Can Charcoal Bring a Liberia Out of Poverty?

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Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of Foundation for Women (FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field.

The five businesses that the Foundation For Women in Liberia support most are:  selling charcoal, selling used clothing, selling palm oil, selling small things, and hairstyling. By far, selling charcoal is the most profitable despite the environmental impacts. I want to know why FFW supports this business and the logistics of the trade.

Foundation for Women in Monrovia

Charles Naiwah, FFW’s Program Director, tells me how it works. Somewhere in the bush someone cuts down trees, burns them and makes charcoal.  Charcoal buyers find out where and when the charcoal will be available. Charles says the costs per bag are about 225-235LB total, factoring in transportation and licensing. A 25-pound bag sells for 325LB in central Monrovia, but the sellers often resell the charcoal in smaller bags to earn a bigger profit margin. Still, the margin on buying and selling a 25-pound bag is around 100LB, or about $1.30-$1.40 U.S. That is considered a very profitable business.

Woman Balancing a Bag of Charcoal

With a FFW microcredit loan, an enterprising group of women can rent a bigger truck and load as many as 500 bags of charcoal. Even ‘uncut’ that could be a $650-$700 profit. In a country where the average annual per capita income is among the very lowest in the world and a significant proportion of the population lives in poverty on less than $1U.S. per day, this is big money.

A Woman's Front Porch Doubles as a Charcoal Warehouse

Liberian women use the money they earn, first, to feed their families. Second, they educate their children. A generation of educated young adults can find solutions to today’s exigencies. Charcoal selling, like rock crushing, is a necessary step in Liberia’s evolution back to prosperity. It can’t get there if people can’t eat and can’t learn.  The selling of charcoal, therefore, is a necessary evil in Liberia today. The FFW is empowering the women of Liberia to earn money now so that their future is not dependant on coal or foreign aid.

Up next – We will meet the women who traveled from all across Liberia to attend leadership training and a Women’s Leadership Conference put on by FFW!

How Microcredit Benefits an Entire Community

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Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of Foundation for Women (FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field.

As mentioned in my previous post, often microcredit is organized around “solidarity groups” or “village banks.”  Learn more about how these groups work on FFW’s site.  The leader of the next group we visit is a woman named Koruba Johnson.  In addition to the goals of the individual group members they also want to raise enough money to build a church.

Community at Church '72'

The partly built church, ’72’ is a dark shell of a building now, but the profits will drive completion.  I have heard and seen situations similar to this a couple of times now.  There is no construction financing, so people build as they can, a room at a time or whatever they have the cash to afford.  A thought creeps in that it is sad that they have so little and yet they are using a good deal of their profits to build a church.  But then I reflect that this church gives them hope and purpose and community.  Am I really so callus I would want to take that away from them?

Plus, when war came the public school system disintegrated.  The only functioning schools were provided by the various churches – Baptist, Methodist, Adventist, 7th day, etc.  Of course, they could only handle a fraction of Liberia’s displaced youth.  So, the illiteracy rate went through the roof.  Some semblance of a public school system is being contemplated, but for now only churches fill this vital role.

Charles, FFW’s Program Director, talks to the group/congregation.  He tells them that FFW respects them because they want to raise themselves up.  Then Emily, ‘Mommy’ is introduced and she reiterates the difference between FFW and other microcredit agencies; FFW is not just about loans, but also about training and support.  She introduces Deborah and Phil to rounds of ‘Jesus’ and singing.  Then the chief woman goes out and comes back with three live chickens and my heart goes into my feet.  I think they’re going to sacrifice them.  Phil says he thought the same as he has seen it before.  But in this case it is just a tradition where they give chickens to important guests.  Thankfully, I’m far too unimportant to rate a chicken!

FFW Founder Deborah and Emily 'Mommy' Peal Receiving Chickens

Phil interviews two of the women from the group while I run around – like a chicken – trying to remember all the stuff I need to help him ‘mic’ someone.  He has to find the right light, some place as quiet as possible while kids are running around and people are talking.  The two women we talk to have similar stories: they are poor; they were forced to give up school and work (in one case so a brother could go to school).  With the money from the loans they can earn enough to put their own kids into a church school.  Both are proud that all their kids are getting an education.

