Update from Community Liaison and Assistance- Road Repairs

In this post Project Manager Va talks about the impact of the road repair activity that took place earlier this year. The funding from this important food for work scheme came from those who responded to our emergency appeal at the end of 2011. To read the background to the activity click here. 






Road Use and Impact Report

Lberk and Roharl villages are located in Duon Keo commune, Pouk District, Siem Reap province. Owing to the flooding in late 2011, the road connecting Lberk and Roharl villages was broken. To meet with the needs of the community, Community Liaison and Assistance Project discussed with community people to provide assistance in road rebuilding, for purpose of providing food for villagers and a good road for assess. 

The road repairs were completely finished in February 2012, and it has been used for many different activities by villagers. On March 30th, 2012, Community Liaison and Assistance Team spent a full day to conduct observation and interviewing with some different people using the road.
In total we observed 354 people using the road, mostly using bicycle or motorbike, showing it is well used. To get information on the difference made by the road repair we also interviewed people using the road. 

From the answers to the interviews we know the most common uses of the road were- going to school, going to the market ( to buy and sell) and going into Siem Reap town to work as a laborer on construction site. All of these activities are important for people's economic situation. Other than these common uses we also found people travelling to the the health clinic, visiting family and going to work in another area. Everyone interviewed agreed that with the road rebuilt recently it helped and supported their travelling to their destinations quicker and felt safer on the smooth road. Below are some quotes from our interviews. 

Mr. Tem Samarn, student said “I go to school every day by my bike with the road repaired, I can use my bike somewhat quicker and I feel comfortable and I can arrive school faster not late for school any more. Moreover, I would like to ask organization about helping more with tree planting on each side of the road because they will provide shade along the road and trees can help protect road for long time. Thank a lot for your help and support to rebuild this road,”

Construction worker, Mr. Yeourm Youn, said “Everyday, I use this road with my bike for going to work since this road has been totally repaired.  I go to work quicker, I feel very happy and comfortable for making it easy to use my bike. Now, I can use my bike on this road fast as I want and I feel safety because it is smooth. Before I travelled to work on my bike I had felt tired and hard because I use more energy for getting the place on time, but now the road looks good I can use my bike on it very happily."

Meouy Check (above), is a grocery seller in Lberk village. She said, “I use my bicycle on this road for going to Pouk Market to buy grocery products for selling in my village, I have used this road for many years, before it was a bit hard to make travelling with my bike, but now, I could travel quicker to reach the place. I feel safe and easy to use my bike on this road. I am very happy to get this road repaired by JWOC organization. Thanks to organization for assisting and helping rebuild this road after flooding."

We will return to the road once the rainy season starts to assess if any further work is needed to maintain the road in its good condition. 

Thank you to everyone who donated to JWOC's relief and recovery work! 

To read more about our work during the flooding take a look here. 

Help Us Behind the Scenes

This month we are asking for your help with something a little less glamorous, but truly instrumental in keeping JWOC running. Like every other non-profit we don’t really look forward to fundraising for our General Fund, it just doesn’t have the excitement and appeal of our wonderful projects, but without the General Fund our projects can’t happen.

It is thanks to our support team and our wonderfully run office that we are able to create so much change and empower so many people!

Our Office Manager, Vantha, is a wonderful example of what is provided by the General Fund. On any given day he works across all the projects providing invaluable assistance. Below we’ve highlighted some of the things Vantha does to help us keep solving problems!

Vantha is one of our trained first aiders, an important role in the school. This usually means cleaning up grazed knees and applying band-aids but Vantha is also ready to help should a more serious accident take place.

Vantha does the bookkeeping for JWOC meaning we can keep accurate records of how donations are spent.

Vantha’s language skills mean he is able to provide accurate translation of document or during meetings and discussions, facilitating work in all of the project.

Vantha is always on hand to answer questions from potential new students. Here he is giving the class timetable information to a trio of eager youngsters.

Vantha and the maintenance team of Sokha, Rith and Sak make sure the school, office and grounds are kept in great condition giving everyone a clean and pleasant environment to work and study in.

Vantha works successfully to promote JWOC projects. Here he is at Bakong High School Careers Day informing students about the Scholarship Programme

Please help us support Vantha and the rest of our administration expenses through our General Fund, allowing us to keep running our projects at the high quality supporters and beneficiaries deserve!

To be a funding star set up a monthly gift of $20 towards our General Fund here. Or if you prefer, donate online or send us a check. Whichever method you choose you’ll be helping our projects continue to be great and make a difference.

And remember if you would like to send a donation to JWOC as a gift for someone and have them receive an e-card just click on the Crowdrise button on this page. 




Thank you to everyone who has already donated! 

Bremner, Mary * Colson, Christopher and Emily * Esparza, Erin * Goodman, Cynthia, Larry and Drew * Kane, Yukari * Nelson, Ann and David * Otto, Kristan * Paine, Alix * Tatom, Denise * 

Discover what Yann Yon had to say; another winner of JWOC's International Women's Day competition

Let's discover what Yon, another of the winners, had to say in response to the question "What is it like to be a woman in Cambodia in 2012?"  The essays were not judged on the accuracy of the information, the grammatical structure or being inline with views held by JWOC or myself. I was simply looking for students who had tried really hard to express their views, whatever they were, which is not easy when learning a new language. Jackie, EVM, JWOC.

Winner of the male over 18 category

All women in the world want to live in a good condition and don’t want to be look down from the men. Especially women in Cambodia they really want to live in the same right as they men also. It means they want to get a right to protect themselves from looking down of societies and family fighting. 

