I am currently in Cambodia working in a provincial not for profit organization with a friend. With this in mind I felt an international taste this month was in order.
My friend, Melina Chan, is a fellow RMIT Business graduate. She started working with the Cambodian organization SABORAS in February 2008 as a participant in the annual Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) program. Her main role here is to ‘capacity build’ the organizations managers and develop their professional English, business procedures and proposal writing.
Cambodia is certainly in development mode with over 500 international and national not for profit organizations at work, including the highly publicized ‘Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation’ which works at improving the areas of environment and children. A lot of the hardships these organizations are working on addressing have taken place after the 1975 Communist Khmer Rouge regime which systematically executed over 1.5 million of the countries most educated and influential people.
Despite these startling obstacles the Cambodian people are extremely beautiful and gracious. Their history has left a cautiously resilient and young population to rebuild a new culture, education and industries. Recent elections sustained the slow reintroduction of democracy to the country. International delegates, including Australian parliamentarians oversaw the Cambodian People’s Party (who has been in power for 25 years), get reelected for another five years.
The countries average economic growth of 5% has been largely driven by expansion within the garment and tourism sectors. Clothing exports were fostered by the 1999 United States of America and Cambodian Bilateral Textile Agreement guaranteeing Cambodia a quota of US textile imports. Currently, the US receives approximately 50% of Cambodia’s total exports. The agreement also offered a bonus if Cambodia could improve working conditions to meet international labor standards. Cambodia also exports to Germany, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Canada.
SABORAS is a small local not for profit organization hoping to take advantage of such international opportunities. Established in provincial Battambang they are funded mainly by various international donors. Strains on the international economy have hurt funding for one of the organizations most successful initiatives, the ‘Apprentices for Youth’ Program (AYP).
The AYP has received only 40% of necessary funding this financial year and may be forced to drop the number of apprentices from 30 to 12. The US$16,000 of funds not received would have been used to educated and train 18 potential mechanics, electricians, IT professionals, beauticians, dressmakers and bakers. Previous years has seen intakes achieve a 90% success rate of graduation and future employment.
As the Cambodian population lacks education and new skills (particularly in the above jobs) programs like the AYP are essential for the countries development for two important reasons:
1) To assist build regional areas who suffer a drastic lack of infrastructure
2) To skill the emerging labor forces of 1million young people
The handicrafts project I am assisting with as apart of the SABORAS AYAD program offers vocational training and accommodation for disabled women. The students learn how to design and sew kromars (traditional scarves), shirts, hand bags and more. Products are currently sold at local hotels, markets and shops in Battambang and Phnom Penh. The mission of SABORAS Handicraft is to build a handicraft centre in Battambang to fair trade standards while delivering a sustainable livelihood to its students and community.
This month the organization will sell their first products overseas and pursue growth opportunities in the Australian market. My hope is to secure these channels in time for the busy Christmas period and create a sustainable future for this great project. The organization aspires to sell their innovative products via their website, mail order and Australian community markets.
If you are interested in supporting the ‘Apprenticeships for Youth’ or handicraft projects by purchasing some of their products or donating money please go to www.saboras.org or contact me directly at lindamargaretscott21@gmail.com for more information. You’re support is greatly appreciated.
