Cambodia
Programmes
These programmes are now delivered by Ockenden Cambodia, a locally registered NGO formed from Ockenden International's staff.
Vocational Training
As a young woman in Banteay Meanchey, there are few choices when it comes to a living.
With little industry, most of your friends and family will be reliant on farming. But competition is fierce, and the land often poor. If you've had little education or opportunity to learn new skills, you might well be forced into prostitution, either at home in the cities, or else across the border in Thailand.
Vocational courses run by Ockenden and its partner assocations are one of the few ways women can escape such a trap. New skills and new ventures mean less dependency on agriculture and more likelihood of surviving the bad times and good.
These courses teach basic literacy and numeracy, as well as business principles and finance. Funds are also available to help kick-start these ventures . from sewing, to motorbike repairs and hairdressing.
Cow Banks - what are they?
Raising a cow is one of the most simple and popular ways for a rural community to increase its income. The problem, however, is that these communities are often so poor that they cannot afford to buy livestock.
A Cow Bank is a means to loan money and provide training, so that a local community can use cows in their fields.
Cows are often more reliable than modern tractors, but usually too expensive for returning communities to buy.
The animal helps farmers carry and fetch materials and crops; cow dung can be used to fertilise the land, thus reducing reliance (and costs) of more expensive chemical fertilisers; and a cow drastically cuts the time and energy spent tilling.
In order to create a cow bank, a Cow Bank Committee is formed. Apart from providing loans to buy the animals, these committees ensure the people also receive training . how to select a cow, how to build a shelter for it at night, how to protect it from insects and how to feed it an adequate diet.
The cow, such a simple investment, then becomes a part of the community's long term good health.
Rice Banks
A Rice bank is literally what it sounds like . a resource managed by the community, which enables villagers to borrow rice at the start of a harvest season, then refund it at the end (with a small premium).
The premiums allow the Rice Bank to grow and allows poorer farmers to have access to quality seeds at reasonable cost. Villagers can borrow enough seeds for both food needs and planting, paying back one quarter of a bag for every bag they borrow.
The rice bank also provides formal training on crop management and maintenance of the bank itself.
Literacy
Nearly half of all rural Cambodians are illiterate. There are few schools in outlying provinces. Children are often sent to work in the fields, and women suffer worse than men, due to traditional bias in education.
The results can be catastrophic - for health control, family planning, diversification of incomes and livelihoods, and local community development, all of which rely on education.
Sadly, such problems cannot be rectified overnight. Cambodia's primary and secondary education programme is severely under-funded, with conditions in rural areas even worse than the cities. Add to which schools are often far from homes, ill equipped, suffer from low staff morale - and the picture can seem depressing.
Ockenden's literacy and numeracy classes aim to change this. We teach both adults and children how to read, write, and carry out basic arithmetic. Without these skills, people find it hard to trade, to know what things cost, and to understand concepts such as debt or repayment.
Local communities have started using Ockenden's mobile libraries, too, which have proved particularly popular among young people.
Self-Help Groups
How do you build a community spirit, where no community has ever existed? How do people know how to support each other when they have known nothing but life in a refugee camp?
This is Ockenden and our partners' task in Banteay Meanchey - creating self-help groups for returnees.
These groups are set up in villages and communes and with help from Ockenden and partners, they learn management, finances and about participation in decision-making. Self-Help Groups take charge of village affairs. They have local saving schemes - make loans to help other villagers and set terms for repayment.
As a group, they are able to interact with local authorities and development bodies, ensuring that their needs and views are taken into account. Within their own communities, they arrange meetings where villagers meet to discuss their most pressing needs.
Typically made up of 15-20 members, they are an essential part of redevelopment of local communities within Cambodia and Banteay Meanchey.