www.ssfcambodia.org

Sao Sary Foundation: Vision, Mission, and Goals

Our Vision

SSF believes in a proactive approach to protect children from any form of violence, exploitation,

abuse and discrimination. Rather than waiting until it’s too late, SSF strives to identify at risk children and provide sustainable assistance to both the children and their families.

Our Mission

SSF works to achieve lasting improvements for children living in poverty in Cambodia's poorest communities, through a process that unites people across cultures and adds meaning and value to their lives by:

Enabling deprived children, their families and their communities to meet their basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their societies.

Inspiring deprived children, their families and their communities to socially and economically empower themselves to be agents of change in their own lives and for a more equitable world.

Preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children- including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labour and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage.

SSF & Millinium Development Goals

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal nine-year basic education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Forge A Global Partnership For Development

I write to you jet lagged and sleepy from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I arrived the day before yesterday. This is the first time I've been back to Vietnam since I immigrated to the States in 1985. Busier than I remember, the city has grown 10x the size I left it swelling to 10 million. Let me back track a few months. I returned to the States in July and proceeded to travel stateside for 2.5 months visiting friends and family in Philadelphia, PA; NYC, NY; Orange County, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Puerto Penasco, Mexico; Omaha, NE; Sioux City, IA; Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; Las Vegas, Montezuma and Ghost Ranch, NM; Miami and West Palm Beach, FL and roadtrip from Miami-DC stopping by Savannah, GA; Charleston, SC; and the Outer Banks, NC. I was feed, spoiled, showed off, and decorated in new American apparel. I return to DC in mid-Sept pre-occupied and focused on applications to graduate schools for a Masters in International Relations with concentration in Development and/or Southeast Asia. The latter took longer than I expected and I didn't end up heading back to Asia for another 1.5 months.

I'm currently back in Asia, specifically Southeast Asia to do short-term international development projects with grassroots organizations in the area. I had emailed out a cold-cover letters to hand-picked organizations detailing my background and skills set in development especially in the area of vulnerable women and children. I highlighted my recent Peace Corps experience in Mongolia, my application to MA IR programs in Development with focus in SE Asia, and expressed the desire to witness first-hand the development issues that are affecting the local people in the region rather than just learn the economic theories behind development while in school. I asked if I could volunteer my time to their organization for a short period of 30 days (pre-determined by most visas). Let me just note that this request turned out more difficult to fulfill then I had thought. Piggybacking on ecotourism, the notion of paid volunteerism has grown popular. International to grassroots organizations are profiting on the fad to charge, on the average $1000/week for “volunteer” work. Needless to say, coming from a recent Peace Corps salary, I was not the ideal target. However, I was not about to be falter. My remedy to this situation was to harp on my networking skills. This paid off; I received direct recommendations to grassroots organizations that people I knew either volunteered at, knew someone who did, or knew the person in the organization. I can’t tell you how much this saved my plans.

I am in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam until next week when I will travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to assist the Sao Sary Foundation (SSF) with their Child Abuse Prevention training week in celebration of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) from November 13-19. I will be assisting with their Child Protection Program as well as assist in grant writing for the 2010 fiscal year. I will be volunteering with them Nov-11-Dec 23. Details: Sao Sary Foundation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Child Protection Program
http://ssfcambodia.org/index.php?page=child-protection-program

Dec 7-Jan 4, I will be in Chang Mai, Thailand assisting the Children's Organization of Southeast Asia (COSA) with their recently built Bann Yuu Suk shelter for sexually exploited, abused and at-risk girls. There, I will be assisting them with implementing vocational and Life Skills training. They also want me to counsel the girls and assist
with mental health training programs for the shelter as well as the community in Chang Mai. Details: COSA in Chang Mai, Thailand http://www.cosasia.org/shelter2009.htm

Additionally, I am currently considering a position at VOICE in Siem Reap, Cambodia at their new shelter for trafficking Vietnamese girls into Cambodia to begin Jan 2010. Additional information can be found at: http://www.vietnamvoice.org/Cambodia.html. It’s a fantastic opportunity this early in my development career. However, there are a few issues that I have to mull over before I can accept the position:

1) safety in terms of the subject matter and country location;

2) the pay is local standards not expat; and

3) I will have to defer from graduate school for a year (VOICE feels that 8 mos commitment is not enough time to start a shelter and build the relationships ties that it would take to make it successful). I will be looking at a 1.5 year commitment until July 2011.

Any thoughts and/or advice?