bring work and income to where people live and thus prevent people from seeking their fortune in the big cities and ending up in misery there.
The Smiling Gecko project in the northern province of Kampong Chnang (60 km from Pnom Penh) is run by a Cambodian management and is a holistic project divided into clusters that complement and fertilize each other. The entrepreneurial clusters (e.g. agriculture, animal husbandry, carpentry, metal construction and, above all, the now well-known hotel resort “Farmhouse”) are intended to generate income and thus finance, among other things, the bilingual model school (Education Campus) for around 1000 children (from kindergarten to high school), which is also part of the community.
Our foundation founder, Gerhard Jansen, first met Hannes Schmid by chance in 2013, shortly after the Smiling Gecko vision had taken shape. With our start-up support, we were able to make a significant contribution to the launch of a project that has since developed rapidly and in an incredible way. In recent years, the Jansen PrimeSteps Foundation has also repeatedly awarded very substantial amounts for the start-up of new clusters and for the “Education Campus” school project. Around 400 people are currently working in the 150-hectare community and 500 – 600 pupils are already attending the new school. Around 30,000 people in the surrounding area now “benefit” directly or indirectly from the multifaceted Smiling Gecko Campus.