The Story of the Beginning
Cambodian mothers and daughters have been upholding the tradition of Khmer cookies and wafers for generations, all over the country, and particularly in Kampot. The key ingredients of coconut and palm-sugar are abundant in Kampot, an agriculturally-rich province. The markets in Kampot have many stands selling these cookies. However, the high-quality of the ingredients make the price of the cookies comparatively high, making them difficult to sell at the markets. Further, with the global economic crisis, competition became even more tough. Producers brought the quality of the cookies down, using lower quality ingredients, and decreased the income of the families directly in charge of the baking. Gradually, factories closed down, leaving many families unemployed. Unemployment badly hit the region of Kampot. Creating employment for the women of Kampot is difficult, with many holding low-qualifications and very low literacy rates.
However, a representative of Kampot Province, Mu Sochua, often in the villges and markets to meet her constituents, followed the scent of the baking cookies and found herself in front of Kampot women selling them. She bought some and found them sweet, reminding her of the cookies she used to eat as a little girl living in Phnom Penh and coming to Kampot with her family during holidays. When her sister, Khim, arrived in Kampot, she related the story. Amazing news! The two sisters would again be able to indulge in some of their childhood cookies! Further, together, they had an idea. They would transform the cookies to make them more marketable and to a wider market, in Kampot and Phnom Penh, to help support the unemployed women of Kampot.
Transforming the cookies was not an easy feat at first. First, the women did not wish to alter their recipe. The sisters not only wished to change the taste but also wished to change the form of the cookies—Sacrilegious! The Kampot women repeatedly refused the suggestions. Eventually, by respect, and also by trust in the two sisters, the women agreed to the transformation of their cookies.
However, they also went through many trials, experiments, tastings, and thereby disappointments but also laughter. The cookies were either too sweet for people with diabetes, or not malleable enough, or even broke when the amount of sugar was reduced. When one of the women remembered the mint added to her ice, without losing an instant, we gathered mint from the garden. But the resulting cookies were inedible! We laughed! However, we did not accept defeat. The genius inventor thought about experimenting with citronella…unsuccessful… and then, with ginger… and this led to a wonderful result!
At first, the cookie business was to be an extra-work activity for the Kampot Representative, with she her political agenda to follow. However, she devoted much of her time to the cookies as she believed the matter would be life-altering for so many women. Without jobs, women sink into lives where they lose their dignity; they are subject to violence, fall into alcoholism… In a country like Cambodia where Buddhist philosophy and traditional customs are strong, women easily resign themselves to the life they have. They explain their misfortunes as their destiny or as a punishment for their actions pursued in a previous life. This reasoning partly induces their toleration and complacency of the misery in their lives. However, the two sisters refuse this logic. They work forcefully against it, and the DEVI cookies has been one way they have been doing so. The sisters have worked so that the women would become less fragile and more successful. With the cookie business, the sisters have helped many women turn their lives around. Many women feel self-empowered and are no longer complacent—they work to change their lives.
