Entries by mycgistory

Changing the Future

The Culinary Training Center (CTC) in Cambodia creates an opportunity for a very specific and strategic way to push back against poverty and trafficking. When vulnerable girls become equipped with marketable, lifelong skills like the ones taught at the Green Mango Cafe in Cambodia, life changes. The future changes. CGI is fortunate to have Chef […]

Be a Voice

After having the privilege to travel to Cambodia with my 14-year-old daughter, Jessie, and meet the wonderful girls that CGI serves, I was honored to take action on their behalf by hosting trunk shows. By having a trunk show, I am able to love my neighbors in Cambodia and be a voice for them here in […]

Imprint Project

In 2010, CGIDaughters was launched as a two-year residential program focused on professional seamstress and life skills training for women in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As CGIDaughters now becomes The Imprint Project, we rejoice over the transition between what was and what will be in the future. As you can see, we are changing because there is now space […]

Ly Phalla & byTavi

Earlier this month, Center for Global Impact’s President, Chris Alexander, was visiting the Green Mango Café & Bakery when the manager of the restaurant, Ly Phalla, received a phone call that her home had burned to the ground and had destroyed two other homes. Ly Phalla, who was the house mom at the CGI Daughters […]

Gardening for a Great Cause!

Kids and dirt! They seem to go together, don’t they? Alicia Cecil’s idea to give children a reason to play in the dirt will benefit CGI’s Culinary Training Center in Cambodia. During the CGIKids’ event at University Park, Saturday, May 11, Alicia invited Green Mango Café & Bakery cookbook authors Sonja and Alex Overhiser to speak […]

Overwhelmed by God’s Work

I will never forget the first time I stepped foot into the byTavi workshop. I followed Chris (CGI’s President) and Nathan (CGI’s Chief Operating Officer) up the narrow stairs to the second floor where the women work. When I rounded the corner and stepped through the threshold, I was immediately speechless and choked up. For the first […]

The Luxury of Making Choices

I caught malaria once. It came during a season when I was a missionary serving overseas among the poor. To this day, I’m not sure how or when I contracted the disease. I simply remember the pain and fatigue which overwhelmed me for weeks until I did one crucial thing. I bought medicine—a tiny pack […]

byTavi at Village Experience

Well, if you are as old as I am you’ll know the Village People’s one hit song was YMCA, but you might not know Village Experience (6055 N. College Ave. 46220) has a more contemporary message. Founded in 2008 by sisters, Anne and Kelly Campbell, Village Experience sells fair trade products handmade by impoverished women […]

Hearts to Help Cambodian Kids

“Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and  white, All are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” When Clare Herbert Woolston (1856-1927) penned these lyrics to a Civil War marching tune, she had no idea that children decades later would still be singing […]

Meet Nary Mao

In June 2009 Nary joined byTavi as one of the three original seamstresses. As part of a brand-new CGI program, the women shared the same sewing machine to make pillow covers. Nary brought great talent and creativity to the group as they were empowered to provide a better life for themselves and their families. Nary […]