One more thing the life for women in Cambodia before were very difficulty; especially the women who lived in the countryside most of them were farmers who worked very hard all days in the field and some women got widow of the war.  So they have to tried to work hard to earn money for their families. So some of their children have to drop out of school in order to find the jobs in the city and town or to worked at home for helped their families. Some of women were looked down by their husbands and some were hit by their husbands and other had HIV because of their husbands. However the women who lived in the city were very lucky they didn’t to work hard like women in countryside. That time ago the women lived bitterly with bad conditions for their live, they didn’t have equal right as men did. 

          However Cambodia in 2012 people live in the modern time. Women have changed their faces because they play in the important roles not only in the families but also in societies. According to my observation most women have become leader because they have had equal right to accept high education and have job to earn for their living. Moreover some Cambodian women have become doctor the member of parliament and leader and some have become manager of companies and some have done like men also. So in the name of I am one of the men and Cambodian we have to give the right chances for women and help them to live in the same equal right as men do. As a slogan said “Ladies are the mother of the world” So women themselves have to study hard to have enough abilities to work in modern societies in 2012.

By Yann Yon, aged 19

 Yon's classmates were very happy when he was presented with his prize

Find out what Heng Saki had to say; a winner of JWOC's International Women's day competition

 

 Let's find out what Saki, one of the winners, had to say in response to the question "What is it like to be a woman in Cambodia in 2012?"  The essays were not judged on the accuracy of the information, the grammatical structure or being inline with views held by JWOC or myself. I was simply looking for students who had tried really hard to express their views, whatever they were, which is not easy when learning a new language. Jackie, EVM, JWOC.


 Winner of the female aged over 18 category

Cambodia is an old country in Asia continent. This country is being developed all the sectors especially Human Resource.  The government tired to concentrate very hard on Cambodian people especially women. Now these day women and men have equal right. Women can get education, protection and have all rights like men. More over women is protected by International Organization and the organization made on rights called “Women’s right.” The most women have knowledge so they can flee from girl hunter. They are brave, clever, easy to find work than men. They have only two or three children. They know how to delay time for having children and how to care the health and hygiene and they know more that what is the problem when they don’t care about hygiene. 

But unfortunately it hasn’t only advantage. It also has Disadvantage. By the technology run fast so the women don’t think a lot about their tradition. Their attitude is similar to foreigner. They wear short, sexy, their style is really the same Europe or Korean and the color of hair sometime red, yellow, brown… Otherwise the most of like going for a walk at night a lot. All of these don’t follow the rule of Khmer tradition and they make plenty of back stories such as: they loved each other before they get married, become a lady joiner… at previous time women in Cambodia is really gentle, they always respect their parent and tried to help them a lot like house work, care the children. They tried to work hard and never lazy. They didn’t go for a walk a lot because they respected to the Khmer tradition etc.  All these reason is the good activities that we need to follow. But each society always have advantage and disadvantage so that time women were very sad they must work hard for their parent,  the most of them didn’t go to school and have a lot of children maybe eight to ten children for one women. They didn’t know how to care the health, they didn’t have enough right like the boy and only work in the kitchen or in the field. So if someone wants to make bad story with her it is very easy. 

All of these, women or girl in Cambodia in 2012 and at previous time is really different but both of them have advantages and disadvantages. So we must follow on what that good and throw on what make us crazy. It is very good for our country and we can care our culture or something that out hero saved it for us. 

by Heng Saki aged 19

 Saki was thrilled to receive a prize for her entry

Read Kao Seth Kosal's ideas; one of JWOC's International Women's Day competition winners

Let's read what Kosal, one of the winners, had to say in response to the question "What is it like to be a woman in Cambodia in 2012?"  The essays were not judged on the accuracy of the information, the grammatical structure or being inline with views held by JWOC or myself. I was simply looking for students who had tried really hard to express their views, whatever they were, which is not easy when learning a new language. Jackie, EVM, JWOC.

Winner of the male under age 18 category

In the year of 2012 Cambodia is a peaceful place with development on everything. So people in Cambodia might be happy and enjoy their living. And how about women and girls in Cambodia? Can they get what they want? 

Life of the women and girls in Cambodia are not the same. They live in their own family. So their lives are different. A girl or a woman in a rich family is so different from a girl or a woman in a poor family. A rich girl or rich woman lives with happiness they live in big houses with comfortable life. They have cars servants etc. but in a poor family woman and girl usually work hard. They have to be strong to help their family. In the countryside women and girls leave their villages to find jobs far away from their house sometimes they go abroad or any places in country. And a girl or woman in a simple family is easier than the poor. 

Now the women and girls are offered the rights for good living in society. They can go to study at school they can work like a man they can share the ideas, they can make decisions etc. It’s better than before that girls and women were just kept as housekeeper. But women and girls still have problems in the society or in the family like violence.  The violence usually suffer the woman and children in the family some girls were deceived by dishonest people by many ways. However woman can live better than man if she’s smarter and she can find a good job when she finished school like a man in Cambodia. When we look at the jobs in Cambodia we can see it’s easier than before.  Now the number of woman at work is increasing in Cambodia and also there are many kinds of work that women can do such as work in the hotel, restaurant, organization, company, enterprise, or in government too. And we can see that women are very important in each country in development, politics, economy and education. 

by Kao Seth Kosal, aged 15

Kosal proudly holding his prize