Kinyei Café

“Cafe” in Cambodia as in Australia means more than just coffee. It means a place, open to everyone, where you can go to share – ideas, news, culture. Kinyei Café, more than just a place to buy a drink, will serve as a platform for the emergence and development of ideas, businesses, music and art. Drawing on our experience with Open Space Technology and social project facilitation in Cambodia, Kinyei is creating Kinyei Café as a profitable, thriving hub of social innovation, cross cultural engagement and local artistic talent.

Social Mission

Kinyei Café’s social mission is attacked on three angles:

1. Trainee staff from youth-centered organizations

Following the proven model of training cafes by offering skills and employment to vulnerable local youth, Kinyei Café will be staffed by youth from local youth-centered organizations. Youth from disadvantaged backgrounds (such as trafficking, forced displacement and extreme poverty) are given the opportunity to work as trainees, gaining highly employable hospitality skills and invaluable self-sufficiency.

2. Open Space

The Kinyei Café premises currently hosts Kinyei’s Open Classroom – a venue for ad hoc peer-learning events, open to local groups and visitors alike who wish to share skills or knowledge in public workshops. Kinyei Café will build on the success of this project, adding financial sustainability and the welcoming environment that a cafe naturally creates.

3. Kinyei incubation program

Profits left over will be directed towards Kinyei’s focussed incubation program, a project which supports specific grassroots, youth-led social projects with training, networking events and small startup loans.

Premises

Kinyei Café is located on Street 1.5, right next to the town’s central market. The premises comprise the two floors and comfortable balcony of a French colonial era townhouse. Rennovations are mostly complete, simply waiting on capital to complete upgrades to the kitchen/bathroom area. The establishment has an open, modern warehouse flair unique in Battambang.

Services

Kinyei Café serves expertly made espresso coffee and a small selection of baked goods. Periodic live music will be available on the second floor. The first floor has been rennovated to a gallery space that will feature visual art. Both music and art will be supplied by Battambang artists, which it is famous within Cambodia for.

The second floor space will continue to be available for the Kinyei Open Classroom project, and the establishment will continue to support and publicise the activities of local groups that use the space for meetings and events.