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PCST Progress Report
Narration Period: May to September 2004
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A- Organization Name:
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Cambodian Vision in Development (CVD)
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B- Project Name:
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Promoting Civil Society Transformation among children at village level
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C- Project Number:
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CB - 037A
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D- Project Location:
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8 villages: Kantout, Samlaut, Chhok Roka, Beng Run, Sre Andong, Otatem
Ket, Otreng, Peam Ta, of Samlaut District in Battambang Province
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E- Number of Project staff:
- Project's Staff
1- LENG SOTHEAR Project Manger
2- NONG VISAL Team Leader
3- VONG HEANG Field Staff
4- POUK CHANTHORN Field Staff
F- Projective Objectives:
- To encourage participation of villagers, especially the children, in democratic civil
society and to exchange information within children’s clubs and encourage participation
with local government authorities.
- To promote attitudinal changes among villagers, particularly within and through village
association and self-help groups, which lead to positive behavioral changes.
- To develop a resource based village association and to ensure the sustainability of
these resources by strengthening their capacity to initiate and manage small scale
community-based projects requiring social welfare.
G- Project Rationale:
This project is implemented in a spirit of self-help group, in which members of the community
will participate in the development process and will address their own social issues.
Consequently, this approach leads to the achievement of total communal social welfare.
CVD's self-help group strategy is a main part of the development component. It is working well
with extremely vulnerable groups to foster the participation among its targeted beneficiaries.
This program is aimed to empower, encourage awareness building and to involve villagers in all
stage of the community development which focus on enabling them to reach a stable economic
self-sufficiency and social restoration.
A self-help group is a small, autonomous, non-political group of people who live in the same
vicinity or nearby and who have the same or similar culture that shares common concerns and
who come together voluntarily to work for mutual personal, social and economic improvement.
All members are obligated to participate directly and fully in all group functions/activities.
By then, the sense of community is built in order to a reach close collaboration, mutual
decision-making, and rights balance for their members. This approach leads to genuine
people-center development where they are not only at the center of the development effort,
but to take responsibility for their own success.
H- Project Achievement:
- To encourage participation of villagers, especially the children, in democratic civil
society and to exchange information within children’s clubs and encourage participation
with local government authorities:
1. Children's clubs
The children's club establishment was to encourage children to form themselves into
autonomous, independent groups within their respective villages with the purpose to
create a space for them to discuss their day-to-day concerns and to build confidentiality
among the children at village level.
This forum is used by the children to share their problems and seek appropriate
intervention to help those who are in difficult circumstances. The concept of the club
establishment is also used as an open platform for children to express their social needs
where it is expected to draw the attention from community members and their authorities.
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During the project operation, there were 8 individual clubs established within the
last two years, one in each targeted village, Bung Run, Kantout, Peam Ta, Oh Traeng,
Srae Andong, Chhak Roka, Oh Tatem Ket and Samlaut village. Major benefits that the
project gives to the clubs were to educate and raise awareness on social, environmental
and local culture orientation. These topics are directly beneficial for the children’s
day-to-day living and their future involvement in the society.
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The project facilitated different training sessions for club members in which children's
rights has been the most significant. Within children’s rights training session, the project
extracted some important content such as rights of education, daily living, art and culture,
personal expression, labor, child abuse, trafficking, domestic violence and some preventable
disease awareness such as HIV/AIDS preventive knowledge.
All club members are encouraged to attend literacy classes at the project's temporary schools
within or near their villages. All children who attended school are supplied with basic
educational materials, clothing, sport and leisure facilities. These education programs were
originally, designed to reach a level to where the children can read and write. These children
need to build on social understanding, community participation and the role of community member
and sense of community. On the other hand, children in targeted villages are motivated to reach
their highest level and quality of education. Children who completed the first and second grade
at the temporary schools supported by the project, are encouraged to continue their education at
public schools at higher levels, where it is applicable.
To ensure the educational quality for all children in our assisted temporary schools, the project
cooperated closely with Samlaut district education office for including the project contracted
teachers to receive basic training skills by profession trainers from the government department
of teacher training component. This opportunity allowed the project contracted teachers to be
equipped with quality teaching skills, methodology and the ability to fulfill and meet the
standard set by the National curriculum.
