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After former Khmer Rouge troops defected and were reintegrated with the Royal Cambodian Government as civilians, they were settled within their former strong hold. For nearly thirty years they lived under the yoke of the Khmer Rouge, only to be driven from their homes again when fighting broke out during the coup d’etat of 1997. The area of Samlaut was completely severed from the outside world in economical, educational and political terms. War left a legacy of complete destruction: of human resources, natural environment, local culture, civil society, and infrastructure. Nearly eighty percent of the new generation of Cambodian children is unaware of their own culture and traditions. This especially applies to children living in remote areas. They are often more exposed to the loss of their local background, and vulnerable because of it. The devastated health care and social support systems, as well as educational facilities, have neither the financial means, nor the human resources, to cope with the overwhelming needs. As a result, children are neither regarded as fully contributing community members, nor do they have the opportunity or confidence to become as such. In Cambodia, many NGOs have been established and they have been working in various sectors since the country emerged from decades of civil war. The government also puts a great deal of effort into identifying and applying financial support from other countries towards rebuilding the country. But this is still not enough to meet the needs of an entire disadvantaged community, living in remote parts of the country. One of the CVD projects is called PCST: Promoting Civil Society Transformation. They focus on the economic development of families and the transformation of civil society amongst children. This is done with financial support from Terre des Hommes – Netherlands (TdH – NL). The PCST works closely with the district’s Education, Youth and Sport Office, the local authorities and community people to identify needs in terms of educational facilities and to enable the community to grow, with community members playing an active part. To date, the project has constructed eleven single-structure temporary schools - one per village in the area targeted by the project. This is done to address the needs of needy children who cannot afford transportation and whose villages are located far away from Government schools. It not only facilitates access to education for all village children, but it forms part of our involvement in a human resource development strategy towards rebuilding the country as a whole. Children can attend temporary schools located in, or close to, their villages. After completing their first and second grades at these temporary schools, they are encouraged to attend government schools for a higher level of education. The aim of the project is twofold. Firstly, it assists young children who cannot travel long distances to public schools. Secondly, the project provides support to their families to increase family income. By the time the children finish the first and/or second grade, families can afford to pay the basic costs for their children to attend a government school. To ensure that the quality of education at the temporary schools meets the standard of the national curriculum, the project works in close cooperation with the District Education Office to include contract teachers, working for the project, to attend training on pedagogy and other educational matters. Since the children come from very poor families, the project provides a full set of school supplies and school uniforms to those students. Each set consists of literacy and numeracy text books, exercise books, a slate and chalk, a ruler, pencil, eraser and school bag, etc. Each school is also equipped with a table, a blackboard and other teaching materials, where needed. CVD, with the support from TdH-NL, recently built and completed four new schools for these disadvantaged village children. Today’s official inauguration was attended by the Samlaut district governor and the Director of CVD. |
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The concept of promoting civil society should be established at grass-root level in the community, particularly amongst children. In this regard, CVD’s PCST project has set up children’s clubs in its target villages to raise awareness of children’s rights and other child-related issues amongst children, including those who do not attend the project’s temporary schools. The purpose of the clubs is to encourage children to form independent groups within their respective villages, so that they can meet and discuss their day-to-day concerns. This way they build trust and confidence amongst the children in each village. Six clubs were established in 2004, with one hundred and thirty two children becoming club members. The club members meet once a month for one or two hours at a location that is easily accessible to all. Activities include questions and answers pertaining children’s rights, child labor, child trafficking, sports and leisure, folklore storytelling and sharing experiences. The activities are managed by the club leaders, with facilitation from temporary school teachers. Sport materials, footballs, volley balls, and tennis rackets are provided, so that children can play while the club members meet. |
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As stated earlier, social structure degenerated during the prolonged war. Trust, confidence and a sense of community is at an all time low. To raise awareness in the community, the PCST project forms Self-Help Groups at village level. The purpose of setting up self-help groups is to increase the sense of community and to restore social structures that were broken down over decades. The groups are managed by their own team leaders, who are selected from the group members. It is an autonomous group where members are selected from very disadvantaged villagers, and are introduced to self-help concepts, saving and a small scale capital loan. Team leaders are trained in basic management and leadership skills, and the basic skills required to manage small businesses. The group members can access a credit scheme, known as Working Capital, with the lowest interest rate when they need money for farming activities. The collection is made at the end of each harvesting season. This is an interim measure taken by the project to provide credit to the groups. Over the long term, these activities will be managed and taken over by formal financial institutions. However, given the uncertainty in the present political and economic situation in the country, it is hard to predict if there will be financial institutions in the rural areas, accessible to the communities we are working with. Therefore, we may have to propse a medium term arrangement, if there is still a strong need for credit in the community. A kind of a community structure may be set up that can manage the working capital, which can be handed over to the community, based on certain regulations with regard to its use. Saving is another concept that 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 savings when it reaches the amount specified in the policy, but may not exceed the amount they have saved. |
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Cambodian Vision in Development
Battambang, Cambodia