In most villages these assessments are run successfully by volunteers without TGF staff present.  But in this instance extra help was needed in Salar-the most competent of the two village health volunteers recently stepped down from her post to give birth in October.  A new untrained village health volunteer had just been appointed by villagers, and was planning to manage the assessment in cooperation with the remaining village health volunteer, even though neither were used to managing these activities.  Given this case the TGF Health Programme team felt it necessary to come and lend support this time so the assessment would run smoothly.  The hope is that after some initial guidance these two village health volunteers will be able to run other health activities themselves in the future.

In theory the assessment shouldn’t be that hard to conduct.  Basically during the assessment children under 5 years old, escorted by their parents, are placed in a plastic laundry hamper hanging from a heavy duty pull scale.  The scale gives a measure of the child’s weight, which is then recorded by one of the volunteers next to their name and signed by their parents.  In this way TGF and village health volunteers know which children are still malnourished and which children have reached a healthy weight.  If children are still malnourished they and their parents will be invited to come to the next scheduled malnutrition rehabilitation, where they receive a healthy meal and their parents learn how to provide a more balanced diet to children from locally available, affordable foods.  If the children have reached a healthy weight, they and their parents become (unofficially) proud “graduates” of the TGF Cambodia Malnutrition Project.

However in practice and with one new and one not so skilled health volunteer, the assessment was quite tricky to pull off this time.  The first problem was that a few kids at the start of the assessment were reluctant to get in the basket and began crying.  This led to a chain reaction; all other children waiting their turn began crying too in fearful anticipation of “The Basket”: for example in the picture on the left, its hard to even see the child because they are scrambling to escape the basket!

Eventually the village health volunteers and TGF staff got this child as well as the others attending calmed down enough to be weighed.  Sarath said that volunteers in other villages know how to manage this better so it doesn’t become a scary activity for the children.

The second difficulty was the data recording.  Literacy is not strong among adults in our area of rural Cambodia.  It may seem easy enough to write down each child’s name, their age and weight, but the village health volunteer was new and writing slowly.  Soon the number of parents and their children getting weighed outpaced her record keeping.  Parents whose children had been weighed encircled her, yelling out their data to be written down.  After a few minutes Roth (TGF Health Programme Assistant) stepped in and politely explained to everyone the obvious-if they don’t go one by one, the new volunteer won’t be able to get any information down accurately.  The group calmed down and people started giving their information one at a time to the volunteer rather than all at once.

Eventually all names and weights were recorded accurately.  Near the end of the session the former health volunteer came to check on results, carrying her newborn baby with her (only twenty days old!).  She carefully weighed her child for the first time, and had the results recorded.  It was understandable why she could not help with the assessment-she was quite visibly tired from taking care of her newborn.  However she did say that in a few months’ time she would like to help again to manage health activities, time allowing.

By the end of the session 53 children out of 82 in the village had been weighed.  This was better than anticipated, even though 100% would be the ideal attendance rate.  Despite the popularity of health activities, daily attendance is lower during the rainy season than at other times of year because families are busy with rice planting and harvesting.  To compensate, TGF Cambodia advises village health volunteers to schedule time several days in a row for any health activity-usually when parents and children can’t come one day, they instead come the following day.  In this way participation remains close to 100%.

This particular assessment in Salar was possibly one of the most disorganized ever supported by TGF Cambodia, but that’s understandable given the lack of training and organizing abilities of the health volunteers managing.  Still a majority of children were weighed and their data accurately recorded.  Possibly more importantly for the future, the village health volunteers learnt a great deal about managing the assessment by organizing it themselves.  The TGF Cambodia Health Programme has had a lot of success working this way, providing advisement and encouragement to village health volunteers but leaving it to the volunteers themselves to lead the health activities in their own villages.  As a result their ability usually grows quickly, and everything they learn to do with their own community they can put to use later with or without further support from TGF Cambodia.  While in this instance the village health volunteers needed TGF Cambodia there for some help in person, they came away from this assessment with a basic understanding of how to conduct another assessment next time on their own, and this means a great deal of progress was made despite the setbacks during this health activity.