All project contracted teachers who are assigned to teach at temporary schools have now completed
basic training courses on teaching techniques/methodologies. These techniques are the standard
qualification of the district office of education. We must admire these teachers who were
originally recruited from the local villages. Their teaching qualification was very low. These
teachers not only equipped themselves with primary school education, but can now use their own
talent of methodology and can perform much better in teaching as they have thorough knowledge of
teaching skills from the courses.
This teachers’ training happened due to a recent project evaluation which found that most of
the teachers contracted by the project were not satisfied with their low qualification of their
teaching skills. Therefore, it is significant that the project has to build on the capacity in
order that these teachers can manage their teaching times and methods. The teacher training has
not just provided them with new teaching methods but it is also helped the children to receive
much improved lessons.
2. Clubs meeting
As part of the groups’ ongoing monitoring and support, the project encourages village children
(club members) to hold their regular meeting at least once a month. The meetings could happen
in the form of gathering their members into one place within their village. In some situations
the meetings were conducted during the community-wide event, where the children come and join
together and/or at a public location such as schools, temples, or even at a house of a club
member, where appropriate. These meetings are normally held during the free time or weekends
but most times they happen in the evening. The children are encouraged to participate and share
their concerns with the group openly. The issues are noted down by the group facilitator and
then raised to related bodies, such as to CVD staff, teachers, parents or local authorities,
where relevant.
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Based on findings identified by the project staff and reports by club members, we found
that most of the problems/concerns that happen to the children were related to children's
rights in general. In many cases, we found out that the mistreatment and misunderstanding
of rights of children were beyond individual comprehension, but were the community
responsibility, as a whole. The majority of the children involved were forced to do
hazardous work and their privacy restricted which consequently led to child violations.
There is a very slim opportunity for the parents to avoid, for what they see as the family
obligation is also a requirement for children in poor and needy communities to fulfill.
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When the issues are identified, project staff have to take appropriate action toward arbitration
of the concerns. We also found that many of the violations were caused by poverty and rights
ignorance. When there is great demand for survival, the parents require full participation of all
family members to work and earn income for the purpose of survival. In such case, the solution is
obvious. So appropriate socio-economic response has to take place in order improve the circumstances.
In this situation, they are not intended rights violations of the children, but a need for survival.
Most cases were solved by promoting income opportunities in order to increase food productivity and
self-sufficiency then child labor is reduced. By that time, children will be released of tension,
have increased time for playing, education and involvement in other children's activities.
During the group meetings, the children were also encouraged to discuss their personal safety,
life skills and ways to avoid confrontation in harmful situations. The children should listen
to their parents who talk with reason. This meeting also encourages the children be role models
in their community. Not just in term of their personal concerns but the education, local culture
and norms of civilization in which they are also encouraged to participate.
The project offers an atmosphere for all children in each village to come and enjoy/play with
other members of the group. This way, the project can benefit in many different areas, i.e. they
can hear and share their difficulties with the group members; they are motivated to speak up for
themselves, build relationships among friends within their respective community so eventually they
will have a unified environment amongst the groups. Finally, these children will have built a good
sense of community and stronger society is promoted among the children.
After each meeting, the project staff always gathered the children to involve in entertaining activities, where all the members are motivated to participate and share. The activities include folk-tales, pop-jokes and make up stories that were told by the project staff or sometimes an elder from the village. In some cases, the children can tell the group of different opinions and perspectives that they have experienced and/or encountered during their excursion trips to other locations out of their villages. This occasion allows the children to learn and share their knowledge with the others. All these activities happen on a regular basis in all children’s clubs and the project hopes to extend these activities for other groups, where appropriate.
3. Children's excursion trips
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Samlaut district is located in a very isolated area deep in the forest of the Cardamom
mountain range. Of all the districts in Cambodia this one has the longest period of Khmer
Rouge control (1969 – 1999). Children who live in Samlaut have grown up in an atmosphere
of war and oppression. They have little or no chance to see outside lives of other
communities.
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Their parents are originally the poor farmers with little or no education at all. In this
situation, the children who were born during the war time (1980 – 2000) who are less then
20 years old have very little information about the outside life style, culture, religious
events and the traditions of Cambodia as a whole. Their parents were living under a strict
control of the autocratic regime of Khmer Rouge for most of their life time and had been
told to follow, stay in line with their "Angkar" (Khmer Rouge term which means the
community organization) so they are controlled by the dependency pattern and look for
orders from their superiors. Thus, the children who live in this community are more or
less fastened to the traditional life style without self-initiative or the opportunity
tod strive for alternatives.
