KOTO - Know One, Teach One

12/01/2012 5:46 PM

So its 5:45 and I had a light lunch at 11:45. I'm starving but cant decide where to eat. Everything seems either too far or not what I want. I'm sounding pathetic when I say this, but I'm strongly considering going to the only American chain restaurant in Hanoi – KFC. The more I think about it the better its sounding. 

12/01/2012 8:13 PM

Kid that keeps coming around the cafe at night

So I'm just back from dinner at my local cafe/bar with my friend Truong who works here. He makes $75 a month working as a bar tender and he is possibliy the happiest person I have ever met. He works seven days a week and most of ten hours a day. Yet every time I come in here he is always playing American music and dancing around to it. Anywhoo, thats a different matter for a different time. All I  am trying to say is that these people are happy, no matter their state of life. 

So dinner was a very interesting ordeal. I went to a place called KOTO which stands for Know One, Teach One. It is a not-for-profit restaurant that was set up by a Vietnamese a few years ago:

Local Voice: KOTO founder, Jimmy Pham

Born in Ho Chi Minh City in 1972, Jimmy is of mixed Korean and Vietnamese descent. He escepd south Vietnam after the American retreat, and live in a compound in Singapore for 2 ½ years before emigreating to Saudi Arabia and the Asutralia. His mum worked all hours as a machinist and in a butcher’s shop.

“We were Catholics and I was a good altar boy at church but I went through a stage of rebellion, leaving home in my teenage years, but returned to finish my education. I started working for a travel business because I wanted to work in the tourim industry, and my company had an Indochina division”

“This company’s main destination was Vietnam, and I returned here in 1996 to check out hotels in Saigon. I went for a walk and met some street kids selling coconuts. I noticed their ulcers and blisters and asked them if they showered. They told me they washed next to an open sewer. They told me it wasn’t safe to sleep on the streets so they slept up a tree, in baskets balanced on branches. I was shocked. I bought them clothes and pho and extended my stay from two to 20 weeks, trying to help these kids.”

“I became a Vietnam-based tour guide with Intrepid so I could visit HCMC. I wanted to make a difference. I travelled through Vietnam and met street kids in every town. All of the kids were desperately poor, but after three years of buying them meals and putting them through English classes, some kids in Hanoi said to me, “We trust you now. But what are you doing is not helping us. We need jobs.”

“So in 1999 I opened a sandwich shop called KOTO (‘Know One, Teach One’) near Hanoi train station. It was tough but none of my kids jumped ship, all stuck by me. I then borrowed money from family and friends and moved to a larger place, and employed about 20 kids. After two months, Bill Clinton came”

“We then started the process of becoming an NGO, applying for funding and dealing with the police and tax guys for the first time. Now we have a 24-month training program that empowers not just street children but many disadvantaged kids. The training is very intense, taking in hygiene, health and safety training and every aspect of the restaurant and service industry. About half the kids in each intake make it through to graduation day. Our program has been so successful that the InterContenental took our entire year of graduates in 2008; the whole year. We have other graduates at the Sheraton, and no working in Macao, Australia and Dubai.”

“We use appraisals, training and development to nurture careers. We employ a 50/50 ratio of boy and girl at KOTO. We’ve women role models – Vietnamese women are amazing, they are so tough. They’re in rice fields, bricklayers, road workers and they have the strength to be income earners and manage – KOTO’s manager is a woman.”

“Home is Vietnam now, but though I speak fluent Vietnamese I still feel Australian, it’s the education I guess. But one day soon I may go to Saigon and – who knows – start a KOTO scheme there.”

Lonely Planet - Vietnam

KOTO is located near the Temple of Literature.            

KOTO opened a new location in Saigon in recent years

Lets put in this way, if I were ever to even consider opening a restaurant I would import all my employees from Vietnam. This restaurant, which now has multiple locations throughout Vietnam, has a 100% success rate. In 2008, the InterContinental hired the entire graduating class, not out of need, but out of want. That is the kind of pupils this school/restaurant is producing. Major corporations around the world are bidding for these kids; kids that have come from the poorest of the poor. Who have come from living on the streets to working on massive cruise ships and at five star resorts. I spent 200k on dinner which included some of the best fish and chip I have ever had and two local beers. I think I'm turning into a budget traveler... I spent $7.50 on dinner and feel somewhat guilty about treating myself to a night out. I also had to take a moto-taxi there and back which cost about 100k, but this is a restaurant, no matter what budget you are on, that you have to visit. It has a ratio of client to employee of 1:1. Let me give some meaning to that. At Al Dente, the client to employee ratio is about 1:13 and you would end up paying four to five times the amount, excluding wine. It really is quite the place. 

 13/01/2012 9:24 AM

So I woke up this morning feeling like its time for a move. So I’ve checked out early and am flying to Nha Trang tonight. Il be on a beach within 12 hours. I booked a little hotel called Pho Bien thats just across the street from the beach. Its $14 a night and has a balcony overlooking the ocean. Free wifi, mini-bar and full shower. This is just what I need.

I was intending to fly tomorrow, but I don’t think another day of drinking coffee, eating and drinking is needed so its time to move south. I'm heading there earlier, and I may back track to Hue by bus, but not entirely sure yet. 

Other than that not much new to report on – I think thats a sign that its time for a change. Nha Trang should be awesome.