Cambodian Community Create the Foundation of Self-confidence and Self-reliance

Poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that affects many areas of life, including health, education, and participation (UNICEF 2019-2023). In Cambodia, there are lots of families, villages, and communities that are facing this phenomenon. Life is a hardship because there’s no balance between expenses and income. People cannot afford the cost of living. This constraint leads to many social and economic problems and somehow, conflict and harassment in society.

The labor job doesn’t pay well, especially in the countryside, workers earn from 120.00 USD – 200.00 USD per month (wageindicator.org 2023). The range is not enough to match the increased price of food, gasoline, study, and health care. As a result, there are school drops in young age, health problems, less physical development, disease, and unhappy families because they have to live separately, doing illegal and high-risk jobs.

Good Neighbors Cambodia (GNC) is​ looking for a solution to build a sustainable community where people can live a better life with stable economic and sufficient finances, live in peace with proper development and improvement, and live without interrupting the nature or other people. GNC links income-generating opportunities with touchable business ideas, skills, training, and capital (cash and material) with engagement from relevant institutional partners. This approach serves as a vehicle for the promotion of sustainable community development.

Our Intervention

We engage people in the community, specifically the leader of the family, to earn opportunities that don’t require much effort to own with lots of profit in return. Works with the families of rural Cambodian villages to help them achieve sustainability and self-sufficiency through wells, irrigation systems, schools, training, and empowerment. With cooperated partners and relevant ministry’s contributions, we provide business and entrepreneurship skill training to empower them through learning knowledge and competence needed in the local market. Additionally, we support community people in finding specific markets where they are looking for their business products and services, and later on we teach them how to do marketing and create the community for their business or shop. The development program has delivered an opportunity to learn new skills and engage in income-generating activities. At the same time, as they gain a new profession, they receive an income.

Major Achievement

We are so grateful that our community could see the hope of their lives and share it with their family members. We have been operating five different social enterprises lately. We have a ‘good link cooperative’ working on Tuk-tuk taxi driving and moto delivery service with more than 100 members who generate 400 to 600 US dollars monthly. Also, we implemented a ‘good water station’, a social enterprise working to purify the water and deliver it to all households at home and school. Moreover, we launched ‘beekeeping and ‘chicken farming’ with community people to generate more income from the fruitful living atmosphere and nature around. Last but not least, in the floating area that is full of water in all seasons, we created an IG community that works together making ‘Fish net making’ for supporting the villagers and fishermen with a reasonable price than the regular market, and at the same time, our community raises income.

1. Good link Corporative
   In urban areas, the expense rate is even higher compared to the rural, but people there face no different difficulties from those who live in rural. The main difficulty on the urban side is unemployment due to the excessive supply of unskilled labor from the people who have moved from rural areas to find better jobs in the city. GNC cooperated with the local authority to study the current situation and self-employed opportunities to prevent city people from the difficulties. Good Link Corporative is for community people who lack education yet can drive motorbikes and Tuk-tuk. In addition to the capital to load the transportation, GNC supports members’ specific training to strengthen their business owner abilities such as customer services, financial management, maintenance, management, and other courses that are necessary for generating income.
   
2. Good Water Station:
   To provide the community clean drinking water, GNC created a “Good Water Station Project” which operated and led by community people. With this project, community people learn new skills about purifying the water, build competence and confidence, and generate more income and methods to save their community as a final result. The “Good Water Station” helps community people become more conscious about their health, self-protection, and financial development. With sufficient resources, community people increase their willingness to love and safeguard themselves meanwhile it boosts the awareness of making money with that social and natural cooperative.
   
3. Beekeeping
   Beekeeping is the most popular income-generation program with an interesting outcome of GNC recently. Beekeeping in EK Phnom CDP processed so well in producing good quality honey from the natural rain forest near the commune. With the support from our cooperative partner, the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries, GNC made the community aware of the bee feeding process and how to make good quality honey and sell the products to the market. The honeybee is now available on the local market and spread its influence to Korea by donors and visitors who visited and brought community products home as a gift to their friends and family. Community people are working hard to enhance production quality and product branding for a bigger market in order to generate more income back to the community. This project and program will become a shining star that provides hope in financial independence and self-reliance to EP CDP.
   
4. Chicken Farming
   Chicken Farming is one of our agricultural home-based income generation programs that support more than 40 households in Thmar Koul district, Battambang province. GNC provides seed money to agricultural cooperatives with low-interest loans. And we supported our entrepreneurs during the plan design, implementation, and monitoring of their chosen activity, and together with members, we will create prosperity in the community. The result of this project is that our community people have more income sources besides their regular job and career to support their family, and they could find a new occupation for their family member who has the responsibility to stand by at home or take care of children. Raising Chicken is an ongoing project, and it will become a sustainable way of supporting community self-reliance and financial independence.
   
5. Hand Made Fishing Material
   Considering the advantages of floating areas that there are more opportunities to sell fishing materials within communities, GNC opens up new ideas for community people to polish the skills they have and enter the market for more profit. We formed a fishing net making cooperative to have a group business during their break time for additional income, skill, and career. To build a stable business process, we conduct training, form a comittee to lead all activities, and market access to community. This fishing material business is going well because the selling price is lower than market price. During the rainy season in Cambodia, our group generate lots of profits because all products were sold out. Recently, due to the need from the outside market (outside EP CDP), the fishing net community member and the working hours have increased because they are happy to accept larger orders and demand, and more important thing is that they are happy to make money with their family in their livelihood. They don’t have to travel kilometers or across the river for work at other villages or destinations.  

Case Story:

“We Received the Assets That Generate Income!”

Floating villages’ living condition is a hardship. Community people have to survive from hunger and risks with only one job, a fishery. After the COVID-19 outbreak, villagers faced many negative effects. Young people migrated to cities and other countries to work for income to support their families. ATH Chariya, 11 years old, a girl student studying in grade 5 from Peam Seyma village, Prey Chas commune, Ek Phnom district, and Battambang province. Before registering for the sponsorship program, her parents did not have enough money to purchase fishing materials. They always take loans from a middleman in the village with a high interest rate of 15% per month). In early 2022, her parent joined in IG program of Good Neighbors Cambodia and received financial support to start their dream business which aims to produce fishing materials (Leu) and sell them to the local markets at an affordable price. Chariya stated “I would like to say thanks to all donors who provided financial support to Tonle Trey Meas Agriculture Cooperative that make my family and other members of the group live a better life with enough income to support their family. I can go to school regularly and my parents commit to supporting my study until I graduate at the university level”.

Motivational Quotations

“With careful searching and attention, we can find the way from the community’s existing resources which lead us to achieve self-reliance and a better life.”