Home About Us The Problem Projects Self Help Achievements Cambodia Gallery Support Us Contact Us Thank yous	PROJECT 2nd SEMESTER PROGRESS REPORT For the period covering 1st October 2004 to 31st March 2005 I. SUMMARY OF OVERALL PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD This is a detailed progressive narration of the activities accomplished by the Promoting Civil Society Transformation (PCST) project for the first 6 months from 1st October 2004 to 31st March 2005 of this project cycle. Encourage the participation of children in the democratic civil society interaction among clubs, village association and government structures at village level. Of our next generation of Cambodian children, especially ones who live in remote areas, nearly 80 percent are not aware of their own culture and traditions, and often have more exposure to vulnerability of the lost their local background. The current history of Cambodia has left a legacy of high numbers of vulnerable people of all ages. The devastated health care, social services and educational facilities lack the force that the groups need to gain the limited access to financial means and the human resources to cope with the overwhelming needs of the people. Children are therefore not regarded as, nor have the opportunities and confidence to become fully contributing community members. In response to this requirement, CVD's PCST project has set up children's clubs in its target villages. The purpose of the clubs is to encourage children to form themselves into independent groups within their respective villages so that they can meet and discuss their day-to-day concerns, build trust and confidences amongst the children at the village level. 1. Children's Clubs: This is designed to meet the project objective where it states to encourage the participations of children in building collaboration effort. 5 new clubs have been established in 5 target villages: Tasanh Cheng, Prey Rumchek, O Sngout, O Tatem and Don Trek villages. There are 121 children who joined the clubs. The annual project plan was to set up 6 new clubs. One more will be established in the next quarter. Currently, there are 11 clubs in 11 villages: Kantout, Beng Run, Srae Andong, Chhork Roka, Peam Ta, Samlaut, Tasanh, Prey Rumchek, O Sngout, O Tatem and Don Trek villages. 261 children became members of the clubs. The number of members of old clubs has increased to 140 children. On 19/20 January 2005, training was conducted for 41 people (11 teachers, 30 club members). The topics were child rights, anti-child trafficking, and child labor. Teachers who were posted at CVD-PCST supported project were also trained on the above topics so that they can pass on information to school kids. Club members meet regularly in each respective club once every week. The children are encouraged to participate in group discussion, including child rights, child labor, child trafficking, sport leisure, folk story telling and sharing experiences with each other. Clubs are encouraged to gather their members to work for their community. The activities were managed by the club leaders with assistance from temporary school teachers. Part of the main content was to introduce children to understand solidarity work and build a unity among members. Staff conducted exchange visits once per month to each club in order to monitor clubs ongoing activities. 2. Education (Temporary Schools): This is designed to create opportunity for children to be able to attend literacy class in a temporary school and offer general awareness on rights and concept of civil society. Temporary schools were built in response to the needs of the poor children whose villages are located far away from the government schools and who cannot afford fo pay for means of transportation and distance traveling. This is to give these poor and unfortunate children an opportunity to access appropriate education and serves as part of the involvement strategy in human resource development towards the rebuilding of the country as a whole. Children can attend the temporary schools located in or nearby their villages. Students who completed first and second grades of primary (temporary) schools are encouraged to proceed to a higher level at the public schools. These responses answered to three different folds. One is to offer a chance to younger children who cannot travel far distances. Secondly, by the time they complete first and second grade, the children are grown up and able to travel further distances. Thirdly, when they are at temporary schools, their families are supported with families' economic development. Then they will reach a certain level where they can afford to pay basic cost for their children's education. During this reporting period, the project accomplished the following: Built four new temporary schools in November and completed them in December 2004. These 4 schools are located in 4 new target villages: Ta Sanh Cheng, Ta Sanh Tbong, Prey Rum Chek and O Sngout. On 13 January 2005, the 4 schools were inaugurated. The ceremony was presided over by the CVD Executive Director, the Deputy Chief of Samlaut district and the Tasanh commune leader. The village heads and the heads of the bureaus of the district also participated in the event. Completed the repair of 6 old schools in old target villages: Samlaut, Kan Tout, Beng Run, Chhork Roka, O Tatem and Srae Andong. Recruited 4 new teachers: Mrs. Sim Oeun, posted at Peam Ta temporary school, Mr. Kel Rady, posted at Ta Sanh Cheng, Mr. Khuth Sophal, posted at Prey Rum Chek and Miss Som Srey Mao, posted at Tasanh Tbong. New students continue to enroll classes in the scholastic year 2004–2005. The number of students increased from the figure reported in December 2004, which showed only 496 students, to now 504 students. Continued supporting to 11 temporary schools and teachers. Each teacher is equipped with a full set of education materials. 