Sponsor Cambodian graduates, help their community!

My previous project reports have mainly focused on the progress of Youth Star volunteers as they undertake their work in rural communities. I thought you might be interested in learning how we recruit our volunteers, as this is one of the major activities of Youth Star and a task we are now busy undertaking.

The recruitment process requires considerable forward planning. As we only recruit university graduates, we generally need to communicate with potential volunteers before they graduate. To do this, we undertake presentations at three Cambodian universities to students in their final year. The current recruitment program is for volunteers who will start their placements in August 2015.

Our presentations focus on the Youth Star philosophy and the benefits to both the students and communities in which they serve from being a Youth Star volunteer for one year. We involve two Youth Star volunteer alumni in these presentations, so students can ask questions of former volunteers about the various aspects of volunteering. A common question asked of alumni is what life is actually like in the village communities, as many Cambodian students have little experience of life in these communities.

The most difficult part of our recruitment is explaining the longer term benefits of being a Youth Star volunteer. We only provide our volunteers with a modest monthly stipend, whereas students will receive a much higher salary if they obtain employment post-graduation. We focus on the benefits volunteers can provide to rural communities, as we are targeting students with a social conscience who will hopefully become future leaders of Cambodian civil society.

At Youth Star we are proud of our achievements in developing future leaders. We have a strong Youth Star alumni group who get together regularly throughout the year. Once they have completed their volunteering, our alumni are also sought after employees and generally find positions with good career prospects, often in areas developing Cambodian society. Next week we have three volunteers who are completing their time with Youth Star and all three have already secured good positions.

We are fortunate to have the assistance of Cambodian universities in providing us with facilities to assist our recruitment and lecturers who promote our activities. Youth Star volunteer positions are also advertised on our website, Facebook page and Cambodia’s major recruitment website - www.bongthom.com.

Of course advertising our volunteering positions is only the beginning of the recruitment process. There is always constant liaison with potential volunteers and usually their parents, who often have concerns about their child living in a rural community for 12 months and questions about how Youth Star will provide support during this time. Once we have shortlisted potential volunteers, we also test them for their suitability in being able to handle the rigours of village life and particularly their conflict resolution skills.

We have already gone through these processes for the next round of volunteers, who after pre-departure training from Youth Star are expected to commence their placements in March 2015, subject to funding being available to support them for 12 months. We have another Globalgiving project currently underway to try and raise these funds and we would welcome your support enabling us to reach this goal.

I would welcome any questions you have about our recruitment process or any other aspect of Youth Star’s work. Just send an email to mora@youthstarcambodia.org .

In February this year I posted a report which discussed the commencement of Youth Star placements in 2014, including the placement of Ms Veasna Sophea in Kampong Thnal village. As Veasna has now been working in Kampong Thnal for over 10 months I thought it would be interesting to provide an update on her progress.

Veasna has been very busy! Each weekday Veasna teaches 40 ‘at risk’ children—children who may be struggling to keep up with their schoolwork and therefore at risk of dropping out of school. As one of the main objectives of Youth Star is to encourage and promote the benefits of education in rural Cambodia, we do our best to facilitate a productive learning environment for all the village children where our volunteers are placed.

Veasna has also been undertaking additional educational activities, including providing extra classes to 25 local youth club members, some English language tuition and operating a local library two times per week. She has also taught basic bodily hygiene practices to local children.

Youth Star aims to develop a community self-help culture in rural villages. To further this aim, Veasna has introduced a community vegetable garden maintained by the village children and organised village ‘cleanup’ activities, such as cleaning up all the waste plastic in the village environment.

Besides helping rural communities, the Youth Star model is equally focused on developing future Cambodian civic leaders. To be successful in their placements volunteers must actively engage with all levels of their local community, which Veasna has done admirably. She has gained strong support from village leaders, which has been demonstrated through obtaining donations of furniture to assist her teaching activities and funds from the local community for the erection of a village flagpole. She also arranged for the village chief to open the local kindergarten.

In order to facilitate and run the diverse range of educational and other activities Veasna has also been required to develop considerable organizational and planning skills, which will be of great use to her in her future career.

Youth Star encourages local youth to take on responsibility and organise their own activities. One of the local community partners, Mrs. Hout Thoeun, has reported to Youth Star that the work of Veasna has made significant changes to the lives of the local youth population. Some local youth leaders now provide tuition in the Khmer and English languages and in mathematics. Local youths have also organised the recycling of waste products to fertilise and compost the local youth vegetable garden.

Through the forming of a local youth club—organised by Veasna—the local youth are developing a more defined role and range of activities in the community, which has been welcomed by Mrs Thoeun and other community members.

We congratulate Veasna for the great success of her work in the community and the commitment and drive she has demonstrated to make this possible.

Links:

• Visit our website
• Look at photos of our volunteers on Facebook