Plong Primary School

Last Thursday we went to Plong Primary school to distribute school supplies to students from Plong and Chek Bo villages.  The school year just started, so students and their parents were waiting expectantly at the school for the meeting to begin.

The school supplies project provides school supplies packages to children from impoverished backgrounds in villages where TGF works.  Typically the children and their families are unable to afford basic school supplies themselves, and so are ill prepared to get the most out of their studies.  The supplies then give them a vital boost in getting the most out of their studies.

To make sure that the community is involved and that supplies are distributed fairly, parents themselves hold meetings (with TGF attending) to select the students who will receive the supplies each year.  A majority of the parents in the village who have school-aged children must be at these meetings for the decision to count.  Also only one child per family can be selected, and children cannot be selected more than one year in a row to receive supplies, though some exceptions are made to these rules for families in particularly difficult circumstances.  After villagers submit a list to TGF of selected students, TGF checks with the local schools to make sure students attend and perform well at school.  We also check at randomly selected households to make sure students do in fact live in impoverished circumstances and require assistance.

Tara, TGF Children’s Education Assistant, leads the meeting.  He thanks families for taking time out of their rice harvesting to come, but also emphasizes that its important for parents to be involved with education of their children.  Also he reminds everyone that the students receiving school supplies were selected by parents in village meetings.  A leader of the parents also gets up to speak and reminds everyone that there is an upcoming village meeting on education the following week.  The Principal of Plong Primary School also stands up and gives a short speech on the importance of education.

Next the supplies are handed out.  Tara calls out names of students, who come up and receive school packets.  The supplies provided are basic but comprehensive-students get a school uniform, backpack, pencils, notebooks, etc.  The enthusiasm is evident-many of them put on their new school uniforms right away.

The supplies are basic, but they go a long way towards helping children in their education.  For one thing, children are expected to have decent school uniforms on when they go to class.  The poorest students often can’t afford these uniforms.  The embarassment they feel because they aren’t properly dressed is enough for a lot of them to skip school regularly.  With uniforms provided by TGF they can attend their studies regularly with pride.

For another thing, learning without proper paper and pencils or pens is quite hard.  Students are usually able to borrow chalk and chalkboards while in class, but they can’t take down a permanent record of what they learned for the day to look back on later.  With the school supplies packets this is possible for them.

Given that TGF works on education with many villages, we know we will be unable to provide the school supplies packets to every child living in difficult circumstances every year.  But we are able every year to help some select children with the project, and this is certainly better than no help at all.  Perhaps almost as important is that during this project the families of schoolchildren make the decisions together on which students should receive supplies-in the process they get valuable practice making a decision on their children’s education cooperatively as a community.  As time goes by we ask the parents to make increasingly more complicated decisions on education projects, and to manage education activities in their communities, as TGF hands over all education projects fully to the communities.  So the school supplies project is a great project for helping students and helping communities both work better on education.

Posted by: Will Haynes-Morrow, Country Director, TGF Cambodia

Tapauw 2 was the subject of a recent blog post, and it seemed a good idea to provide an update from the field on activities there.  In this post, villagers are attending their last day of chicken raising training before they begin to put their new business skills practices into action.

Considering roads were flooded until quite recently, the drive to Tapauw 2 is surprisingly uneventful.  Sokkhy (director of the TGF Adult Education and Vocational Training Programme, or AEP) and I arrive at Tapauw 2 village meeting center around 8:30 am.  25 trainees from chicken raising are in attendance and training for the day has already started, led by the professional trainer TGF hired, who is a specialist in chicken raising.  This is mostly a hands-on day of training where villagers put skills into practice, but the trainer feels it’s necessary to start with a classroom lesson.  This is understandable since it’s been more than a month since other trainings took place, and villagers need to review what they learned before applying the skills.  To be clear, all of the villagers attending have already been raising chickens for some time-but this training is meant to improve their chicken raising skills by helping them learn how to properly immunize the birds and how to prepare nutritious feed for the chickens as well.  Improving their skills in a few key areas with regards to raising chickens has been the main focus of these trainings, since this could make all the difference between the villagers having a failing business or a profitable one in the years to come.