65 students (46 boys and 19 girls) were referred to the government (public) schools, of those, 42 (24 boys and 18 girls) students were referred to grade two, 23 (15 boys, 8 girls) to grade three. 88 students completed grade one and continued grade two at the temporary schools. 39 students completed grade two and continued grade three at the temporary schools. 100 students did not pass examination for a higher level. They continued to study at the temporary schools. Of those, 80 students continue at grade one, 20 students continued at grade two. 454 sets of school supplies were given to students at the 11 temporary schools. Each set consists of text book (literacy and numeracy), note book, slate, chalk, ruler and pencil, eraser and school bag. As the supplies are not enough to provide all poor children, the project cannot support students at grade three that were referred to government (public) schools. 542 school uniforms provided 504 students at 11 temporary schools. The remaining uniforms were given to poor children in the existing clubs, who are studying at the government schools. To ensure that the quality of education meets the national standard curriculum, the project works closely in cooperation with the District Education Office to train project contracted teachers on pedagogy and other educational related methodology. From 3 to 5 February 2005 training sessions on teaching skill were conducted for 11 project–contracted teachers. The training was facilitated by the Primary school director and Cluster-Head of Office of Education of Samlaut district. Project staff conducted a follow-up visit twice a month to each temporary school to monitor the teachers' activities, student attendance, weekly teaching schedule and weekly lesson plan and to advise teachers where appropriate; i.e basic understanding on general environment at schools sites, cleaning of school compound, general sanitation and leisure activities.       Click to enlarge Promote attitudinal development among villagers, particularly within village associations/clubs in order to lead to positive change. 1. Self-help group establishment: This is designed to address the primary constraint of villagers (the poor) who need to resolve the economic pressure so that they could maneuver to set up long term group development and self-sufficiency. The purpose of setting up self-help groups was to raise the sense of community and restore the social structure which was broken down by decades of war. The groups are managed by their own team leaders, selected amongst the group members. It is the autonomous group where members are selected amongst the very poor villagers. Group leaders are equipped with skills like basic leadership skill, small business management, and community development/planning capacity. Group members have access to a credit scheme (know as Working Capital) with low interest rate as they need money for their farming activities. The collection will be made at the end of each harvesting season. Working capital has been very effective and plays a very important role in facilitating community development, especially answered to basic needs including families economic supports/food security. In general this is an interim measure taken by the project to provide credit to the groups. In the long term, this should be taken over by the formal financial institutions in the area. However, given the uncertainty in the present political and economic situation in the country, it is hard to predict that there will be financial institution in the rural areas, which are accessible to the community we are working with. Hence we may have to make a medium term arrangement if credit is still a strong need of the community. A kind of a community structure (micro-credit institution) may have to be set up in order to manage and facilitate the community's working capital. Saving is another method which is introduced to the self-help group members. Each individual can save as much as they want and the saving is recorded by both, the individual member and the group leader. They can withdraw their saving when it reaches the amount as specified in the policy, but will not excess the amount they have saved. 11 meetings were held in 5 villages where the self-help groups were formed: O Totem, Srae Andong, O Sngout, Beng Run and Kan Tout. These trainings focused on the progress of their farming, food production activities, the problems encountered, review group paper work, strengthening of leadership skills, problem solving and the flow of revolving loan. 12 meetings were held in 6 villages (Tasanh Tbonh, Tasanh Cheng, Anlong Pourk, O Sngout, Don Trek and Prey Rumchek) to form new self-help groups. 6 new groups of 71 families were established. The old 15 self-help groups of 74 families in 5 villages, of those 6 groups of 32 members, are able to run their group independently and the project has completely phased out from direct involvement in the group decision for those old targeted villages. 39 cows were provided to Self-Help Group members. 39 families of 17 groups received cows. There are 21 groups (15 old and 6 new groups), but the project provided only 17 groups (11 old and 6 new groups). As the number of cows is limited, the project only selected the poorest families (identified by group members). On 15 February 2005, a training course was conducted for self-help group members. 27 heads of household of the families attended the course. It included soil management, chemical fertilizer and its disadvantage, natural fertilizer and its advantage and composed-fertilizer technique. A two-day training course on cow breading/care was conducted on 10/11 March for 39 families who received cows.       