Kevin Helping Phil Interview Deddeh Goun

These women have various levels of education and articulation, but it is a mistake to equate that with intelligence.  With an FFW loan Deddeh, 32 with 3 kids, discusses how she can improve her profit margins in the little shop out of which she sells soft drinks, water and cement, by buying more in bulk.  She might not be able to read and write but she knows how to drive her P&L!

 Much more about Foundations for Women programs to come!

FFW Microcredit Programs Making a Difference

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Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of Foundation for Women (FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field.

Below are some examples of the women and small businesses that FFW serves.

“Nothing is easy; especially the beginning of everything.”  Martha Parotor, head of COSEO (Community Sustainable Educational Organization-Empowerment).

Amazing Grace

One of the first businesses we visit is Amazing Grace (AG).  Grace has a loan from FFW and her business is taking old bottles that boys pick up from the sides of streets and pulverizing them into powder and melting that in molds to create unique bracelets and necklaces.  The bracelets sell for $5, the necklaces from $15 on up.  I need one immediately and love the constituent parts of the concept: she makes beautiful art pieces out of dangerous environmental waste, she makes a profit, and she provides jobs.  AG’s office is an abandoned shipping container.  To the right and behind the container are two small, improbable kilns, cobbled together out of some bricks/cinder blocks and cement.  In one they make their molds and in the other they melt the glass fragments.  It is primitive but the end results are terrific.

Jewelry for Sale at Amazing Grace

Sidenote: You can also find Amazing Grace jewelry at FFW’s website.

Then we head with Emily Peal, FFW CEO, thru Congo Town out to Paynesville to visit COSEO.  This is Emily’s first visit.  Here we are greeted by Martha Parotor, and I hear for the first time Emily referred to as ‘Mommy’, an affectionate and respectful title.  I get a palpable sense of what her help will mean to these women.  With FFW money they can buy equipment to help them grow a small business preserving local foods like cassava leaf, which is used in restaurants as a flavoring.  Cassava leaf powder, the making of which is very labor-intensive, sells for $2US per 7 ounce bag.

Phil Documenting Women with Cassava Leafs Outside COSEO

With FFW loans there are 30 women and they will get loans in groups of 5.  So, there will be 6 loans.  All 30 women will fill out an FFW questionnaire.  FFW wants to know what they are doing now, what they want to do, their aspirations and fears, and more.  Once granted, all 5 women in each group, individually and jointly, will be responsible for paying the loan back.  FFW knows they will support each other and push each other.  The knowledge FFW has about each woman, and the group structure of the loans, is a good reason why their payback rate is 96-98%.  Sophisticated first world banks with their off balance sheet securitization and ‘liar’ loans could learn something from this ‘basic’ approach.

The average FFW loan is $100, but while the amount is minor the change to these women’s lives will not be commensurate.  With these loans and the profits they make their children can go to private schools and they can builds homes.  They can build a future.  They can regain pride and self-respect.  The impact is immeasurable.

We will have the chance to visit a few more businesses that are supported by FFW’s microcredit programs before we meet some of the women taking part in FFW upcoming leadership conference and training.  Stay tuned!

Documenting the Foundation for Women in Liberia

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Phil has already embarked on another trip! He is documenting the work of Foundation for Women (FFW) in Liberia, as well as, a women’s leadership summit that they are hosting. FFW is an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field.

Today was my first full day in Africa, hence also Liberia. We drive thru the humid pollution to FFW headquarters, a concrete building just off the road. Inside we go to a small conference room and begin to introduce ourselves. Along with Deborah Lindholm, the founder of FFW, we meet the brain trust of the organization which includes Emily Peal the CEO, her new COO Jade Martin and new IT/Finance Chief Alfred Baker. These are perhaps lofty titles, but Jade and Alfred explain their roles and challenges very articulately; including how their air conditioners were stolen recently and that they only have enough money to have the generator on for a few hours every day, usually from 11am to 4pm.

Kevin while documenting the programs of FFW in Liberia

So, a couple of asides. There is no power grid in Liberia. They used to generate enough hydroelectric power for themselves with leftover to export. But the dams were blown up. Now, all power comes from individual generators. Individual generators run on oil. Oil is expensive. Businesses run generators during the day, homes run them at night. If your generator isn’t on you don’t have electricity, you don’t have internet, you can’t charge your phones, and you don’t have light. Period.

