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Concept Paper
for
Vocational Skills Training Center for Disabled Children
- INTRODUCTION
a. The Organization
Cambodian Vision in Development (CVD) is a neutral, humanitarian local non-governmental organization,
legally chartered with the Ministry of Interior of the Royal Cambodian Government as a Cambodian
charity N° 887. The Director, Mounh Sarath has been awarded a Medal of State Officer "Monisarapgoern"
by the Royal Cambodian Government's sub-decree No. 774, dated 1st September, 2003 for his dedication
in preserving the natural and local culture for Cambodia.
b. The Project
There is already ample assistance by NGO's in Cambodia for landmine victims, blind and deaf but somehow
the polio victims slip through the net. In fact, there are higher numbers of children with this
disability in the areas. In Cambodian culture the disabled people are socially discriminated against,
so it is almost impossible for these children to earn a living without any appropriate skills. The
social stigma with being disability in Cambodia is very obvious.
c. Background
The CVD skills training center was established in 2003, which providing basic income generation skills
training to approximate 70 disabled children annually and to be increased to the maximum of 150 per
annum. Main skills provide are motorbike repair, electronic (Radio, TV, VCR and VCD repair),
dressmaking, hairdressing and gas welding. Primary target group are children with disabilities. New
skills will be identified and studied for future expansion.
d. Cause of Problems
One of the main causes that contribute directly toward poverty was because of unemployment
opportunities of the population. The opportunity confine are added by various factors including level
of education, lack of know-how, technology application, ability in goods/services creativity and the
resource mobilization capacity.
- THE PROJECT
a. Rationale
Cambodia is slowly emerging from its emergency phase to a long-term development stage after two
decades of political unrest. A complete destruction of its social and public infrastructure had been
admired and lives of its people still living under line of poverty (less then a dollar a day of income).
Poor public welfare is still an issue for Cambodia and it is estimated by the UN that Cambodia has
approximately 15% or more of its population are living with disabilities. People with disabilities are
mostly the poorest among the poor (estimated at 39% of total population). Approximately 170,000
Cambodians are living with disabilities and estimated 21% of these people are children. The main causes
of disability in Cambodia are polio, congenital diseases, war and conflict, accidents and landmine
explosions. Disability is integrally linked with poverty.
In Cambodia, PWD remains very dependent on their immediate families and wider communities. However,
they face discrimination and misunderstanding from the very community members upon which they depend.
Adults and children with disabilities are therefore not regarded as, nor have the opportunities or
confidence to become fully contributing community members. Without supports of their potential and
needs, PWD will continue to be socially and economically marginalized.
Many of the districts in Battambang, especially the northwest provinces, are the most war-ravaged areas
in Cambodia. The interference of prolonged civil war led to many problems including socio-economic,
social structure, and education. It is estimated that around 65% of the population in these remote
areas are illiterate. The high illiteracy rate leads also to lack of community development, self
support and lack of understanding of the consequence of any forthcoming concern. Due to the ignorance
and poverty in these remote villages in the Battambang region we have situated many children with
disability.
b. Skills identified
CVD is cautious of the applicability and effectiveness of skills learnt to be able to put into practice
at their respective village and community. It is not just a vocational training center for the disabled
children, but this project is to ensure that the students are able to use the technology for their
economical survival, self-reliance and sustainability of their livelihood.
Refer to CVD's recent village economic assessment report, we learned and observed that, the people in
the remote areas used the second-hand tools/equipment and material such as bicycles, motorbikes, small
generator and engines as their main auxiliary supplies to get their work done. These assets were
frequently broken, and they have to bring them to repair or weld at the repairing shop in far distance
villages/markets. CVD is therefore, only selects the most applicable skills to be trained to the group
and carefully monitoring for their success. These below skills are being offered by the center and will
be extended, where appropriate:
- Small engine repair (Gasoline and diesel)
- Bicycle & Motorcycle repair
- Welding (Hydrogen and electron)
- Hair-dressing & beauty saloon
- Tailor (Cloth-making and sewing)
- Agriculture (Crafting and multi-cropping, animal husbandry)
- Electronic hardware repair (TV, VCD, DVD and Radio)
- Computer training (Software, Hardware, Operation)
- Language courses (English, French, Thai, Japanese)
- Food processing (Cooking and food recipe)
- TARGETED GROUP
a. Disabled children
b. Non – disabled children from poor families
c. Caregivers of HIV/AIDS affected members and children
d. Drug – addicted with complete rehabilitated children
e. Children in difficulty circumstances
The primary target group will be polio disabled children, aged from 15 – 25 years old. A secondary
target group is the family of disabled children (siblings, parents, caregiver and all families member
who are in need of support), non-disabled, but in destitute condition. Base on project’s experience,
we found that the families of these children are mostly situated in very poor condition. The project
designed to meet families who face the living difficulties and assisting them with basic social
assistance and set up for long term self-reliance, where they could break the cycle of poverty
effectively. The assistances will be in kind such as, house hold supplies, food relief, basic tool
for shelters, animal husbandry, crop seed and credit scheme, so they can live with hopes and have
improved living condition. This fund has already been secured by Terre des Hommes – Netherlands.