Click to enlarge 2. Civil Society Promotion: This is designed to overcome the promotion of community structures, the involvement of villagers in communal decision and to encourage authorities' participation in order that they are recognized activities/projects that initiated by groups/associations with their respective villages, so that they are mutually agreed. One workshop was held with local authorities, 4 village leaders, 5 commune council members and 1 school director to discuss the Promoting Civil Society Transformation plan for FY 05 – FY 06 (building new schools, setting up new clubs and self-help groups), the identification of land for new school constructions, temporary school and landmine clearance at the temporary school compound. As result, 4 plots of land were identified and assigned for the project to be used. Four community meetings were held with the villagers in 4 target villages to discuss new temporary schools and also to present future project plans. Four community meetings were held in three target villages, O Totem, Samlaut and Srae Andong, to discuss and encourage a contribution to the repairing of old schools. As a result the people enthusiastically participated in the repairing and contributed appropriate resources such as thatches, bamboo and minor timbers for this purpose. On 19 January 2005 the project staff met with the Head of District Social Affairs to discuss trainings on anti-child trafficking and child rights. He was positive and showed willingness in supporting such activity for the community. On 25 February 2005 the project manager met with school director and Head of District Education Officer to discuss the capacity building for contracted teachers. The Project Manager attended monthly meeting at district level to present/update on project activities and the achievements as well as to draw up future plans. 3. Community Assistance: This is designed to meet the project objective and its recommendation where it is for SHGs to identify other community needs, which they can be involved in. Four meetings were held in four villages, Chhork Roka, Ta Sanh, Beng Run and Kan Tout, with the villagers and village leaders to identify the poorest in the community. 15 families were identified as the most vulnerable. Household supplies were provided to those 15 families in response to their day-to-day need, i.e. kitchen supplies, cloth, blanket and mosquito net. Met with the commune leaders in three target communes, Samlaut, Tasanh and Sung, seeking for involvement of the local authority in cow distribution to poor families. Provided light agriculture tools to 126 families of 17 SHGs. Each family received an axe, a hoe, a knife and a hand grass-cutter. All level of authorities showed their satisfaction with the project's activities which are really responsive to the people's needs in term of family economic development, especially the education facilities.       Click to enlarge II. PROCESSES THAT ARE BEING USED TO ACHIEVE THE PROJECT OBJECTIVE To successfully implement the project activities, we organized a training course on agricultural skills for all project staff. The topics included soil management, chemical and natural fertilizers, seedling method, crafting techniques and compose fertilizer. The training was held from 7 to 10 February 2005, with the facilitation from Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry. There were 13 participants - 4 from PCST project and the rest were from the other project from other CVD development project staff. This project responds, solely to the needs prioritized by the villagers and, for the most part, address family economic, food security and other physical assistance. However, CVD is aware of the need for social and personal development included rights awareness and sense of community restoration in targeted villages. III. PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE NEXT SEMESTER Release credit loan to 17 SHGs Supply seed loan Set up 2 new children clubs Support direct assistance to the most vulnerable family Train SHG member with agriculture skills Train children in new established clubs on basic child rights Organize the International Child Rights Day Schedule to follow up all activities to ensure the implementation of the project to reach the monthly, quarterly and annual plan of action Statistic of children in clubs No. Village name No. of club members Total Remarks Boys Girls 1   Kan Tout 9 11 20   Old village (FY02-04) 2   Beng Run 15 15 30   Old village (FY02-04) 3   Srae Andong 12 7 19   Old village (FY02-04) 4   Chhork Roka 7 12 19   Old village (FY02-04) 5   Peam Ta 14 17 31   Old village (FY02-04) 6   Samlaut 10 11 21   Old village (FY02-04) 7   Tasanh Cheng 13 12 25   New village (FY04-06) 8   Don Trek (Tasanh Tbong) 11 19 30   New village (FY04-06) 9   O Sngout 18 9 27   New village (FY04-06) 10   Prey Rum Chek 7 12 19   New village (FY04-06) 11   O Tatem 8 12 20   Old village (FY02-04) 12   Anlong Pouk 0 0 0   To be established   Total 124 137 261   Statistic of students at temporary schools Scholastic year 2004 - 2005 No. School name Grade No. of students Total Remarks Boys Girls 1   Kan Tout 1 14 16 30   2   Beng Run 1 14 16 30   3   Samlaut 1 26 11 37   4   Chhork Roka 1 15 13 28   5   Peam Ta 1 13 4 17   2 7 6 13 6   Ta Sanh Cheng 1 16 16 32   New school 7   O Sngout 1 21 10 31   New school 8   Srae Andong 1 26 22 48   2 13 8 21 9   O Totem 1 25 20 45   These schools   have the most   students. 2 21 23 44 3 27 19 46 10   Prey Rumchek 1 27 15 42   New school 11   Ta Sanh Tbong 1 25 15 40   New school   Total   290 214 504   Back     Home
Help and Hope to the Vulnerable Cambodian Vision in Development Battambang, Cambodia