Community Liaison and Assistance Activities

In this post our newest JWOC Programme Manager, Konthea Mean, tells us about the Home Gardens Project and the monitoring work of our Volunteer Community Facilitators in the field.

Seedlings are started by the group leaders in each village

During the first month  working as a Community Liaison and Assistance (CLA) Programme Manager for JWOC, I  am  really pleased with what I have learned and participated with the team. In this program there are 12 Volunteer Community Facilitators working with me, who are JWOC scholarship students. Three of them work on Saturday and the rest work on Sunday. We have been working in two villages - Duon Un and Ta Kam in Duon Keo Commune where we do the Home Gardens Project.

One of our beneficiaries, Hea, with bitter gourd 

There are 25 people in each village who join the activity and they all were trained by the expert on how to make a home garden. With one group leader in each village, we provided them 5 kinds of seeds: tomato, cucumber, string bean, bitter gourd and eggplant. However, most of them choose only two or three kinds of seeds to plant because their gardens are small.

To follow up and assist in the project, we set up a schedule to monitor their activities in each village two times a month. Because our team is divided between Saturday and Sunday teams, and everyone wants to get involved in both places, we monitor each village in rotation. As we do the monitoring process, we found our beneficiaries in both villages paid attention very well on their gardens. They applied all the methods they learned from the training to real practice. Their plants are good and now most of our beneficiaries are collecting the vegetables for eating and for sale in the market. 

Sopheavy is part of the JWOC CLA team and monitors the Home Gardens Project

During our monitoring we found there are some diseases and insects destroying the crops. To solve these problems we conducted research and discussed with the trainer to provide solutions to our beneficiaries. Up to now all those problems are solved and almost 90% of the gardens are successful.

One of our beneficiaries, Mao, is a 62 year old woman in Ta Kam Village. She planted many kinds of crops in her garden and takes care of them every day. Unfortunately one day, when she was cooking in the kitchen, there were a few cows got into her garden and ate all the crops. We encouraged her to buy more seeds on her own and replant, to make a fence around the garden and be more careful. This week we visited Mao and saw her smiling face because her plants are growing well and will produce vegetables soon. We really appreciate her for all her effort. 

Konthea and Mao in the garden

Even though the JWOC Home Gardens Project in these two villages is going to finish soon, I expect to conduct this project in other villages in order to help more beneficiaries in the rural communities to increase their gardening skills to grow nutritious food and improve their economic situation.

Healthy tomato plants

Healthy cucumbers seem to be the easiest to grow

Garden in Ta Kam Village with good fence to keep the animals out

Activities in the Clean Water Project

In this post Clean Water Project Manager Seng writes about his experience during the first four months in the role, highlighting JWOC's work both in schools and in rural villages. 

I am very well and happy working with JWOC for 4 months. There are 19 scholarship students volunteering in my project, 9 students work on Saturday and the others work on Sunday.  Since I have been working at JWOC, I have done activities in two different places, at schools on Saturday and in the villages on Sunday. At school, we have done specialized training to all principals and one teacher of each school, representative of all teachers in the schools and are still providing Hygiene Training to students. 

There are four schools have been done, Krous, Kok Patry, Svay Donkum and Phom Thnol primary schools. There are more than 2000 students having been provided hygiene training. The students, teachers and the principals of schools are welcoming and very happy that because of us they have clean water to drink, enough water using in the class and knowledge of good hygiene practices. Please have a look at some photos of activities and achievements our team has done at school.

Teeth cleaning training

Hand washing training

Distributing hygiene packs and drinking bottles

For the villages, I have worked in three villages. I started at the end of Ta Kam village, doing filters training, and completed the whole village of Pong Ro village. But we cut down some steps of the projects for this village, just providing hygiene training, because we found that there were many wells and filters provided by other organizations after asking the village chief and getting the team to check through the whole village before putting the clean water project. It helps the villagers to know how to care for their health that help improve their lives. 

Now I have been processing the project in Kouk Beng village that is about 9 kilometers from JWOC, to the north. There are 273 households and there are many wells in this village but most of them are broken and the people still lack of good hygiene practice in their lives, maybe because other organizations have not provided them the hygiene training. We have seen three places to install new wells, where the families around are very poor and don’t have enough water to use. Repairing the broken wells will provide much help to the villagers in this village. I hope this village will be much changed after we finish our Clean Water project, because the village chief and the group leaders have been trying hard to help develop their village.

