Development and Politics Intertwine Tightly in Cambodia

Being in Cambodia has taught me a lot about how tightly development and politics intertwine. The other day, I met a local woman who cultivates cucumbers to sell in order to earn a living. Recently, within a course of a night, all of her cucumbers were stolen, thus, her earnings. She reported the incident to the police along with her suspicion the culprit’s identity. The accused admitted to the crime but then, in turn, filed a claim for defamation of character asking for US$400 in restitution. Although the accused admitted to the crime, they were never charged. Now the police are pursuing her to pay the restitution. She had come to SSF to ask for legal assistance.

Yesterday, I make a visit to the Kraing Rohong community, one of the communities that SSF has assisted. Here, SSF built a well and educated the villagers in substantial development through agriculture. This field experience is far more informative than anything I could of gain just sitting in an economic development course. 


Kraing Rohong Community 

Article from the Phnom Penh Post: Sex Work Lures Unemployed

Sex work lures unemployed

MONDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2009 15:03 MOM KUNTHEAR

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

Girls wait for customers in front of a karaoke parlour in Phnom Penh. The UNIAP has expressed concern that laid-off garment workers will be drawn into sex work to help suport their families.

BETWEEN 15 and 20 percent of former garment workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis have joined the capital’s entertainment sector, sparking concerns that many have embraced sex work as a last-ditch means of supporting their families, a UN official said Sunday. Lim Tith, the national project coordinator for the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), said he had arrived at the figure by combining new data with the results of a July survey that found that “declining working conditions” were forcing an increasing number of Cambodian women into the sex trade.


According to statistics from the Ministry of Labour, more than 30,000 garment workers lost their jobs in the first three quarters of 2009, meaning that, if Lim Tith’s estimate is accurate, at least 4,500 women have entered the entertainment sector this year alone. The jobs of a further 30,000 garment workers have been suspended. Lim Tith said many of the women view the “entertainment sector” – which includes karaoke bars, massage parlours and brothels – as their only option. “I think that they don’t want to, but they have no choice but to work in those places because of pressure to support their families,” he said. The UNIAP survey found that the most commonly cited reason for entering the sex trade was “difficult family circumstances”, followed by relatively higher earnings and better conditions than those they encountered in factories.


More training needed: NGOs
Several NGOs said they hoped the new estimate would prompt the government to ramp up efforts to provide vocational training to former garment workers who had lost their jobs. "The government is aware of the problem. That’s one thing. The second thing is to act,” said Pung Chhiv Kek, founder of the rights group Licadho. “We would expect that when these poor garment workers lose their jobs because of the crisis, the government would have a proactive programme to train them and to help them find work.” Mey Sovannara, communications coordinator for the HIV/AIDS NGO Khana, echoed this point, saying: “The government has to focus on vocational training centres to provide training to the women for skills other than serving, like weaving, so they can run their own shop.”


Hor Malin, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, said the government had been trying to assist these women and would continue to do so. “We have never been careless with them when they don’t have work to do, even though we cannot help all of them,” she said. “We’ve tried very hard to train them in new skills in order to find a solution for them.” She added, though, that the ministry also hopes some of the former garment workers would leave the capital. “Of course, I cannot prevent them from working in the entertainment sector, but according to our ministry’s strategy, we want them to stop and go back to their homeland to do farming or feed the animals,” she said. “It’s better than working in a karaoke parlour or as a beer promoter.” This suggestion, however, was dismissed by Pung Chhiv Kek as unrealistic. “They can’t go back to their villages because they have to get money for their families,” she said.

VOICE Forced to Shut Down Humanitarian Programs in Cambodia

I received some very disheartening news Tuesday night when I meet with one of the board members of VOICE (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment) in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. This is the organization that I had received the job offer to join as the managing director of a shelter for trafficked Vietnamese girls living in Cambodia; to begin in Feb. 24hrs prior to meeting with her, VOICE Cambodia was given 24 hours notice by the Cambodian government to evacuate the country and not return. The government accused VOICE of being "terrorists". The team is currently in Thailand. They had to immediately abandon their work in Cambodia. A summary is of official press release is provided below.  

For the past year, VOICE has been working with displaced Vietnamese population in Siem Reap, Cambodia. After the fall of Saigon, this population had fled to Cambodia for solace. However, this population were not recognized as refugees thus they never received resident or citizen status. They and their decedents cannot vote, own property, attend public school, or work. The Vietnamese population in Cambodia are stuck here. Parents selling their children into prostitution and/or slavery is few ways they can earn a living and survive.  

VOICE believes that the recent accusation and forced evacuation out of country has deeper political ties:  
1) Their previous work with displaced Vietnamese population in the Philippines upsets the Vietnamese government. Vietnam and Cambodia has close political ties.  
2) The infamous tension between the Cambodian government and non-profits operating in Cambodia. VOICE did not make any efforts to introduce themselves nor did they politically or financially supported the the ruling party. Therefore, the government probably thought that VOICE had something to hide and/or were talking bad ills about the government.  