Back in the conference room, we meet the team of young, world hopping photo documentarians who, while working on their own project, will also be photographing Phil as he goes about his work. Sebastian Lindstrom (sound and producer) is Swedish, Alicia Sully (filmmaker) from America, and Philippa Young (writer) are all in their mid-twenties and have co-founded a foundation called What Took You So Long (WTYSL). The vision of WTYSL is to build film as a medium for social change and something every social business utilizes effectively to send their message to the watching world.

When all the intros are complete we discuss the timing of what we want to have happen. Phil wants to meet the women who will be coming to here to Monrovia for a week of leadership training; ideally to go out to one or two villages and come in with them. The logistics, given the quality of the roads, is daunting, but we put a plan in place.

Next we will be visiting some of the women that of the Foundation for Women supports with the funds and tools for successful business endeavors allowing them to support their families and help their local communities grow.

The New Republic of South Sudan

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The new Republic of South Sudan is the UN’s 193rd country and Africa’s 54th. While there is ample reason to rejoice the birth of this, the world’s newest nation, there is also cause for concern.

As I contemplate the South’s secession, I find my thoughts returning to my current job as Legal Advocate for domestic violence survivors. Every day I help survivors navigate the sometimes-treacherous and always-complicated legal system and so I relate the new nation to the following analogy.

Market Day

With the stretch of the imagination one can liken the split between North and South to a domestic violence divorce: the North is the abusive partner while the South is the victim and the oil fields are the children. The North relinquishes power and possession because of the pressure from the international community holding Bashir’s government accountable to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The South celebrates new found freedom and independence – finally out from under the terror and control of the North. Abyei and border regions are relatively safe within the new country, but just like children in a DV divorce, they become the objects the North wants for its own purposes. And likely, objects that the North will pursue possessing some way, somehow, down the road.

Just like a DV divorce separation does not equate permanent safety or freedom, but requires constant vigilance and planning for future acts of aggression and violence.

Sisters in Their Tea Shop

The Republic of South Sudan’s Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, Agnes Lasuba, talks candidly about the precariousness of a new nation and the lives of the women of South Sudan. She emphasizes women’s role in the liberation of their country and the tremendous sacrifices they endured to make their country their own. She also cites the critical component of any new nation’s health: women’s active involvement in politics and development of their country.

“Women face many challenges, such as poverty, low literacy rates, maternal mortality and domestic violence. For women to move on, they need economic empowerment, because a large percentage of them live in poverty. They need political empowerment to speak on behalf of women. They need civic education to be more aware of national and state issues. On top of this, some men perceive gender equality as if it is a women’s issue. We are trying to work hard to recruit men to be ambassadors on gender. This is because if gender and human rights are not implemented and women and girls are treated in the traditional way — where 13- or 14-year-old girls are married and are not given opportunities to education and employment, for instance — South Sudan will remain underdeveloped. Therefore, women should play a key role in nation building.”

South Sudanese Women Celebrating

I was in South Sudan during the summer of 2010 while the lead up to the Referendum in January 2011 was occurring. I was told countless times by the women I worked with how profoundly they hoped for a peaceful secession and a peaceful nation. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the (relative) fulfillment of their wishes. Brava to the brave women of South Sudan! Bravo to the courageous men of South Sudan! We in the international community applaud your heroic efforts to achieve freedom and autonomy. We will continue our activism for your struggles and celebrate your triumphs throughout your development.

You can learn more about how women in Southern Sudan played a significant role in achieving independence in the following UN video:

Phil’s Take on the Cambodia Trip

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Stirring the Fire founder Phil Borges about his recent trip to Cambodia to document the work of CASC and Youth Star.

I recently returned from Cambodia where I documented two organizations that the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women is supporting in its effort to end violence against women.  Although the issues we covered were extremely difficult (acid attacks and domestic violence) it was heartening to see the effective and creative solutions that are being developed to improve the conditions of women in the developing world.  My team and I spent nearly three weeks documenting the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC) and an organization called Youth Star.

