- Written for Feature Writing Semester 1 2011.
Amongst the hot, dry air of Phnom Penh is a busy yet small hairdressing salon nestled in a small village specifically for Cambodian women. A chance to spoil themselves after a busy week, an opportunity to learn some hairdressing skills or simply to mix with other women, Chocolate Blonde Cambodia is a business with a very special woman at the lead.
Jacqui Rawson, 43 years old, has taken on challenges and a new, exciting adventure in one of the world’s poorest countries in the hope of empowering young Cambodian women. Without any children of her own, or being married, Jacqui insists the move to Cambodia was the best idea she has ever made.
“At the time the volunteer position I was able to apply for just happened to be in Cambodia, so Cambodia chose me in way, not the other way round, but I knew I loved the place within the first week of being here.”
In 2010, Jacqui packed up her belongings, closed up her high pressure business job and made the big move to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After six weeks of setting up, which included finding a venue, getting equipment and locating staff, she opened the doors. Named Chocolate Blonde Cambodia, this salon has many hidden incentives for Cambodian women, Jacqui and her colleagues.
“My aim is to train Khmer’s in western hairdressing techniques that are most in need, those that have been trafficked, abused or are extremely poor, to give them a chance at a better life,” says Jacqui.
“I did it as a desire to help people that need it, plus do something positive and worthwhile rather than exist in a western culture that’s focus now seems to be on making money and buying the latest and greatest. It was a chance to move out of the material world”.
Currently, the academy and salon only have two staff members. These include Jacqui as the manager and head stylist and Sovann as a hairdresser. Sovann is a Cambodian hairdresser already well trained in western styles and techniques.
"I was very nervous when I first came to the salon as Khmer and western cultures are very different, in language and the hair is very different too,” says Sovann.
“It is a big experience to work in a western salon and it helps me to be able to do both Khmer and western customers in the future."
Before Cambodia, Jacqui was based in Brisbane. She moved to Queensland, after returning from a long working holiday in London, where she threw herself into a business position at Suncorp. After several long years of working with the company and building an impressive portfolio, Jacqui got itchy feet and in a blink of an eye her suitcase flung open, giving dust no time to settle on it.
Originally from Nelson in New Zealand, Jacqui was raised into a family who never had a great deal of money. Growing up, she loved reading, playing outside with the neighbourhood kids and heading off to parks or up hills looking for a new adventure or discovery. Her upbringing was similar to most that grew up in a small, relaxed town. Her mother would not let her watch TV until dark and never gave Jacqui house keys as her front door was never locked.
With owning the title of the middle child, Jacqui longed for something more in her childhood. She was known in her family for not being able to keep still, always on the lookout for a new quest. Shortly after completing schooling in her home town, Jacqui moved away as soon as she could, leaving her family still living in New Zealand today.
Phnom Penh, home to over 1,573,544 people, is overcrowded with traffic, annoying salesmen and a terrible postal system. But even with these flaws, Jacqui is in the middle of it trying to earn money just like the other million people struggling to live.
In a country where only 29% of the population have mobile phones, Jacqui wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
“The street is always filled with sound, horns tooting, children laughing or crying, food sellers walking and riding past announcing their wares and hammering, sawing from the construction that always seems to be on the go in Phnom Penh,”Jacqui says.
“There’s a real community feel outside my house and down my street as everyone says hello and attempts a chat with our ability to speak and combine English and Khmer.”
According to Jacqui, the locals of Phnom Penh are excited and overwhelmed with joy of having a western hairdresser, someone that understands what they’re asking for.
“I wanted to do something at the grass roots level in Cambodia where I was able to help out the people who may never have the same opportunities as a westerner.”
After having enough of her Suncorp business job and staring at the same four walls every day, Jacqui wanted a change of scenery but also was sick of the financial crisis.
“People were whinging about how much petrol was costing them to put in their big flash, four-wheel drives and I just kept thinking that is so not important,” she says.
“There are so much more important things in the world, so I decided to go bush for a while and go somewhere where the people really had something to whinge about, like not being able to eat, or educate themselves.”
Jacqui’s family, friends and work colleagues were all encouraging and supportive of her sudden lifestyle change and still are. Her manager at Suncorp, David Worthington, 47, insists that she was always seen as a leader no matter where she sat in the hierarchy of the organisation.
“Jacqui has enormous enthusiasm and care for other people,” he says.
“She gave up a decent salary and comfortable lifestyle in Brisbane in order to move into the unknown. It is typical of Jacqui that rather than just set up a commercial enterprise in a developing country to exploit a business opportunity, she established something that uses commercial success to fund training. It is selfless genius.”
Hairdressing was never a life career for Jacqui. After she moved away from home she went to university but never completed her university degree, as hairdressing caught her attention. After three years of studying, Jacqui was a qualified hairdresser.
Hairdressing was never a life career for Jacqui. After she moved away from home she went to university but never completed her university degree, as hairdressing caught her attention. After three years of studying, Jacqui was a qualified hairdresser.
A free spirit, who loves change and new adventures, Jacqui never could settle in one particular occupation. Drifting from a waffle maker, furniture removalist, mobile connections retail assistant, business analyst and project specialist, Jacqui’s career catalogue is endless.
In 2009, along with several other Australians, she volunteered as part of the VIDA (Volunteering for International Development from Australia) Program. This program places skilled Australian volunteers in developing countries in the Asia Pacific region in line with Australian Government development priorities and the Millennium Development Goals. Jacqui was appointed to be a part of the Organisational Development team of 14 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
After volunteering for a year, Jacqui knew she would return despite an interesting case of the ‘firsts’, including three episodes of fainting, one trip to hospital, a motorbike accident, consumption of a cricket and having an IV drip put in her arm only for it to end up giving her a blood clot.
When asked why someone would possibly start a business of hairdressing in Cambodia, Jacqui laughs it off with a simple answer.
“Hairdressing, although a skill that I never thought I’d use again, is something that is quite easily passed on in a vocational training sense and, of course, it’s fun!”
While it is early days for Chocolate Blonde Cambodia, the salon is growing in numbers and income each month, recently enough to cover expenses.
“It varies but now we are getting at least two or three customer a day,” Jacqui says.
“One of my Khmer staff left a month or so ago so there’s only two of us now and we’re kept busy most of the time – can still get a little busier though. To have another western hairdresser come and join me would be the answer to my dreams.”
Jacqui, even living in hard conditions with humid temperatures and the constant sounds of the Tuk-Tuks driving past, has no regrets.
“Even after my accident of getting hit by a motorbike I knew I wouldn’t and couldn’t come home to heal,” she says.
“Once I decide I’m doing something, I never give up.”
The future is clear cut for Jacqui and Chocolate Blonde Cambodia. She hopes to have a happy, progressive clientele in the salon that also ensures the training school can grow and teach people a lifelong skill.
Jacqui’s next goal is to ensure that Cambodian women who have had destructive lives can now earn a decent wage, safe, away from harm.
Jacqui quit the rat race through doing something she loves and is quite simply, living the dream.
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