It doesn't look like VOICE will be allowed, if they will ever be allowed, to returned to their unfinished work in Cambodia. I had been looking forward to joining this incredibly dedicated team and to work with such a unique population that could of easily been my fate. I came to Southeast Asia to gain first hand knowledge of the grassroots efforts that affect the local people here that I wouldn't receive studying economic and development theory in a classroom, I'm sure getting a front row seat.  
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VOICE FORCED TO SHUT DOWN HUMANITARIAN PROGRAMS IN CAMBODIA  

On Tuesday, November 10th 2009, authorities in Cambodia ordered the humanitarian organization VOICE (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment) to terminate all operations in Siem Reap, Cambodia. VOICE’s expatriate staff and volunteers, dedicated to providing social services to women and children who are victims of the commercial sex industry, were ordered to leave Cambodia within 24 hours or face detention. The grounds on VOICE’s dismissal were that VOICE was operating illegally and creating “illegal troupes” to counter Cambodia’s neighboring country by providing vocational training to marginalized trafficked women. “VOICE strongly denies these accusations,” says Maxwell Vo, President of VOICE. “This is a devastating setback for the women and children in Cambodia who depend upon the work of VOICE both for the immediate relief to their situation and also for the long term hopes of a brighter future”. VOICE Cambodia had a permit to operate in Siem Reap and urges the Cambodian Government to revoke its decision in order to enable VOICE to continue to deliver their social and development programs.  

VOICE Cambodia has been in operation since July 2008 with the purpose of providing a number of projects, including vocational training programs to vulnerable women, providing safe and sustainable employment; playgroup/ community center; and partnership in a shelter for underaged girls who have been rescued from brothels.

Short-Development Work with Sao Sary Foundation in Kampong Speu, Cambodia

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

Arrived, Travelled, Applied to Graduate Schools, Back in Asia

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?

Know of Any Grassroots Organizations in Southeast Asia?

I will be heading back to Vietnam for the first time in since I was 5 years old. I am a 29 year old Vietnamese-American female. I was born in Binh Duong, Vietnam (near Saigon). I lived most of my life in the United States (received my education there). My last country of residence was Mongolia. I was a Community Youth Development United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Darkhan, Mongolia. I worked in a Japanese privately funded orphanage implementing vocational programs and seasonal projects. Oh, I also taught English and Life Skills.

From November-March I am heading to Southeast Asia (Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam; Laos; Chang Mai and Northern Thailand near the Burmese border; and Phnom Penh, Cambodia) to do short-term international work (about 2-3 weeks in each location) for local non-profits. My experience as an immigrant from South Vietnam combined with my recent exposure to international development at a grassroots level has strengthened my desire to focus on issues concerning Southeast Asia. I am applying for International Development graduate programs with a focus on Southeast Asia for the fall of 2010. The short-term international development experience is to witness first-hand the development issues that are affecting the local people. This will give me a better idea of what type of development projects I want to implement in the future.

I have two years of abroad international development experience at a grassroots level, three years experience working with vulnerable women and children including immigrant families, single-parent families, teenage prostitutes, street children, and orphans. Additionally, I have conducted trainings in resume writing, interview skills and applying to universities for admissions and scholarships to college students, livelihood skills training in sewing, cooking, and basic computer skills to former teen prostitutes, and Life Skills training in self-esteem and critical thinking to orphans.

If you have any suggestions of great non-profits that do hands-on grassroots work in anywhere in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand (outside of Bangkok) or Cambodia please let me know. I am looking especially a non-governmental, non-profit organization that deals primary with women and/or children but not a public or English teaching school (vocational schools are fine). For instance, orphanages and/or shelters that deals with trafficking, street children, prostitution, refugees, domestic violence or immigration.

At the moment, I am having a hard time finding organizations where I don’t have to pay to volunteer.

Help. 

Returning to UWC-USA to Assist with New Student Wilderness Expedition 2009 at Ghost Ranch After 9 Years

United World College-USA (Armmand Hammer United World College of the American West)


Wilderness Service Program
The Wilderness Service Program introduces all students to an appreciation of the backcountry and methods of experiencing the wilderness in a manner that least impacts it. Students have the opportunity to elect to do Wilderness First Responder training. Weekend expeditions in New Mexico's large wilderness areas are offered throughout the year. 

Bangkok, Thailand

Port Cities of Eastern China

Seoul, South Korea

1. Korean barbecue, popular dish
2. Downtown Seoul, South Korea
3. Billiard advertisement in down Seoul
4. Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty; the Changing of the Guard
5. Buddhist temple, Seoul