To offer an alternative and promote the participation for children among the clubs, the
project initiates some activities in order for the children to be involved and share in
the day-to-day life learning. To start with, CVD introduce excursion trip opportunities
for all club members. The excursion trips are aimed at equipping them with new perspectives,
ideas and was a cultural experiment for all children in it targeted areas. The project
makes available schedules and prepares for different sites, venues and events for children
to see/observe.
Locations that we arranged for the children to visit included cultural locations such as
old temples, pagodas, popular recreation and modern (town) living communities (Battambang)
which were beneficial to the children. Hence the children learn and see nearby communities
on a larger scale. Then they will challenge for bettering their own life quality in both
social and economical status. During the trips, the project brings along teachers, staff
and older people from their respective villages. The project staff and teachers are the
guides for children and they can relate histories, situations and the important events
related to the visited locations.
4. Basic child rights awareness
One of the project's goals is to build the basic understanding/awareness among children
on social issues. The issues that are commonly encountered by the children include
domestic violence, child labor etc. Samlaut children and their parents have little or
no education related to rights in general. Much of the time the project has to deal
with and arbitrate the rights violations and child labor abuse. Main causes of these
abuses were ignorance, misinterpretation and poverty reasons. There were cases where
the project found out that the children are forced to do hazardous work in the field
in order to help their parents for economic purposes. Because of the lack of
understanding regarding rights, obligation and responsibility the community found
difficulty in translating the concepts.
Throughout the project life, CVD trained 28 separate sessions on basic children's
rights and conducted 16 domestic violence sessions to self-help group members. The
training sessions are normally held during the meeting of the group. They are not
in depth but just enough to let the community get basic information and be able to
apply this to their situation.
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Within the meeting, project staff also held brief discussions on the value of
being part of the development process. This is to encourage more participation
of villagers, especially the members of the group. As it was stated in the
project proposal, it is very important to involve the people to take appropriate
action toward sharing common concerns of all community members and then they can
identify possible solutions. In this sphere, the member can either set up a
specific goal among their groups for seeking further intervention from their
community leaders. Part of the process is to encourage the villagers and
children to have access and closer collaboration amongst their leaders.
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The concept of the promotion of human rights is not just within their villages and among
the parents, but they are raised in the classrooms at the project supported schools as
well. The main aim for this is to have the information disseminated to as many children
as possible. Children are asked to read out to their classmates and encouraged to share
the knowledge with their friends and neighbors. All teachers of the temporary schools in
the project targeted villages receive thorough training on rights and domestic violation
knowledge. These additional skills are to enhance the teacher's knowledge so that they
can facilitate training sessions for the children in and outside the clubs. They are also
encouraged to pass on their skills to village members who they identified to be the most
at risk in their community.
During the sessions taking place, the project staff and teachers normally include other
information related to the safety of the children and their community as a whole. Some
of the topics included in the training are anti-child trafficking and HIV/AIDS awareness.
The training sessions also encourage the group to pass on this beneficial information to
the rest of the villagers, children and their parents. They are also encouraged to pass
this information to others and take appropriate action when encountering problems of
child abuse, risk of trafficking and/or other violations and reporting them to the
relevant authorities where rescue or protection is required.
5. Children's statistics
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No.
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School (village) Name
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Boys 2003-2004
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Girls 2003-2004
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Total
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1
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Kantout
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18
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10
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28
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2
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Samlaut
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10
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12
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22
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3
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Beng Run
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21
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16
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37
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4
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Chhak Roka
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10
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15
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25
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5
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Srae Andong
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36
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31
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67
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6
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Otatem Ket
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72
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64
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136
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7
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Peam Tar
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41
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56
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97
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8
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Oh Treng
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29
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35
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64
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Total
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237
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239
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476
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- To promote attitudinal changes among villagers, particularly within and through village
associations and self-help groups which lead to positive behavioral changes.
1. Self-help groups
The main expected outcome of outputs is to establish autonomous self-help groups in
targeted villages so that they can manage themselves in social and economical development.
Within this project cycle, the project established 8 new self-help groups in all of its
targeted villages and 16 meetings were conducted - two per group per village. The meetings
were about the introduction to group concept and the fundamental tasks/responsibility that
which each group member was obligated.
