Programme in Pailin province:

Since CHO has been founded with staff are former NGOs worker and from Universities students, experience well outfitted with community development, education and social services experience; more they’re already trained many skills and commitment as NGOs experiences of honesty, hardworking, and friendly, it is an excellent opportunity to carry out a variety of projects activities in its targeted areas. One of the endorsements of its success strategy/approach is that “Self Help Group” and “Children Club” Groups formation and a Civil Society Transformation amongst children at Village Level approach [are] seen and recommended to be an everlasting community-based development strategy. CHO has implementing the activities to promote of child rights and community capacity building such provide primary education support to 9 poor villages, in Salakrao district, Pailin province, with assist of study material to children, provide training on Child rights, anti child trafficking, domestic violence and improve agriculture skills to villagers and Self Help Group member. Moreover, CHO staffs have had build good relationship to stakeholders such as education offices, district authorities, and local authorities in the regions where CHO’s targets.

Particularly the northwest districts bordering with Thailand, included 2 districts of Pailin province, are the most war-ravaged area in Cambodia. The interference of prolonged civil war led to many problems including socio-economic, social structure, and education access. It is estimated that around 65% of the population in these remote areas are illiterate. The high illiteracy rate leads also to lack of social development, self support and lack of understanding of the consequence of any forthcoming concern. Due to the ignorance and poverty in these remote villages in the Pailin areas, we have found many children have been dropped out school, across to Thailand to work for family income, become gangster and drug abuses to make many problems in society. And the other hand, in Salakrav district where closed border to Thailand, many children who there families dwelled to the bordering land, most of them are very high to the risks of become labor exploitation, trafficking and drug abuses. During the case identification assessment, the program staff members disclosed that children in the selected areas are lacking in any external support. They are basically a burden to their families as they are not capable of earning money to assist in family support. This is started from day-to-day feeding up to a long term living responsibility and as well their parent or family did not know at all to many risks which always happen to their children future, as most the parent they don’t understand yet about child rights and some of trafficking trickery.

Social issues and Domestic violence:

In a country accustomed to autocratic and highly centralized authorities there are no inherent prospects of participation by the people-either on part of the authorities and even less on part of individual citizens. Traditional power – centered administration has conditioned the people to look to their superiors for instruction, advice, support and favors. Personal initiative is not encouraged. The current government régime’s policy contributes to power prevailing structures that lead to distrust and fear of political exploitation. Villagers need to look at themselves differently after years of socialist regimes it has left them with a perception of themselves that is at odds with taking charge of their own development. There is a need to increase people’s sense of self-worth, confidence in their own ability and community ownership.

Domestic violence is still significant after decades of war in Cambodia, especially in the rural areas. The violence occurs among poor families is usually a result of emotional illness and psycho-traumatize, different social perceptions (view-point) between individual family and/or sometime because of the lack of understandings, jealousy, drunken (depression) and cultural ignorance. The conflict leads to ideological and eventually physical violations.

When the domestic violation takes place, the community and especially family structures are affected; this causes friction between the family members, the children and even the close relatives. In some cases the results run out of control which l eads to juridical process and conviction of criminal acts. In remote area where there is not enthusiastically support on social awareness, education and ineffective law enforcement, the underprivileged community, the children and the less fortunate groups are becoming the most at risk of the above consequence. In this term, the children become abandoned, live as street children, begging for food, and sometimes join gangs; they are also exposed to sexual harassment or at risk of trafficking and exploitation. As in some of villages there is no proper school and external support existing in the area, the children are expected to work to help their parents to earn income to support their families. People who have no farmland, their living is depending upon the selling of labors to others in the villages and to the neighboring country during the harvesting of corn, sesame, cassava and soybean, just to live from hand to mouth. Some people take a risk to cross the border to work in Thailand as the construction workers or other menial work to make money.

Education:

The educational problem has been one of the hottest issues for children in our targeted area. In the ‘millennium development goal statement’ of the United Nations, it prioritizes as the second top priority to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. In some government documents it aims to attain this critical object by setting up a universal primary education access for all by 2015. In this term, we could foresee that there will be far from realistic that the disa dvantaged children of the targeted population cannot benefit of such important service. The lack of schools infrastructure, teachers and extremely low level of family economy of the people in the isolate region, such as Salakrao district, Pailin province, it is obvious that they will not have the chance to attend a complete course of primary education as stated in the universal development goal of UN and the local government of Cambodia.

In respond to the necessities of poor children whose villages located faraway from the government schools and costs of transportation, CHO plans to build temporary schools for at least one of each of the nine targeted villages within the coming operational years. This is to give opportunity for those children to have full access to a proper education and/or at least they can read and write the language. These responses answer to two different problems, one is to offer the chance for younger age children who cannot travel far distances to public schools and secondly, by the time they completed the first and/or second grade, by then they grown up and their families can afford to pay basic cost for their children to attend higher grade.

Informal education provision:

In respond to needs identified for the children in targeted region, CHO found that the most urgent and highest priority in delivering appropriate service to children is to support them with informal education. The education here is not only teaching the children on how to read and write, but also to equip them with basic knowledge of survival skills. In order to support such action, CHO has to set up temporary schools within 5 among nine targeted villages. At the meantime, CHO makes every possible effort to influence parents to see and understand of the essential of children’s education. We are aware of how important the children are in helping their parents to work for their families; income, but children are entitled to, at least, a complete 6 years of primary education and higher grade which is an advantage for our human resource development and the nation of Cambodia.

Children Club:

One of the overall objectives of this project is to promote participatory a democratic civil society transformation among disadvantaged community and especially the children. In the project operational year ,CHO’s PDCE project set up 9 children’s clubs in its targeted villages, with 135 members. The purpose of establishing these clubs is to encourage children participation and involve them in social and communal work for their community regardless children from the project supported schools or from government schools to form themselves into independent groups within their respective villages. These opportunities allow them to me et and discuss their day-to-day concerns, building trust and confidences amongst the children at the village level. The clubs are encouraged meet as much frequently as possible. The meeting point is preferably at the projects temporary school and and/or any other public place that all children can easily access.

The clubs are encouraged to anticipate appropriate assistances such as referral, evacuation/intervention if there is any case of child abuse, violation and legal support where needed. Core activities to be introduced to club members during the regular meetings are to provide basic knowledge of child rights, domestic violence, anti - child trafficking, child labor and exploitation and other social issues related to the risk of children. In addition to the above issues, the children are encouraged to participate in public work in collaboration with villagers which aims to build solidarity amongst the members of the community this can be cleaning/maintaining village streets, schools, temples, bridges and/or other public locations.

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