During this classroom session the trainer is mainly reading key points to villagers from large pieces of paper taped to the wall of the meeting center, in order to quickly get done and on to practice.  Despite the unexciting format, villagers are clearly paying careful attention to the lesson.  Even more encouraging is that approximately half of the trainees are writing down notes.  Its important to understand what a sea change this represents among villagers-in Tapaw 2 as in many Cambodian villages, literacy before TGF was not widespread (a minority of adult villagers were adept at reading and writing), and writing notes to remember something would have been very uncommon behavior.  However since TGF began working with villagers on literacy classes as part of the AEP, literacy skills have improved, and villagers better understand the important role that writing can  play in helping to organize thoughts and plan for the future, especially when it comes to bookkeeping on their new business ventures.  For adults who have had limited or no formal education, this is a big step in their personal development and in their community’s.

After about 45 minutes review by the trainer in the Tapauw 2 meeting centre, we head to one of the villagers’ houses to put the skills into practice.  First up is immunization of the chickens.  Loss of animals due to disease is one of the main reasons villagers are unable to profitably raise chickens, pigs, and other animals as business activities in rural Cambodia.  Yet better armed with some basic understanding of disease prevention, Tapauw 2 villagers can keep all of their animals from contracting disease and start their businesses on the right foot.

Some of the trainees gather their chickens at this villagers’ house for all the trainees to practice immunization.  Since these chickens aren’t in a cage, adult chickens are tied up by their feet so they don’t run away and the chicks are in buckets.  Despite their lack of mobility they still cause quite a racket!

The trainer begins by prepping eye droppers of vaccine, which he then drips into the chicken’s eyes and nostrils before handing over the medicine to other villagers to do.  Given that the chickens are scared its quite a production to get drops of vaccine in the right places, but everyone manages to treat at least one chicken in this way before we move on.  There are other vaccines to be given by injection, but the trainer will give instruction on this in the afternoon.

Next up is food preparation for the chickens.  While villagers already know they can feed chickens a variety of foods, one of the keys to making their businesses profitable is to help them take advantage of free, naturally occurring food sources for their birds.  First up is preparing an area of land to attract termites, a nutritious food source which the trainer assures us chickens “love”.

In the case of prepping a termite station where chickens can feed as they please, the household owner first chops up and removes the top layer of soil to get at moist clay underneath.  Several trainees take turns removing soil with a hoe.

After tilling the soil, villagers lay down a layer of leaves, then a layer of straw, then sprinkle water on top, and then more soil.  While this seems to be an unorthodox way to attract termites, it is also a cost effective, tried-and-true method in rural Cambodia, according to the trainer.

More skills will be developed on this day, but Sokkhy and I need to head back to the TGF field office for other work, so we say our goodbyes to the trainees and the trainer.

As a parting word I mention to the trainees that its encouraging to see people of all ages participating, especially young adults.  In many TGF activities it can be hard to get young adults in their twenties to participate.  For one thing, many young villagers, desperate for work, leave the villages for most of the year to work on farms or in forests in Thailand and in remote parts of Cambodia.  Some of the women go to the capital, Phnom Penh, to work in garment factories.  In almost all cases these migrant jobs are more trouble than worth, but with a lack of jobs at home, many young Cambodians don’t feel they have a choice.

That’s why its great to see some of the young adults in Tapauw 2 trying to learn vocational skills, like chicken raising, so they can be self-employed in their home town of  Tapauw 2.  This way they can earn incomes without leaving their families and pursuing risky, far-off employment options.  So training in chicken raising is not just a potential path for their economic development, its also a path to greater social stability in their families and village.

