FEATURE: I Have Learnt About My Human Rights
LWF/DWS Cambodia Empowers Communities in Self-Sustainable Development
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia/GENEVA, 30 May 2006 (LWI) - The first thing you notice about Chea Phan is the right sleeve of his shirt hanging empty at his side. His arm was severed just below the shoulder during the civil war. His wife's disability is not so obvious. She walks with a minor limp. It is not until Saw Pheap points downward to the parched earth that you notice the plastic mould where her left foot used to be.
Phan and Pheap live in Kauk, a dry, dusty village of about 270 people in poverty-stricken Oral District in the Province of Kampong Speu, Cambodia. The couple and their eight children sleep in a very small bare hut, propped up by one-meter-long stilts of roughly hewn timber. The family cooks and eats outside, around a big cooking pot hanging over an open fire. Kauk is only 98 kilometers from Cambodia's bustling capital, Phnom Penh. But it could be a world away. They have no such luxuries as furniture or electricity, not even a regular, reliable water supply. Villagers struggle to produce enough food for their families, especially now that the drought is in its third year. For Phan and Pheap it is an endless fight, working long hours in stifling heat, and fetching water from the village well for their vegetable crops.
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) country program in Cambodia has identified their household as one of Kauk's 18 poorest. In accordance with its guidelines to assist the poorest and most vulnerable villagers, the program's community empowerment facilitators have taught Phan and Pheap improved farming techniques. The couple now produces enough food for the family, and earns income by selling vegetables at local markets. They also keep and breed chickens and fish. Under its Food for Work incentive scheme, the LWF provided the family with three kilograms of rice when Phan dug the family pond with his remaining arm.
The LWF/DWS program also takes care of children. In all villages of the Oral District project area, under-five-year-olds receive supplementary food, and children of the poorest families receive scholarships to attend primary school. Three of the couple's children benefit from scholarships.
Phan proudly describes what a difference the LWF/DWS program has made to his family: "Before, I didn't have any tools but now I have a hoe and a watering can. I can also borrow money from the village bank to buy seed for more food." As the only person in the village who can read and write, Phan administers the village's nutrition program. "I have learnt a lot from the LWF," he says. "I have learnt about my human rights, and I now know about sanitation and hygiene. My children are learning to read and write. Their life will be a lot better than mine."
Over 25 Years of Service in Cambodia
The LWF's involvement in Cambodia began in 1979, as part of an effort by a consortium of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to the devastation caused by the Khmer Rouge regime. From 1975 until 1979, under Pol Pot's leadership, the Khmer Rouge killed from 1.5 to 2.3 million people out of a population of some 8 million. The regime targeted Buddhist monks, Western-educated people, and others who appeared to be "intellectuals," for example, people who wore glasses, or who spoke foreign languages, "non-laborers" identified by their soft hands, people with disabilities, or people from ethnic minorities, such as Laotians and Vietnamese.
During the 1980s, the international isolation imposed on Cambodia by Western countries left it with only a few NGOs contributing to the country's massive essential reconstruction and rehabilitation. The LWF was among them.
In May 1998, the LWF/DWS country program placed Kauk, with all other villages in the commune of Sangkei Satop in the Oral District project area, under its Integrated Rural Development Through Empowerment Project (IRDEP). Through holistic and sustainable development, and by using a rights-based approach, the project facilitates the empowerment of communities, and especially of poor and vulnerable people, so that they can take over their own development processes, and advocate for their rights. The community members identify their needs such as collective organization, establishment of infrastructure, food security and agricultural development, income generation and village banks, advocacy training and HIV and AIDS education among others.
A Deep Well - A Glimmer of Hope
Ven Samy, 37, is physically weaker than most of the men in her community, but she possesses another kind of power. When asked to identify who their leader was, about 15 villagers pointed to Samy. They had good reason. She works hard organizing women's meetings, three days a week, in each of the five villages in her district. She conducts a human rights' advocacy program, organizes the local community banking system and trains women in dress-making - all with the assistance of the LWF Cambodia program.
Samy belongs to the Suoy ethnic minority group in the village of Kaor Dauntey in the commune of Sangkei Satop. Her simple hut has a wooden floor. Its roof and walls are made of entwined palm fronds. With fellow villagers, she suffers from the effects of the three-year drought, which is exacerbated by illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming, and the widespread harvesting of forest trees for charcoal production.
She struggles to educate her people about their human rights and how to live a life of dignity. This earns her respect and close relationships with the women's groups in the community, but not with the political leaders. "We are now becoming more aware of our rights as humans, unlike before," Samy says. "However, the authorities are not happy about this. They fear that if we are empowered we will fight against them."
Due to the scarce water supply it is becoming harder for the Suoy people to access clean water for domestic use, and to grow rice and vegetables. But there is a glimmer of hope. With assistance from the LWF/DWS program, the construction of a deep well in January 2001 has given 25 families in the village of Kaor Dauntey a regular and safe source of clean water. The well, equipped with a hand-pump, generates 4,300 liters per hour. Women, men and children now gather around the well with cans and plastic buckets to fetch water. Their families pay a small amount to the community for well maintenance.
But the community fears that the underground water will be exhausted in future if the golf courses, being developed by two foreign-owned companies, become operational. The construction of golf courses and hotels near the village, in the guise of eco-tourism is ongoing. "We know that these companies will be using much more water than we do," the villagers lament. "Our deep wells might dry up."
Mr David H. Mueller, the LWF/DWS representative in Cambodia, points out that the "eco-tourism" project has also claimed the Suoy people's sacred hot springs, and disallows access to other natural resources the community has customarily relied on, especially in the most meager season for food and income. In solidarity with the LWF and other NGOs, Samy and her people have signed petitions to demand a halt to the project. They continue to advocate for their communal land rights.
(This article is in the ongoing series of "LWI Features on Healing," focusing on the 2003 LWF Tenth Assembly theme, "For the Healing of the World." It was compiled by the Asian region participants of the LWF Youth Leadership Training in Communication program, jointly coordinated by the Office for Communication Services and Department for Mission and Development.)
Further information about LWF/DWS work in Cambodia at www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/DWS/Country_Programs/DWS-Cambodia.html
* * *
(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
* * * "Pauline Mumia" <pmu@lutheranworld.org
LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
LWI news online: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html