By Rob Serpell
9th December 2011
It was with a great deal of anticipation that Su and Terry, Jan and I set off to return to Cambodia on the midnight flight on 6 November. On our flight to Thailand and the Cambodia, we saw areas devastated by extensive flooding around Bangkok, Tonle Sap Lake and the rural areas around Phnom Penh.
On our first morning in Phnom Penh, Chanthol, the CLA Program Manager collected us in a bus and we set off for the CLA Centre in Mesang where we were warmly greeted by Saman Buth the CLA Director, Chendah the Manager of the Centre and Louise another CLC supporter.
That same afternoon we visited the Trorkeat Primary School which has been supported for the past three years in the Mesang Village Development program. We were very impressed with the willingness of the staff to talk about the cooperation that is occurring with the new Trorkeat Parents Association regarding attendances, health issues such as immunisations, academic progress and any signs of abuse. We were shown a register of families and a wall chart indicating the rise in student numbers over the past decade. The swampy playground in the front of the school has been filled in the past year to become a very useful and much used playing field.
Although many families in the Mesang Village Development program were in their fields harvesting a bumper rice crop, we were able to meet quite a few of the families involved in the program. From October this year, another twenty families joined the program making a total of 80 families that CLC has supported to improve their situation of life so the families have enough to eat and the children go to school.
Before families joined the Mesang Village Development program, they suffered from poverty, hunger and overwhelming hardship which contributed to incidences of family violence and alcohol abuse. To raise awareness of these issues, CLA uses role plays as a very effective means of encouraging behaviour change. We were very pleased that our group was able to see a village role play during our visit.
Two village volunteers organised for children to perform role plays highlight the damage domestic violence causes and to encourage and promote regular school attendance and providing opportunities for girls. The role play was very moving the the actors were very convincing. Then at a meeting with the men’s and women’s groups we learnt how these are functioning.
When the role play finished, a number of villagers spoke openly of their own experiences before the program began and how their own family lives had improved since its inception. They spoke of having increased respect for each other and how they now have a better quality of life. We were told by a spokesperson for the men’s group that domestic violence was now ninety percent less than before.
On our last day we had a guided tour around the CLA Centre to see the extent of work done since our visit in 2010. New infrastructure includes the construction of a new traditional kitchen building, a poultry house that is nearing completion including chicken fencing, and levelling of the driveway pavement, which is very hard and even despite a recent very wet season. There have also been many trees planted and the vegetable gardens are growing well.
After our three day visit, there were sad farewells when it was time to return to Phnom Penh with Saman, Louise and Chantol leaving the nine resident girls in the capable hands of Chendah.
The four of us are very impressed with the effectiveness of the Programs run by CLA. In this fourth year of the program, we can see that the program is becoming self generating. Our visit reinforced our belief that the programs run by CLA are helping to build a self sustaining community that is so desperately needed in this poorest part of Cambodia. This very important work is worthy of our ongoing support.
Rob and Jan Serpell and Su and Terry Clift are strong supporters and generous benefactors of Community Links with Cambodia (CLC) and the Children and Life Association (CLA), our sister organisation in Cambodia.
