ROTARY PROGRAM FOR OCTOBER 29

          Pierre Mainguy’s topic for today’s program was Community First’s Aquaponic Project in Cambodia.  Pierre is president of Community First Initiatives located in Pasadena.  He has been a financial analyst, private equity advisor with Stommington Investments, and Business Development Manager at Media Defender. He is a graduate of the Management Institute of Paris with a bachelor of science degree in finance.

          Community First is a network of likeminded changemakers and people.  It is a nonprofit organization.  Its mission is to connect and pool its resources together, in order to bring about lasting change in poverty-stricken communities through the creation of local solutions to global problems.  It does not focus on a single aspect of poverty reduction , and believes in creating an eco-system of solutions that address the multiple problems that relate to poverty.  It has worked on developing  integrative poverty solutions in communities since 2007 and has opened its first country offices in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

          Aquaponics is a system of aquaculture in which the waste produced from farmed fish or other aquatic animals supplies nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purify the water.  Because of its automatic recirculating system, aquaponics does not require much monitoring or measuring.

Mainguy’s company motto is: “creating local solutions to global problems.”  In this regard, the company began working in Cambodia in the Sen Sok region, home to 13,000 people in 2009.  The goal is to have ways to bring about better living conditions, by way of better nutrition.  In these communities 40% of the children have malnution, which affects their cognitive skills.  It brings family aquaponic systems to a village.  The kits work with soil, returns freshwater to fish, fish produce ammonia waste, ammonia oxides bacteria consuming ammonia and converts the waste to nitrates.  The system is 16 feet in length and includes a fish tank, filter, growing beds, sump tank.  The end result is to provide more food to families.

The supply chain grows vegetables and edible fish.  The objective is to eliminate chemicals from the food being grown.  In Cambodia, most of the women do the work to produce fresh vegetable under this system.  Systems are expandable and recirculate water.  It is not only the cost of system that is involved, but the training that goes with it.  The fish typically grown are Tilapia and crops grown are just about any vegetable and root vegetables.  The company funds its work through donations.  A typical system and training cost $15,000,