Community Shop at Ban Sam Kha : Lessons learned from Aj.Suchin

Community Shop at BanSamKha


It took more than the utilization of the technology and the trainned knowledge/ skills to set up a grocery store like the one at BanSamKha. What BanSamKha's Community Shop gives to the BanSamKha villagers is more than the groceries or the consumables commonly found in the usual grocery store.


It gives the opportunity to learn to the villagers.


Aj.Suchin shared his experience that
At this community store, the villager was given a chance to develop literacy and learning skills through the need to do the accounting and to manage the shop.
Of course, if we were to give the computing machine or any other machine which would help the villagers to do these tasks, the villager might handle the task easier. However we would take away the opportunity to learn from them in return.


From this case, it appeared that the villager who recieved this chance has developed her literacy and learning skills. From this point, her confidence in learning and doing things have gradually been developed and she appeared to be able to handle more and complicated task/ problems like planning and managing her other small businesses and also the farming.


Furthermore, the shop was set up to give the people in the community chances to learn from each other.
For example, if the shop were to put in the liquers and cigarettes on the shelves in the store, the shop would gain some cashes from selling these addictive items but the community will surely receive the damages resulting from the consumption of these products. Therefore to decide what to sell, or what not to will be carefully planned from the villagers' habits and culture.


The point that is really important is that if it is right to always rely on the technology to do things or to make the system more productive. Sometimes waiting to use the technology at the right time would bring much better outcomes from the system of interest. Human factor is the one that could not be overlooked.


Question: Can we call the communicaty shop at BanSamKha  a social enterprise?