Wrapping Up

Monday, 06/08/2013

Today was the day of our big presentation, which would summarize our work for the last 4 weeks. We met up in the morning to finalize the presentation, develop the sample budget for each loan, create the monthly questionnaire, put down the interview questions we used, and finalize the excel sheet that had all the beneficiaries information. We presented at 3 to around 10 members of BSDA, including Vandong, Sothea, Paul, and Harry. Sothea translated for us.

Thoughts about project and BSDA (and presentation)

The main thing that we emphasized was more structure and having BSDA accompany the beneficiaries when they are buying the materials. We also want to have more follow-up in order to ensure that beneficiaries are doing what they say are doing. We want the monthly meetings to be opportunities for community members to share effective chicken raising habits. Vandong seemed to think that our funds were not enough to hire another person to facilitate our project. As a result, we decided that the team leaders needed to play a greater role in this project. They can be the ones that accompany beneficiaries when they buy the chickens and materials, and they can also help in the monthly check-ups and the monthly meetings. It seems like Soveourn and the other community support officers have way too many people to check-up on, so in turn, they are not able to meet with every beneficiary. I believe creating a stronger relationship between the team leaders and BSDA will be extremely effective for our project in the long-term. The problem seems to stem from the fact that the beneficiaries are always thinking about short-term problems (where am I going to get food for tomorrow?) instead of thinking how to implement long-term solutions. Our job is to help these families think for the long-term. In addition, we realized that we don’t know where our GlobeMed funds are going to exactly. So we requested for Vandong to give us the exact budget breakdown of GlobeMed’s funds. 

The next morning we left for Siem Reap, home of the famous ancient Hindu temples. By the end of four days of temples, markets, and ice cream, we were just about ready to go back home.

Water running over rock carvings, specifically Shiva Lingas. Shiva is a Hindu god that many of the temples in Siem Reap are dedicated to. Linga is associated with the God's male genitalia, which is considered a symbol of fertility.

During our stay in Siem Reap, we talked about what worked and what didn't work in this first trip. I think I am speaking for the entire group by saying that this was an amazing and very successful first GROW trip. However, we have our work laid our for us. In order to continue our success, we will have to not only bring the information we have gathered back to the chapter, but we will have to communicate how next year's GROW group can continue building on the foundation that we have laid for our project. I am extremely proud and thankful for this year's GROW team, and I am excited to share with the chapter all of our exciting stories and findings. Now, its study abroad time for me!

BEACH TIME

Paradise...

 We took a little drive to Kampong Som (Sihanoukville) on the southern coast of Cambodia. It was quite a relaxing weekend, and a much needed break from Cambodian-city life. Here are some pictures from the trip!

Aw, aren't we the cutest GROW group ever?

Check out these manly bodies!

Our boat was the one closest in the picture!

"Woah... the spikes on this vine are... like... big."

Fisher-woman Aryn!

Being Productive! (sorry no pictures for this one)

Today, we were originally going to conduct some interviews, but Soveourn could not be with us since he had a death in his family. So instead of letting the day go to waste, we decided to take some the initiative ourselves. Micah, Aryn, and I took a tuk-tuk out to Orin Ou district to find out the prices that chickens were selling at. This is what we found out:

            Pork: 14,000 riel/1Kg

Morning Glory (water lily stems): 500 riel/2 bundles

Canned fish: 1800 riel/can

Carrots: $1/1Kg

Eggplant: 3500 riel/1Kg

Rice: 3,000 riel/1Kg, 2,000riel/1Kg

Chickens:

Regular eggs: 10eggs/6,000 riel

Rice and Salt coating: 10eggs/7,000 riel

Pickled eggs: 10eggs/7500 riel

Chicken sold by butcher

Chemically fed chickens: 11,000 riel/1Kg

Naturally fed chickens: 21,000 riel/1Kg

Villagers sell the chickens to the butcher for 15,000-16,000 riel/1Kg

Chicken feed (chemical):

For small chickens: 2,800 riel/1Kg

                        For big chickens: 3,000 riel/1Kg

                        For egg-producing hens: 2,500 riel/1Kg

At the same time, Raza and Paige stayed behind and started the project proposal, compiled the information about the chicken prices from the interviews, and interviewed the staff to found out about opportunities for the GROW team next year to help BSDA. Overall, it was an extremely productive day, and I am proud of what the team accomplished.