Phil and Ashlee in the field © Danielle Prince 2011

Today almost every NGO I’m working with is asking for film as well as stills to get their message out.  To handle this extra work-load I have started taking interns on these documentary excursions.  I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to have Danielle Prince and Ashley Larson’s help as we worked together to develop and shoot the stories for both organizations.   In addition to taking fastidious notes, collecting model releases and helping with sound, Danielle kept up a running blog of our experiences.  Danielle has a Masters degree in International Development Studies and is currently working for a Seattle based organization addressing domestic violence.  In addition to watching over me, Ashlee helped with sound, manned a second camera on all our interviews and collected some of our B-roll.  Ashlee just graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Photography.

Danielle and Ashley recording audio and footage

I have several upcoming trips for the UN Trust Fund so if you are interested in this type of experience please click here to learn more and fill out our intern application form.

I was extremely impressed with the work both CASC and Youth Star were doing.  It was especially exciting for me to see how effective recent university graduates were in addressing an issue as sensitive and complex as domestic violence.  Danielle who is very experienced in working with the victims of domestic violence was extremely impressed with the accomplishments of the graduate students volunteering for Youth Star.

I want to thank Mao Vutha of Youth Star and Ziad Samman from CASC for all the logistical support, introductions and background information they provided during our stay.

Look for the media we collected soon on StirringtheFire.org!

Phil in action © Danielle Prince 2011

Youth Leadership for Violence-Free Communities

Empowering and engaging youth as actors for change is a fundamental but underemployed approach for ending violence against women and girls. Youth Star Cambodia is an NGO that provides Cambodian university graduates an opportunity to gain experience and develop their civic leadership skills by working as volunteer interns in underserved rural areas. With support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, Youth Star Cambodia enlisted 20 university graduates for a year-long volunteer service in an education and youth-led mobilization programme to address domestic violence.

Working with youth and other community members in districts across rural Cambodia, the volunteers created space for dialogue and education on values, sexual rights and gender relationships and sparked community action to prevent gender-based violence. While the youth volunteers themselves gained a range of skills and experience in mobilizing youth for action and change, the youth credited the programme with improved relationships, decreased violence, a sense of value and place in their communities, and increased school attendance.

Ending Violence against Women – Acid Burns

Acid burning is one of the most extreme forms of violence that causes severe physical and psychological scarring, and social ostracism. The victims of acid violence, largely women and girls, are often left with limited access to medical or psychological assistance, no legal recourse, and no means of livelihood.

Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) is the only organization in the world focused on combating and eradicating acid burns violence at the international level. In Cambodia, ASTI partners with Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC) to provide vital services to survivors of acid burns violence. With support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, ASTI and CASC assist women survivors of acid violence to receive justice and to rebuild their lives. The organizations also sensitize and empower local communities to stand up against acid violence.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, managed by UN Women, is a leading source of support for local and national efforts to end violence against women and girls. Join the UN Trust Fund in this vital work—for more information on how you can support the UN trust Fund click here.

An Abuser’s Point of View: Ra’s Story

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While in Cambodia, Danielle along with Ashlee Larsen, a Brigham Young graduate student, accompanied Stirring the Fire founder, Phil Borges as he documented the work of Youth Star.

There are two sides to every story told about a relationship. Today’s post reveals the side of the perpetrator; his perspective on violence, his past and Samphors’ positive influence.

Ra Long married Savy 15 years ago a few months after the death of his first wife. Being married two times, Ra told us matter-of-factly that “in marriage, people always clash”. We asked him to define “clash” to which he said that that means couples shout at one another. He then told us that when Savy didn’t listen to him he would use “military force”, which meant, among other things, that he would beat her with a stick.

Ra’s beautiful daughter

He readily admitted to us that beating her with a stick did not produce good results but was at a loss about what to do or how to change his behavior. He also believed that the violence comes from both people and that both are responsible for decreasing their anger and improving their behavior. As someone who works for domestic violence survivors, I did not agree with this statement, but did not interrupt his surprisingly open way of sharing his thoughts with us.

Domestic violence is a learned behavior. Ra told us that his parents didn’t fight. This was the case until he was 10 years old. Had it continued this way, perhaps he never would have learned to use “military force”. But at age 6 his life changed forever. The Khmer Rouge swept across Cambodia and took his father. He said at that point his behavior began to change. He did not go into detail of his years under the regime as a child but I speculate that he, like thousands of other children, was forced to work long hours, faced months of starvation, watched his friends and family members be taken away or waste away and perhaps endured beatings from Khmer Rouge soldiers on a regular basis.