Posted by: Will Haynes-Morrow, Country Director, TGF Cambodia

Though I have enjoyed running for years this will be my first race.  And I am doing it in aid of an organisation that is very close to my heart.  As a trustee of TGF Cambodia, I know how much funds are needed to maintain and expand the work that TGF does with thousands of villagers every year. It will be wonderful running the race stride by stride, knowing that I’m doing it to support some of the most disadvantaged families in Cambodia and also knowing that you are all behind me, supporting me in doing it!

If you would like to sponsor me in my racing debut, please go to the donate page and show your support.

Many thanks

Karen Lampe,

TGF Cambodia Trustee

The highest point of the course is 3,200 meters which is on Stage 4 – a 75km day! The race is self-supported – i.e. we have to carry everything we need for 7 days including food, bedding, clothes and other equipment.

I would like to say that I am well prepared with hundreds of miles under my belt but in truth I am approaching this event with a fair amount of denial.  However I have my airline ticket, my doctor’s note and my small but heavy rucksack – there is no backing out. The last time I was in Nepal was about 15 years ago. We trekked in the same hills with 2 lovely Sherpas each!  I am certainly looking forward to revisiting this beautiful place and am hopeful the amazing vistas will inspire me on each day.  My fellow competitors seem to be a different breed – seasoned distance runners and mountain athletes – over achievers in all aspects of life. I am hoping some of their vigour might rub off. I will attempt to blog throughout the week but if technology fails me I look forward to filling you in on how it went on my return.

I will be raising funds for TGF so if you feel inspired to sponsor please drop me a line Charlotte or go directly to The Big Give. Thank you very much!

The village has 190 families, 917 people (472 females). Most of villagers earn a living with rice paddy-farming, poultry and animal raising and labor performing.

Forming a Savings Group in Tapauw 2 Village

Monthly Saving Group Meeting in Tapauw II village

During the implementation of TGF’s activities, TGF staff conducted survey which met with some local authorities and key persons in the village, including met with some villagers to search information and discuss about potential existing resources and lacking resources, strength and weakness that the village had. As the result of this survey showed that the village had not organized or formed as saving group in previous time, especially they did not know the useful and importance of saving and how to form saving group.  And they were difficult to start their new business because they were lack of capital. Moreover, the villager is hard to access to loan from Micro-finance Institution (MFI) because they didn’t have collateral as required by MFIs, they were afraid that they would not have money to repay to MFI and they did not have clear business or planning. Anyway, the village has potential to organize saving group and the villagers are willing to form and participate in this activity.

Process of Putting Money for Monthly Saving

Regarding to the above situation, TGF staff organized village meeting with local authority, key persons and some villagers to raise awareness to them on the importance of saving group in March, 2011. After conducting village meetings, some villager could understand the useful and importance of saving group and they agreed to form one saving group named Reach Chom Roeun Group since late March, 2011.  With technical supporting from TGF, The group has started saving since early April, 2011 with 22 members, including 4 group leaders (chief, vice chief, secretary and treasurer) and each member put 10,000.00 riels ($2.50 USD) for monthly saving. Up to the early August, 2011, the group increased member to 25 members and total amount of saving up to

1,276,000.00 riels ($319.00). Presently (in August) the group disbursed loan to

5 group members with amount budget 900,000.00 riels ($225.00). The group will provide more loans to other group members and commit to participating in saving so that one day they can become a village bank and have enough money to disburse loan to all villagers to start business.

Vocational Training with Tapauw 2 Savings Group Members

Pig Raising Training

After organized meetings with villagers to conduct a Training Needs Assessment (to survey their vocational needs) and researching local market situation, TGF initially provided training on Chicken Raising and Pig Raising to members of the Tapauw 2 savings group.  This includes 10 Chicken Raising trainees and 15 Pig Raising trainees. The two trainings are providing valuable skills for people in rural Cambodia because there is a high demand in the local marketplace for chickens and pigs.

For each savings group member who completed vocational training in Tapauw 2, TGF will put some funding into the savings group so that there is enough funding for trainees to borrow from the group to start or practice their chicken and pig raising skills. The funding will not be put into the savings group unless completed skill trainees show their willingness to practice some techniques which provided or oriented by trainers. This means all completed skill trainees have to practice or start their business after training for TGF to provide funding to the savings group.