Below are some activities of the villages we have done.

Village hygiene training

Distributing hygiene packs

Well repair training

I am looking forward to writing to you again next time to tell you more about the work with the villages and schools!

To find out more about our Clean Water Project, take a look here- http://www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org/projects/clean-water/

Getting involved in 2013

Happy New Year!

At JWOC we are excited about everything 2013 holds and we would like you to be a part of it – this year we're asking you to make a New Year’s resolution to get others involved and make your support go even further.

We've got four simple ways you can get involved and help raise funds for JWOC...

1. Check if your employer will match your donation. Many do. There is a list of companies with established schemes here but it’s also worth checking directly – you might start something!

2. Write a review here. By writing a review you can help us find new donors. More and more people are using sites like GreatNonprofits.org to decide where to donate. Your reviews will let them know JWOC is a great choice.

3. iGive isn’t just for Christmas- they will give us money all year! By signing up to iGive you can raise funds for JWOC every time you shop online.

4. Spread the word by Liking and Sharing our posts on Facebook. With just a click you can help us reach new supporters.

We look forward to hearing from you in 2013!

With best wishes

The JWOC Team

P.S. If you’d like to make a pledge to donate directly you can sign up for a monthly subscription donation here. By donating each month you will provide great support to our ongoing projects. 

Vantha reflects on the importance on the scholarship programme

In this post Vantha discusses the difference a JWOC scholarship can make and shares some photos of the new students with their families and homes. 

There are many students who try hard to fight the education battle to help them achieve their future goals. Students have different opportunities and some have fewer chances than the others. They have to find jobs or scholarships to support their education and for living expenses. They are hoping and believing that the higher education will help them to achieve their goals.

The process of scholarship student recruitment for JWOC Scholarships 2012 made JWOC able to help 27 students to cross from the darkness to the brightness. JWOC made a good choices to pick up the strongest students that have commitment with their study, they really want to make their dreams become true.

I am so excited to be the Scholarship Programme Coordinator as I can see how important the scholarship programme is for students who really need help from someone or somewhere. When I visit homes I can see their family’s faces so happy to see their children receiving support and start moving to positive life, better than they have.

Education makes students change from feeling hopeless. That is why support from our donors is really important. With donor support we give students best resources and increase human resources in Cambodia and build up the strong humanity in the community and society.

The photos below show some of the new scholarship students with their family members. You see their living situations and condition which have made challenges for them.

Piseth in Scholarship t-shirt and with his family‘s photo above

Chamroeun in Scholarship t-shirt and with her family outside their house, below

SaEm in Scholarship t-shirt and with her big family‘s photo below

The photo of the road to scholarship student’s house took while home visit process. It is so difficult to get to the house because some part of the road cannot drive motorbike in; we have to walk through the flooded area.

Sreynou in Scholarship t-shirt and with her father

The happiness photo of all new scholarship students in fist time to meet each other at JWOC 2012.

To find out more about the Scholarship Programme take a look here- http://www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org/projects/university-scholarships/

Gift Giving with JWOC

Season's Greetings! 

It’s December already and we’re counting down to the holiday season. This year JWOC has got four great ways to help you celebrate this time of giving while also helping communities in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Find out more below- we’re certain you’ll find something that fits what you are looking for!

Give a JWOC Gift

By choosing a JWOC Gift for friends and family, you are sending something special that not only shows you care but also helps our projects in Southeast Asia. From books to microloans there’s a range of giving levels to choose from.

We’ll send an e-letter, with a personalized message from you, to your recipient letting them know of the great gift you have chosen for them.

Use iGive while you shop

Just register with iGive and buy your holiday gifts at any of its 1000+ participating stores and JWOC will receive a portion of the sales. There’s no cost to you and no cost to us- a real holiday win-win!

Buy our greetings cards, prints or calendar

JWOC has set up a shop on redbubble. Featuring a collection of eye-catching pictures from our projects and the countries we work in our shop is a wonderful place to order prints and greeting cards.

After clicking on the picture you like you’ll see the options for ordering- from a postcard to a large framed print.

You can also order our beautiful 2013 calendar.

Make a donation in someone’s honor

If you give via Crowdrise you get to design your own e-card to let your recipient know you’ve donated in their honor. You could choose a nice, festive portrait of yourself to adorn the front cover- like this one from Free Classes Project Manager Somit!