Two cute village kids.

A particularly tragic event happened in 1979, the year the Khmer Rouge was defeated by Vietnam. Part of the Khmer Rouge’s strategy of ruthless rule was to plant landmines after attacking villages. Ra was walking in the heavy rain with his mother and younger brother when they stepped on a landmine. It blew his mother’s legs off. He tried to save her by pulling her under a tree to keep her out of the downpour and then carried his younger brother to the nearest clinic. Unrecognized by Ra, his brother died along the way. Ra was 10 years old. He told us that his mother was his world, his one source of love. When he lost her his heart was irretrievably broken.

Like many survivors of the Khmer Rouge, Ra was left an orphan. He grew up with his remaining siblings who didn’t treat each other with compassion or respect. A war-child grown up, he got a job that represents power and authority that allows, perhaps, for the use of military force for disciplinary actions. He became a police officer.

Stieng Village Kids

By the time Youth Star volunteer Samphors arrived in the village, he was no longer working as a police man. He pointed out that poverty – his economic decline – had also put extra pressure on him that made him quicker to react violently. Not only was Savy a target for his beatings but his daughter from his first marriage as well. She started going to the youth club and became aware of the domestic violence in her home. She, as well as Savy, both spoke to Samphors about their situation.

Samphors regularly and frequently made home visits. Ra explained to us that having her there as an educated outsider was the key for him to start talking. Echoing what Savy had told us, there was a clear sense that sharing such things within the village was not safe. But Samphors became that safe person to talk to. Eventually she ended up counseling them both with exceptional, and enviable, results.

The New Generation of Stieng People

Now Ra says that he has learned his lesson from his past. He smiles as he says that he and Savy work hand and hand and that their economic situation has improved. He has also worked to change his relationship with his daughter, saying that “domestic violence is shameful behavior” and that when she marries “we want to be a good relationship role model for her and her new husband”.

This concludes Danielle’s reporting from her trip to Cambodia.  We would like to sincerely thank her for sharing with us the wonderful work CASC and Youth Star is doing and the moving stories of the people they serve.  Stay tuned to hear from Phil and what he took away from this experience!

Youth Leadership for Violence-Free Communities

Empowering and engaging youth as actors for change is a fundamental but underemployed approach for ending violence against women and girls. Youth Star Cambodia is an NGO that provides Cambodian university graduates an opportunity to gain experience and develop their civic leadership skills by working as volunteer interns in underserved rural areas. With support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, Youth Star Cambodia enlisted 20 university graduates for a year-long volunteer service in an education and youth-led mobilization programme to address domestic violence.

Working with youth and other community members in districts across rural Cambodia, the volunteers created space for dialogue and education on values, sexual rights and gender relationships and sparked community action to prevent gender-based violence. While the youth volunteers themselves gained a range of skills and experience in mobilizing youth for action and change, the youth credited the programme with improved relationships, decreased violence, a sense of value and place in their communities, and increased school attendance.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, managed by UN Women, is a leading source of support for local and national efforts to end violence against women and girls. Join the UN Trust Fund in this vital work—for more information on how you can support the UN trust Fund click here.

 

Domestic Violence Knows No Boundaries: Savy’s Story

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While in Cambodia, Danielle along with Ashlee Larsen, a Brigham Young graduate student, accompanied Stirring the Fire founder, Phil Borges as he documented the work of Youth Star.  The story below illustrates the positive impact Youth Star volunteer Samphors had in the Stieng community.

Domestic violence does not discriminate between country, culture, socio-economic status or religious affiliation. Domestic violence is a social problem present in every nation on our planet. The tiny jungle village of Brorvagn where approximately 100 Stieng families live is not exempt. As in many places around the world, domestic violence was considered a ‘private family matter’ until Samphors came, bringing education and perspective to this shushed up topic.

Besides starting a youth club, Samphors also tended a vegetable garden. There she met Savy, a Khmer woman who had married into the Stieng community. She was a quiet woman, rarely sharing anything about herself. But curiosity and kindness can go a long way and over time, Savy started to share more with Samphors about her life. She was married to a man who had a reputation of being sullen and quiet on the outside but who had a violent past. The villagers generally stayed away from him. There were rumors of his previous wife being beaten though we could not get confirmation because she died a premature death.

