A year in Pictures

It has been such an incredible year at Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC) and we would like to share some of our most beautiful photographs with you. So much happens at JWOC in one year and we have done our best to capture the smiles and hard work that happens in the community.

Happy Holidays from everyone here at JWOC

Why I'm Racing 4 Change

Chhorvy is the inspiration behind the JWOC bike ride, she is a Communications student at JWOC and is working hard planning and organizing the bike ride for the scholarship students. She is also the student who put forward the idea for scholarship students to enter Race4Change to raise funds and awareness for JWOC.


Hi, My name is Chhorvy Seng, I am a 4th year scholarship student volunteering in Communications at Journeys Within Our Community, studying Accounting in my final year at Build Bright University. I come from Svay Prei village in Siem Reap and I just started a new job working for Malaysia Airlines. I love volunteering with JWOC , I have made so many great friends and I love having the opportunity to be able to help my country. I have learned and grown so much during my time at JWOC


 

Why did you want to take part in this bike ride?

It is good exercise!!! but also it is an opportunity for me to represent JWOC and help them to tell people about all the good things we do. JWOC has given me so much help and support over the past 4 years, I wanted to do something to say thank you for this. Riding with the other scholarship students and staff for JWOC will be such a fun opportunity, I hope by doing Race4Change, friends of JWOC around the world will want to support and help us. If I can't donate to JWOC myself, I want to try and inspire others to donate themselves.

Have you ever cycled 30km before, do you think you can do it?

I have never! but I will try my best, it will be such a wonderful experience and it is around the Angkor temples which makes it more special. I am so excited to be part of this.

How will Race4Change help JWOC?

Each of our 4 programs are trying to raise money for parts of their project which are really important. We are trying to raise money for 140 water filters, to continue our art and science classes for one year, fund 15 microloans and provide one whole village with 60 Home gardens. It is a dream of ours to be able to achieve this but if we did, my community would be proud of my hard work.

 

If you would like to support Chhorvy and her fellow scholarship students please donate here.

Vantha welcomes the new Scholarship students

50 year ago Cambodia had a really good education system. Many people have been educated well because there were many schools and universities which produced many positive resources for the society and the country. This bright time in Cambodia’s history wasn’t to last, soon the darkness came and Pol Pot’s regime eradicated education from Cambodian society.

We know education can be the catalyst for change; with education people can develop from having nothing to being creative, knowledgeable and understanding the world around them.

Our new intake of Scholarship students for 2014

That is why our current young generation are trying hard to educate themselves so they can achieve their future goals and help their communities. Unfortunately, it is not a level playing field and some students have more than others when it comes to opportunities and chances to learn.

If there is one common goal among our young generation it is to try their best to educate themselves fully and that means going to university, they need this to survive in the world and achieve their goals.

With the help of our generous donors, this year JWOC has been able to help 22 students have a chance to change their life. Not just giving them a scholarship to go to university but teaching them how to prosper within their community, including study skills, work skills and developing their personal goals.

This years scholarship process - Tom and Vantha interviewing candidates

Vantha checking with references from the students applications

Home visits, the last stage of the scholarship process before students are granted a JWOC scholarship

I am extremely  excited to be part of the scholarship program.  I can see how much the program can change the students’ lives to be better and better compared to their current situations, especially when they are getting to the age where they have to deal with many problems around them that come with growing up.

 As you can see on their family members’ faces, they are so happy to see their children receiving support so they can continue moving forward and grow with the help of education. I believe that these children can become future leaders. Here at JWOC we are building a strong generation for the future of our communities and society.

 Konthea, a new scholarship student with her family

Sokhea, a new scholarship student with his family

The beauty behind buzzwords

Alexandra Plummer, the Managing Director of JWOC explains the buzzwords that the sector uses through JWOC's current projects.


I can talk about JWOC for hours; from the unprecedented commitment of our staff and scholarship students and the positive change we make in the communities we serve to the awe-inspiring support we receive from our donors. This got me thinking about the language I use to talk about JWOC to friends, family, staff and potential donors. I must admit that more often than not I find myself adopting “NGOspeak” – words and acronyms that are familiar to those who work in my field. The fast moving development world is inundated by “buzz” words. These are not to be entirely dismissed; they play an important role in framing an organization’s processes and are essentially used as a summary of their means for implementation. Beyond that, they can also act as key components in securing funds. But for those not living and breathing development work, these words can leave you a little high and dry. Words like empowerment, capacity-building, resilience, governance, civil society can be ambiguous, meaning different things depending on where you stand.

Below I have highlighted what some of these terms mean to me in relation to the work we do at JWOC. Hopefully looking through my lens will give you a better understanding of what JWOC does and why.