How beneficiaries are selected:
Geographical assessment
- Realistic of skills that aptness to the geographical area.
- Market demand and availability of service/consumers.
- Potential type of service to be introduced with appropriate income.
Physical and Personal interest
- Is the skills are real interest or just follow somebody told/talk about it?
- Do the children have the capacity to apply skill into practical?
- Will skills learnt generate sufficient income and viable for the region?
- FACILITY REQUIRED
a. Operational Office
CVD is a local NGO and it is aim to work along side with the disadvantaged group and their community for
as long as the requirement is essential and concerned. At the moment CVD is relying on renting its office
space to facilitate projects operation, not just for the vocational skills training center, but also for
other projects throughout the northwest provinces. This renting cost had been identified to be the
recurrent expenses for donors and CVD is therefore; wish to look for generous donation for office
building to absorb of such difficulty.
b. Center Compound
The skills training center will be based in Battambang town. The current building for this project is
leased privately. It is on process of seeking for funding support for building our own in the future.
However, individual buildings would need to be erected for training rooms for individual function,
dormitory quarters for the students (at least one building for girls and the other for boys), and Skill
training classrooms, dining area, kitchen and bathrooms. The compound will be made available for
experimental class (Agriculture), water pond, yard-space, sport space, proper fencing, etc. (Master
plan of the compound enclosed.) Initially, the project targeted Battambang, Pursat, Pailin and Banteay
Meanchey province.
Some estimation of cost was made in rough calculation, which base on approx. $ 125/square meter of the
building and their foundation. The exact price will quoted and bidding processed for individual
construction.
These below items are the estimate amount and costs:
| 1. Girls dormitory |
36 m x 9 m |
324 m² |
$ 40,500 |
| 2. Boys dormitory |
36 m x 9 m |
324 m² |
$ 40,500 |
| 3. Skills classes |
28 m x 9 m x 2 b |
504 m² |
$ 63,000 |
| 4. Language class |
12 m x 9 m |
108 m² |
$ 13,500 |
| 5. Kitchen |
6 m x 4 m |
24 m² |
$ 3,000 |
| 6. Dining hall |
8 m x 8 m |
64 m² |
$ 8,000 |
| 7. Library |
8 m x 6 m |
48 m² |
$ 6,000 |
| 8. Toilet/bathroom |
4 m x 6 m x 2 bs |
48 m² |
$ 6,000 |
| 9. Operation office |
12 m x 8 m x 2 st |
192 m² |
$ 24,000 |
| 10. Land plot |
100 m x 100 m |
10,000 m² ($7/m2) |
$ 70,000 |
| 11. Pond |
16 m x 20 m x 3 m |
960 m3 |
$ 3,200** |
| 12. Fence |
100 m x 4 lines |
400 m |
$ 6,800** |
| 13. Soil for surface fill |
1 truck x 8 m3 |
120 trucks ($12/t) |
$ 1,440** |
| 14. Laetrile soil |
1 truck x 8 m3 |
30 trucks ($39/t) |
$ 1,170** |
| 15. Other temporary buildings |
(Chicken house, footpath) |
|
$ 9,000 |
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| Estimate Total: |
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$ 296,110 |
- THE CHALLENGES
In the pass experience, we found that the intension of donors look at giving immediate services and tagging
their charity political affiliation attached to the actions implemented and building on the handout habitual.
But the roots of social problems are beneath the surface and will reappear routinely. There was then no end
of problem solving from one stage to the other, in pattern. Some of the problems were developed into systematic
sequences and build on each one from time to time. The most common conclusion of failure in completing this
training was found as following:
- Modern/hi-tech competition has not been considered
- Limited acceptance from customers due to poor services/quality
- Hi-cost for skills building, include inception facility and technology etc.
- Many projects solve the end results of problems which lead the conceptual of skills building project
to be less important.
- RECOMMENDATION
The economical self-reliance, efficiency and sustainability are the complete expected outcome of every
person/family who is preparing to manage and support their living condition along with the challenged
society. In this term, the efficiency is not just to have advance education and/or hi-academic, but it
also contrast to the basic way of helping themselves from poverty alleviation. When disabled/disadvantaged
are able to earn their living with profession and confidence that is the stage where they are satisfying
their humanity significance.
Skill training's cost looks very expensive, but the total amount cannot compare to a life threatening
and dependency of the poor and disadvantaged group.
Currently the vocational skills training program provides training courses in motor mechanical repairing,
Electronic repairing, Dressmaking and Hairdressing. Main source of funding for project operation is funded
by Terre des Hommes – Netherlands (TdH-NL). Skills Training Center provides a full range of student's
services, including food, accommodation, clothes, counseling, basic medical care, sport activities and
recreation one time per semester.
Current chart of accomplishment
Master Plan for the Center
Click to enlarge
Prepared and submitted by:
Mounh Sarath
CVD Executive Director
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