Savy at the Family’s Buddhist Shrine in the Home

Samphors, much to the dismay of her host family, began to visit Savy at her home – a 20 minute walk away from the main road along a narrow trail. Her host family knew of the husband’s reputation and warned her against going to his home. Samphors, being the head-strong woman she is, chose to go anyway. Once at Savy’s home they would talk for hours, Samphors openly sharing the pain of her past, growing up with a verbally abusive mother and having a father who abandoned her. Samphors’ openness prompted Savy to voice more of her own situation.

Savy had married Ra, her husband, shortly after the death of his first wife. That was 15 years ago. Savy has no children of her own, but raised Ra’s daughter from his first marriage. At the beginning of the marriage, Savy, like many hopeful new spouses, was optimistic and held tight to the dream she had had as a young girl that this union would be peaceful and she and her husband would work hand in hand together.

An Elder Looking Pensive

The reality turned out to be drastically different. From the get-go Ra was jealous and sought to isolate her – two huge red flags for DV. He told her to stay home and not interact with anyone from the village and at the beginning she would try to reason with him, explaining that she is naturally a gregarious people-person. This repeatedly ended up with him becoming violent and after time she stopped trying to counter his perspective. But that wasn’t all that upset him. Abuse has many hallmarks, one of which is never being able to entirely please the perpetrator. If one day getting dinner on the table on time is their focus for which there will be hell to pay if it isn’t on time, the next day it will be how dinner is cooked. The ever-shifting nature of the perpetrator’s attention keeps the victim on her toes, walking on egg shells, shouldering the blame for everything, including his abuse.

Ra would destroy plates and smash holes in walls. He continually threatened her. She told herself to stay calm and try to appease him but over time became very isolated and alone. Savy became depressed, as is common with DV survivors. She stopped caring and at her lowest point she isolated herself. She cried a lot and could hardly get out of bed. She would not eat for days on end and entertained thoughts of suicide. She believed that this was her karma.

Savy and her Husband, Ra

But Samphors presence began to shift Savy’s perspective. The more she talked with Samphors, the better she felt. It was so much easier for her to share her suffering with someone from outside the village. She had never opened up to the villagers because she feared their reaction; mocking her for not being a “good woman” or “good wife”. Samphors helped shift the village perspective on DV as well through the youth club by educating the young people. By the time Samphors was to leave the village, she had spent a significant amount of time with both Savy and her husband Ra. They were able to work a lot of things out and now have a non-violent, collaborative relationship in which their economic status has improved.

Savy still calls Samphors on the phone for comfort and conversation. But the day we met Savy and her husband Ra, they were confident in the positive changes that they had made. Stay tuned for the next post about the perspective of a perpetrator: Ra’s story.

Youth Leadership for Violence-Free Communities

Empowering and engaging youth as actors for change is a fundamental but underemployed approach for ending violence against women and girls. Youth Star Cambodia is an NGO that provides Cambodian university graduates an opportunity to gain experience and develop their civic leadership skills by working as volunteer interns in underserved rural areas. With support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, Youth Star Cambodia enlisted 20 university graduates for a year-long volunteer service in an education and youth-led mobilization programme to address domestic violence.

Working with youth and other community members in districts across rural Cambodia, the volunteers created space for dialogue and education on values, sexual rights and gender relationships and sparked community action to prevent gender-based violence. While the youth volunteers themselves gained a range of skills and experience in mobilizing youth for action and change, the youth credited the programme with improved relationships, decreased violence, a sense of value and place in their communities, and increased school attendance.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, managed by UN Women, is a leading source of support for local and national efforts to end violence against women and girls. Join the UN Trust Fund in this vital work—for more information on how you can support the UN trust Fund click here.

The Inspirational Story of a Youth Star Volunteer

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While in Cambodia, Danielle along with Ashlee Larsen, a Brigham Young graduate student, accompanied Stirring the Fire founder, Phil Borges as he documented the work of Youth Star.

Of the several Youth Star volunteers we met, only one was a woman and from our perspective she had the hardest assignment of them all: to go to an isolated, rural village on the Vietnamese border to work with an ethnic minority – the Stieng people. While the Stieng people speak Khmer fluently out of necessity, they have their own language and cultural traditions. They live in a more dense jungle area and are more secluded than the Cheungdeung, the other village community we visited.