1. Capacity Building.

Simply put, I would say that Capacity Building is an investment. It is the investment in activities that can enable an organization to not just reach its aim but sustain itself over time. For this reason I would say it is an integral part of JWOC’s philosophy. Our 5 programs exist to strengthen; they make our staff, scholarship students, the local community and even our supporters and collaborators stronger and more able to face challenges. Projects like our new and exciting Technology Refurbishment expand what is possible for those involved. Learning how to better use technology in a learning environment equips staff and students with the tools to keep up in a technologically driven world. It may be a simple task for Information Technology tools to be delivered to the field, but it takes skills to use them to their full potential - a capacity that must be built from the ground up. Team for Tech and JWOC’s collaboration with the generous support of The Rotary Club of Sacramento helps build these skills to turn unemployed youth into future professionals in Cambodia. (Read more about Team4Tech here)

2. Resilience

The training that JWOC’s Community, Liaison and Assistance program runs is a prime example of resilience in practice. Recently JWOC ran training on practical health and hygiene to reduce health risks during the floods, which are a yearly occurrence. The knowledge that the floods come each year isn’t enough to secure prevention measures. In the squatters villages surrounding JWOC the root causes of flooding cannot be alleviated -- the village has poor irrigation systems, and uneven land. Since villagers do not own the rights to build on the land, the root-cause solutions will be a long time in coming. .Because of this, the chance of a sustainable solution to the flooding is slim.

Resilience means preparing as much as possible to come up against these odds. Working with what we have and what we cannot change, we build on what we can and reduce the risks to those who are vulnerable as much as possible.

3. Self reliance

At least once a week you will hear me highlight the problems that come with giving handouts. Handouts relieve problems temporarily, and are sometimes tempting when faced with dire situations (or necessary in an emergency), but it in the long run it creates dependency on others who are in a position of power.

We don't want to contribute to dependency driven behavior; instead we aim to enable communities to take responsibilities for their own future. How do you motivate a low educated community with poor health standards to improve their living situation? It takes perseverance and a lot of time to alter behavior. JWOC believes that by building strong relationships with local communities, by linking them to access to resources, and by offering training and facilitation, that over time these communities can become self-reliant. To us this means building ability to make informed decisions without external influence.

4. Empowerment

JWOC’s Microfinance initiative (MFI) is a prime example of empowerment in action. JWOC’s MFI increases women’s access to credit to invest in businesses that they own and operate themselves. JWOC’s borrowers have excellent repayment records, in spite of the daily hardships they face -- JWOC has a near 100% repayment rate. However, empowerment is not met by access to credit alone. JWOC operates a group loan system which enables women a space to share new ideas amongst other female participants; it also enables women to be the decision makers. JWOC’s borrowers also receive training on how to manage a budget which challenges existing social norms by empowering women in different ways.

I urge you to take the time to explore an organization's practice behind the trendy language and discover the beauty behind the buzz words. To find out more about all our programs please visit www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org

Pchum Ben - Everything you need to know about the festival of the dead

Kimleang, our 1st year scholarship student tells us about Pchum Ben, Cambodia’s upcoming festival where families pay their respects to deceased relatives.

My family always enjoys Pchum Ben; it is one of the best holidays of the year. Before the festival arrives, we always spend time preparing and buying things. Every year, when we see him, my grandfather always tells us the story of Pchum Ben.

Pchum Ben, the ‘ancestor’s festival’, is a Cambodian religious festival celebrated by Buddhists. It is one of the longest festivals in Cambodia, lasting for fifteen days. A Ben is an offering. The first fourteen days are called Kan Ben, where villages take turns making offerings, and the last day is Ben Thom, great offering, where all families go to the pagoda to make an offering. Pchum Ben is celebrated every year at the beginning of the 10th month, Phutrobot, of the Khmer calendar. During the fourteen days of Ken Ben villages take turns bringing food to the temples and pagodas. The last four days of Pchum Ben are public holidays in Cambodia and most Khmer people will visit the province where they were born for family reunions. The fifteenth days, Ben Thom, is the special day when all families bring overflowing baskets of flowers, and children offer food, sticky rice cake and presents to the monks. It is a colorful festival and everyone is dressed in their best clothes, women wear bright colored silk scarves, blouses and dresses. During the festival, special rice offerings are made called ‘Bay Bens’. Bay Bens are balls of sticky rice cooked in coconut milk with various ingredients depending on local customs.


Cambodians celebrate Pchum Ben because they believes that after death they become ghosts whose earthly actions shape their appearance and that they walk the earth at this time. Everyone prays to help their ancestors pass on to a better life. According to Khmer belief, people who do not follow the practices of Pchum Ben will be cursed by angry ancestors. The living relatives ease their sufferings by offering them food. People also make offerings of money, dresses and other items to the monks in the pagoda. The offerings made are shared by the poor and the disabled during Pchum Ben.

I hope that all of you enjoyed learning about Pchum Ben and understand more clearly about Cambodia culture. I wish all of you and your family all the best like my family too.