In recognition of the progress and impact achieved as part of ‘Opening Doors to a Bright Future’ over the last year, SI President Maureen Maguire would like to welcome as many Soroptimists as possible to join us on 10 December, Human Rights Day, at 11:00AM (GMT), for a webinar event featuring guest speakers from each of the Appeal projects across our SI Federations.
Please register in advance for this webinar HERE
Cambodian Community Dream Organisation – Women and Girl’s Empowerment Programme
In this article, we hear from the Cambodian Community Dream Organisation (CCDO), an organisation which SI has partnered with address ‘Education and Learning in Cambodia throughout the life course’, as they refer to the experience of one of their participants to feed back on the success and achievements of this Appeal project so far.
Chay is a single mother to an 11-year-old daughter. Living in a village within Angkor Thom District, Siem Reap Province in Cambodia; Chay always struggles to financially support her daily expenses, as well as the costs toward her daughter’s education. Being a single mother and raising a daughter alone is not easy – but she never gives up on herself or her daughter’s education, because she wants her daughter to have a better future.
Chay is interested in the CCDO women’s empowerment programme, having joined during the second round of recruitment. During her involvement, Chay has said that she feels valued here in the programme; specifically, being able to express and share her own experiences as a single mother with other women has enabled to her to develop a greater sense of belonging, rather than continuing to feel left behind within the community because of her past.
“I was trained in different topics, but I started to believe and feel confident in myself when I was trained on self-management, self-esteem, and confidence. The lessons are not only guiding me as I am now, but also leading me toward becoming who I want to be in the future. I have learned to accept what I have and set goals for who I want to be in the future for my daughter”
Chay has been actively engaged in all aspects of the training programme, resulting in her becoming a role model for other women in the community. Before the programme started, Chay used to make money by vegetable gardening; however, through the increasingly apparent effects of climate change, generating sufficient income in this way has become far more challenging. With assistance from the project team, she was guided to create other sources of income to support her livelihood and her daughter’s education. The team have approached her to start a business selling food and soft drinks under the CCDO micro loan start-up fund – the business now runs smoothly because of Chay’s hard-work and commitment.
Chay has now become a young start-up entrepreneur in her community and a role model for the other women in the programme.
The project implements the comprehensive 2-year training curriculum programme for transforming the lives of disadvantaged and marginalised women and girls in the community. So far, the project has offered training on various topics: health, business/SMEs, gender rights, gender equality, gender based violent, women in leadership, how to set personal and family goal, problem solving, critical thinking, self-esteem and self-motivation to those women and girls in 6 communities.
CCDO wish to thank Soroptimist International for funding this project, “ would not have been able to accomplish all the achievements without this support from SI.”
Human Rights for a Bright Future – 10 December Webinar
SI President Maureen Maguire looks forward to welcoming as many Soroptimists as possible to join this webinar event on 10 December at 11AM GMT.
Don’t forget to register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkce2sqTwrEtfbZqVg6DlJJalN9ffLfCuF
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.