School Girls from the Youth Club Welcoming Samphors.

Samphors (pronounced “Sopur”) Chae, a 25 year old university graduate with a BA in Agriculture, set forth as a Youth Star volunteer in 2009. After the 3-week intensive training she boarded a bus that took her to the nearest town, Snoul, where she waited for her village contact to come get her. She waited. No one came. So she contacted the village representative and they grudgingly came to get her. Due to the remoteness, the road into the village was non-existent. So what takes us 15 minutes today (the dirt road is now finished) took her much longer.

Samphors faced numerous challenges. She wasn’t warmly welcomed by either her host family or the village council. A few days after arriving, she learned that her grandfather had passed away. She struggled with the decision to go home but realized that by the time she would have gotten there it would have been too late for his funeral. So she stayed, steeped in the overwhelming experience of culture shock, isolation and learning new ways to communicate and greet the people she would be spending the whole year with.

Stieng Village Elders

Shortly after she came to the village the chief and his council sat her down and told her that they hadn’t asked for a female volunteer. They said that they were concerned about her safety because of the local gang activity and that a single female is an open target. They then asked her to return home.

Here Samphors’ own story comes into play. She has faced her own adversity that she has transformed into a spine of steel though not at the expense of her heart. She is one of seven children, comes from a broken home, and was the only one to go to, and complete, university. Her heart and head are in the work she does making her strong enough to overcome challenges that would send other people packing. She believed in herself and in her ability to help the people in the village. Not only did she win over the support from her host family, but told the chief and his council the following: what a male can do, a female can do too. Give me a chance to prove myself.

Samphors and a Youth Club Member peeling Cucumbers

And she did. We visited Samphors’ village after she had concluded her volunteer year. When we arrived with her, we witnessed nothing short of what looked like a family reunion. It was clear that the people had fallen in love with her and that she had become an important and influential person in this village, especially to the girls. She is a powerful role model to the girls and young women and clearly had the slight status of celebrity. When she spoke, they listened.

Samphors Saying Goodbye for a Second Time

We had the privilege of seeing Samphors interact with the community for the next few days. It became very clear that her presence, her person, her commitment transformed many people’s lives for the better. We asked her how she did this and here is what she said: speak with an open heart and be authentic in who you are.

Those are wise words we can all live by.

Stay tuned for a family’s story on how Samphors positively changed their life.

Youth Leadership for Violence-Free Communities

Empowering and engaging youth as actors for change is a fundamental but underemployed approach for ending violence against women and girls. Youth Star Cambodia is an NGO that provides Cambodian university graduates an opportunity to gain experience and develop their civic leadership skills by working as volunteer interns in underserved rural areas. With support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, Youth Star Cambodia enlisted 20 university graduates for a year-long volunteer service in an education and youth-led mobilization programme to address domestic violence.

Working with youth and other community members in districts across rural Cambodia, the volunteers created space for dialogue and education on values, sexual rights and gender relationships and sparked community action to prevent gender-based violence. While the youth volunteers themselves gained a range of skills and experience in mobilizing youth for action and change, the youth credited the programme with improved relationships, decreased violence, a sense of value and place in their communities, and increased school attendance.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, managed by UN Women, is a leading source of support for local and national efforts to end violence against women and girls. Join the UN Trust Fund in this vital work—for more information on how you can support the UN trust Fund click here.

 

How One Volunteer Reduces Domestic Violence

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While in Cambodia, Danielle along with Ashlee Larsen, a Brigham Young graduate student, accompanied Stirring the Fire founder, Phil Borges as he documented the work of Youth Star.

Underway with Youth Star, our first stop was at a community of 10 villages about 2 hours away from Phnom Penhcalled Cheungdeung. We were warmly welcomed and hosted by the Community Chief, Mr. Seng Marm. Chief Marm had heard about Youth Star from another volunteer in another village. As a leader committed to supporting his community, his interest was piqued. Just as the volunteers are thoughtfully selected, the communities interested in hosting a volunteer go through their own application process to make sure they are a good match. Chief Marm’s application resulted in volunteer Theara Chhay (pronounced “Tierra”) coming to his community several months later.

Villager coming home for the evening.

