Empower Cambodia Leaders to Protect their Children

Our Doorsteps team trains local community leaders in Cambodia to be able to protect children against abuse, exploitation and trafficking by providing small improvement grants, collaboration opportunites and capacity-building opportunities to grassroots programs. This year, Doorsteps combined with our Charter project to build on these endeavors by raising standards and sharing best practices with other organizations in the counter-trafficking movement.

This past quarter the Doorsteps Charter team began a training series on effective living based on Stephen Covey's book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The training involves 21 participants working in education, capacity-building and social work who meet for two days a month together learning about the principles outlined in the book. By facilitating effective living the Doorsteps Charter team encourages a method for the participants to create a sturdy foundation on which to improve their current and future work in their fields. Additionally, the team is in the midst of conducting a needs-based training for Charter member organizations on Financial Management, Human Resources and addressing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These trainings will conclude this month.

Last month the team also completed the final session of this year's Project Cycle Management Level I training with 24 participants. The training lasts an entire year, during which time the Doorsteps Charter team works on building capacity and mentoring grassroots leaders in Cambodia to effectively run their organizations and thus better address vulnerabilities that can lead to exploitation and trafficking in their communities.

Outside their normal trainings provided, this quarter presented a unique crisis for the Doorsteps Charter team to respond to. Tens of thousands of Cambodian migrant workers were deported from Thailand following the military junta’s campaign to crack down on illegal migration and slave labor. Through threats, warnings and mass deportation, Cambodian migrants (reports say both legal and illegal) working in Thailand’s construction, fisheries or garment industries were loaded on trucks and sent to the Thailand-Cambodia border, with no appropriate safety measures or provisions for the journey, as well as being charged extra to cross the border. The response to the crisis on the Cambodian side was well-organized and coordinated through a network of NGOs, agencies and the Cambodian government to provide these migrants with water, food and hygiene kits, as well as temporary shelter in tents before they were transported back to their respective homes. The Doorsteps Charter team was part of the relief and protection work and continues to be part of the collaborative efforts to define next stages of addressing the return of these more than 200,000 unemployed Cambodians back to their homes.

Thanks to your contribution to this project, our team is able to continue their important work equipping and empowering local leaders to care for their communities effectively, as well as responding to emergencies such as the one detailed above. The Doorsteps Charter team provides financial resources for grassroots leaders to implement their programs, but also train these leaders in the organizational skills necessary to do the kinds of work they want to do. Capacity-building and mentoring helps leaders identify specific ways their programs can increase their impact in protecting children and subsequently make their application for a small improvement grant. As a result, children benefit from improved programming in the community. On behalf of our team and our training participants, thank you for your continued support!