Chicken Raising Training

TGF believes villagers should have the majority of responsibility for starting their own businesses. TGF will help villagers coming out of training to achieve success using their new skills, either by finding gainful employment or by finding a market to sell their products. TGF staff also will select one or two persons among completed skill trainees in each skill to be key farmers.  The key farmers will be provided further capacity strengthening and building trainings in exchange for helping other trainees and villagers in Tapauw 2 to develop chicken and pig raising skills further.

Literacy Class

literacy class at Sralau Sroang

Basing on the survey by AEP of saving group members in Tapauw 2, 33% of the members never had schooling and 52% had only some primary schooling. This was because the villages where they lived were far away from public schools and barely accessible in rainy season, especially these villages were unstable by civil war of Khmer Rouge and these villages just got peace after integrated of Khmer Rouge by government in 1998. Referring to the above situation, the opening of literacy class is vital activity to help villagers to increase and get better understanding of numbering, reading and writing which could compromise their daily living.  Savings group members organize the literacy classes in the village with financial and training support by TGF, but classes are open to all adults in Tapauw 2 to attend.

It was bordering east to Prey Chka village, north to Laak village in Pongro Leur Commune and north to Ta Yek village in Soutnikum Commune, Dam Daek District; the south to Kvav village; and west to Porprin village in Svay Leu District. The village was founded since 1963; and during 30 year times in war the Sopormon became full of empty people living there in destroy, is the area of hidden and fighting between the Khmer Rouge, resistance, Cambodian and Vietnamese troops. After the Vietnamese troops withdrew from Cambodia in late 1990s villagers returned back to Sopormon and even though there was still fighting between troops of different factions until 1998.

Nowadays the population in Sopormon is about 327 people and 172 women have re-continued of making lives there. They are earning their living by farming rice (in rice paddy), farming Chamkar (raising rice and vegetables on land which was previously uncultivated), animal raising, logging and laboring. The farming rice in is the main majority way villagers earn income. They are continued their lives till today because of farming rice, but they facing difficulties of no clean drinking water and sanitations inside the village; and also the same there is no accesses road possibly connected. They are drinking bad water sources from a natural pond called Khnar Phneat is existing 4km away from the village, without boiling and filtering. They are carrying water by fetching with buckets and oxcart from the 4km pond to their home; women are the main actor for these activities and men also did sometimes. They are also having drinking water from shallow pit wells.

After the three years of delay of implementation due to transportation and seasonal difficulties, TGF tried to find out and facilitated any possible solutions and resources available that can be contributed so that villagers can access to clean drinking water in Sopormon. Everyone, technicians, commune councils, district, NGOs, community themselves and other people have met were said that ‘There is no water at underground level’ in Sopormon. By May and June year 2011 again TGF have tried possible community meetings done many times with community in Sopormon to have facilitated key ideas and needs prioritized for projects being implementation; at the end TGF found that the community in Sopormon are stronger and really needed for clean drinking water as the 1^st priority to be implemented due to their drinking water is very bad and far away from home; and finally they have decided for construction of drilling tube well with hand pump after water technicians found that there may be clean water deep under Sopormon village at more than 25 meters (did not know this before).

By at the mid of May the Sopormon community have organized and started its activities with the driller from Kampong Kdei; but unfortunately they can not accessed to water at underground level so on the driller have decided to leave Sopormon. Soon the Sopormon community have found another driller from Kampong Cham (a province far from Siem Reap) and at this time they have succeeded to have 7 water points drilled within a period of times and reached to water at underground level deeply at 31m to 38m. Now the Sopormon community has completed for all activities of well construction project and has using good clean drinking water as expected with very proud and happiest that they have got water; and will never go back to the 4km pond anymore; Sopormon community would like to thanks to TGF that have supported funding so that the community could build wells this year.

Thanks,

Written By:
Bunnan NgyMoeung, TGF Infrastructure Programme Director