Theara is a recent university graduate who took on the challenge of living and working in a rural community for a year. In Cheungdeung, one of Theara’s projects was creating a youth club. This club became a vital place for frank discussions and positive change. Theara led the youth in topics around domestic violence (DV) and healthy relationships as well as the importance of staying in school, especially for young girls. He identified youth with natural leadership tendencies and worked with them to help them become youth club leaders and teachers of younger members.

Theara conversing with a villager.

One of these youth club members is 18 year old Taing Im (pronounced “Tangim”). She is the oldest child of four and the key person in abetting the domestic violence at home. Through the youth club curriculum she learned about domestic violence. As a child growing up witnessing DV she was suffering as many children do: her grades were slipping, she was becoming listless and unmotivated. But through the youth club and its activities that focused on DV, she found new resolve to broach the topic and show her parents how much it was affecting her.

Theara was also getting to know her and her family situation better at this time. He started doing home visits and talking with her parents. Her mother, Phun, had been married 18 years. The abuse was emotional and verbal with the husband, Ron, yelling and threatening a lot especially when he drank. He would also beat her and leave her bruised and battered, eliminating any doubts the neighbors or other community members might have had about what was happening. The pain of it all would crest for Phun, motivating her to go to her neighbors just to talk to someone about it even though it filled her with shame. Her neighbors’ explained to her that it was because she had bad karma that the DV was happening and encouraged her to try and make it work despite the escalating violence.

Phun and her youngest daughter.

Like so many places around the world, domestic violence is considered to be a private family matter even in the face of this glaring statistic: globally one in three women is abused in her lifetime. Not only is the victim traumatized, but the children witnessing the violence are too. As this pattern of power and control – the core of domestic violence – is a learned behavior the inter-generational cycle of violence is then perpetuated unless intervention, or early prevention, occur.

Taing Im became involved with the youth club that introduced and talked about DV and established a trust relationship with a safe person: Theara. Theara also introduced other successful approaches to this touchy subject including a public forum with a speaker focusing on DV; a hugely popular drama put on by the kids about domestic violence and finally a community contract drawn up by the community as a promise not to commit domestic violence from that point forward.

Village kids from the youth group.

What worked for Taing Im’s family to help reduce the violence from her father was the following: she herself got educated about it, she participated in the DV drama that her parents saw and were profoundly impacted by, Theara made enough home visits and got to know them well enough to talk with both parents about it and encourage both to change because of how it was impacting the kids and, they made the promise to stop the violence.

Taing Im after our interview.

As someone who works with DV survivors every day I had to ask myself how I could bring back or integrate these successful solutions to my geographic/cultural area. The essential piece that I think we, in the US or Seattle, lack is the sense of accountability from the perpetrator. In a small village such as Cheungdeung one’s life and activities are public knowledge and when the community stands up together to say no to DV, then everyone is holding each other accountable.  With our ease of anonymity in the Seattle area there are many avenues to avoid accountability and sources condoning violence against women, such as the availability of pornography, video games, prostitution and trafficking.  Standing together as a united front to say no to DV here has yet to happen.

I am grateful that I was able to encounter a family that has made positive changes and meet a young woman with so much strength and integrity that she helped end her family’s cycle of violence. She has inspired me that positive change is possible and with that in mind I will integrate this spirit into my work.

Next you’ll meet Samphors, the only female Youth Star Volunteer that we came across. . .

Youth Leadership for Violence-Free Communities

Empowering and engaging youth as actors for change is a fundamental but underemployed approach for ending violence against women and girls. Youth Star Cambodia is an NGO that provides Cambodian university graduates an opportunity to gain experience and develop their civic leadership skills by working as volunteer interns in underserved rural areas. With support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, Youth Star Cambodia enlisted 20 university graduates for a year-long volunteer service in an education and youth-led mobilization programme to address domestic violence.

Working with youth and other community members in districts across rural Cambodia, the volunteers created space for dialogue and education on values, sexual rights and gender relationships and sparked community action to prevent gender-based violence. While the youth volunteers themselves gained a range of skills and experience in mobilizing youth for action and change, the youth credited the programme with improved relationships, decreased violence, a sense of value and place in their communities, and increased school attendance.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, managed by UN Women, is a leading source of support for local and national efforts to end violence against women and girls. Join the UN Trust Fund in this vital work—for more information on how you can support the UN trust Fund click here.