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It is one of the main strategies of CVD in building sense of community and social
structure restoration through the promotion of small autonomous groups/associations.
These group members were selected from the very poor families in the community and
taught ways to facilitate and manage their way of living with a little assistance
from the organization.
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The self-help groups are introduced, oriented, equipped and trained of mutual understanding
and setting common goals so that they can set up the support strategies to overcome their
plans. Families who volunteer for selection are keen to work to improve their earning
capacity and be actively involved in their community.
Within the groups, the project dedicated some inputs, particularly in light agricultural
materials/equipment. These are basically assets for facilitating food security,
self-sufficiency and emergency response. There was some small financial assistance, which
is only set aside as a working capital. The working capital is made available for groups
to involve in small business extensions or increase cultivation capacity within their
group. When the group fully functions, initiatives incur that allow the groups to set up
a system procedure. These systems were included on how to manage the existing fund among
their members and initiate a saving mechanism within their groups. Such capital was only
used to cover their internal group support. To date, the savings of these groups are
increasing and can be loaned to their members for promoting extra income generation.
Those group members are normally the poorest of the poor in their individual villages.
Because of the economic poverty, illiteracy and isolation in term of social contact,
they have become the marginal vulnerable with limited access to community decision-making.
At an early stage when CVD started the project, we loaned a revolving fund with the total
sum of $ 80 for purchase of basic agriculture materials and to set up seed banks in Beng
Run village, Samlaut district, Battambang province.
This initial fund was aimed to assist self-help group members (10-15 families) whose
families were in a destitute condition to be put to use to extend bean cultivation
capacity among their group members. The overall goal of this fund was to allow these
poor farmers to help produce more crops so that they are secured of long term
self-sufficiency. Most of the loan was allocated for short term agricultural
productivity at a very low interest rate.
These poor families returned loan capital back to the group and they are closely
monitored by the project staff and their groups’ representative. It is to be admired
that such a very small amount can change their lives from a desperately destitute
condition of this self-help group to self-reliance within a little over two years. It
should be mentioned as well that all members of self-help groups received small scale
capital loans, funding installment procedures and related book keeping skills training
from the project staff.
- To develop a resource base of village association and to ensure the sustainability of these
resources by strengthening their capacity to initiate and manage small scale community based
projects while addressing basic needs including food security and social welfare.
2. Local Capacity Building
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To ensure that a resources-based development and their management structure is
established, the project has regular meetings with the groups and their members.
The project set up plans of action and schedules for ongoing training for all
group representatives and key members of the group. It is very important that
the training sessions and concepts are reached by all its beneficiaries and
applied to the real situations within their living conditions.
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In the project's target areas human and physical resources were severely destroyed by
years of war. And we understand that these groups of people have remained poor not
because of lack of farming skills, but because they lack the capacity to control their
resources. Therefore, the overall strategy was to alleviate the level of independency,
self-support and sustainability. The approach was based on and referred to the self-help
group guidelines. In this way, the project trains various skills including saving, basic
financial management and capital loan procedure.
We believe that many families cannot sustain livelihood without outside assistance.
Therefore, in this project we allow a small revolving fund and asset loan to the group.
All assistance is functioned specifically for agricultural productivities and food
security. Additional to the soft skills training, the project also promotes community
participation in vision-sharing among the group members in the targeted villages.
Throughout the project lives, there were16 sessions held on community development for
all groups. The topics were focused on community solidarity, cooperative work and
ownership. The training was aimed at building on the confidentiality, sense of
community and affirmative development for their day-to-day life.
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To ensure that the concepts are interpreted positively, the project set up a
regular monitoring and facilitation to each group on a regular basis. With the
findings from our regular monitoring on to the group, we identified that there
are groups that can now fully assume independent group management, including
their monthly meeting, loan disbursement and fully managed group fund by their
group members.
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The approach that CVD carries out in the promotion of self-help groups’ orientation
on domestic violence and other public awareness is conducted in the form of informal
training where the villagers are encouraged to come together at regular community
meetings and disseminate information.
Some topics that needs in depth discussion, participation and actual plan on paper,
such as revolving fund management in the self-help groups small scale capital loans
funding installment procedures and related book keeping skills are conducted in a
workshop approach.
Prepared by
Leng Sothear
Project Manager
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