Thursday, 02/08/2013

 

Instead of doing interviews with Soveourn, today we interviewed families from the Puna Krai district, Spaen Charey village, Don Teai village with Sothea (the guy in charge of monitoring and evaluation at BSDA). Only Aryn, Micah, and I went to do the interviews. Today, we asked more questions about the problems with the chickens and whether they are actually helping the beneficiaries. We interviewed 3 beneficiaries. Here are some things that we found:

·      Beneficiaries are not portioning their loan out properly. Many times they have to spend their own money on chicken feed and other materials

·      Some families buy ducks along with chickens with their loan

·      Training has not been adequate, since it is completed by Soveourn

·      Somalen was the previous community support officer- since she quit, Soveourn has only visited the community once, instead of once a month

·      The project is NOT helpful to beneficiaries in this community

·      Many people do not have motivation to continue to raise the chickens or pay back the loan

·      The team leader is very important in the loan process

Overall, these interviews gave important insight on how the project is not helping all the beneficiaries. In addition, it really shed light on the fact that BSDA is not following up after giving the loans out to beneficiaries.

Back at the SMILE restaurant, Raza and Paige compiled all the excel information, finished the project proposal, and finalized questions to ask the BSDA staff members when we do our final presentation.

Sam Who?

If you didn't know, Cambodia is in the middle of holding an election... the first one in a LONG time. Luckily, we were able to experience a little bit of the craziness of Cambodian politics.

Sam Rainsy, the candidate for the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP a.k.a. the underdogs) decided to come give Kampong Cham a little visit. As a result, the whole city shut down. For the next few days, we laid low. A few highlights of the week include:

Playing with the MKK kids- and breakdancing with them as well!!

GET IT BOI!

Micah showing off his mad white boi dancing skills

Climbing an old, unstable French watch tower

Who is scared of heights?!

Attending BSDA's bi-annual staff meeting

Renting moto-bikes

Teaching English!!

PRAAM

Paige, Raza, Aryn, Abi, Micah.... PRAAM! That's our new team name. It's also the Khmer word for five... crazy right?!?

Anyways, on Tuesday, July 23, we visited a local hospital in Kampong Cham (Bom Kompong Hospital) and witnessed a monthly gathering of HIV/AIDS victims discussing general health and nutrition. Pretty cool right? We interviewed one of the team leaders for the Health project that BSDA is working on. She has systematically taught the community about HIV and AIDS and the importance of using condoms. 

A group of intrigued community members learning about nutrition!!

Later on, we began our interviews with BSDA beneficiaries. The first four beneficiaries we interviewed did not receive GlobeMed money. We asked them questions about their age, name, when they contracted HIV/AIDS, stigmatization, nutrition, and income generation (alone with BSDA's influence on it). At first, the team was very scattered with questions and the interview process, but we slowly got into a rhythm after the first few interviews.

The next day (07/24/2013), we began interviews with GlobeMed beneficiaries. This was the first time we were able to evaluate our project and see what our money was going towards. In total, we interviewed five individuals who were receiving money donated by GlobeMed in order to raise chickens for income generation. Overall, the project seems to be effective. However, there are a few common problems that we are seeing.

• The chickens are running away (a few of the chicken pens did not have roofs or netting)
• The chickens are also dying of the chicken disease
• Some say that the loan is not enough. They aren't able to pay back any of the loan, even though it has been 9 months since they have bought the chickens
• The chicken feed is expensive, but feeding them with alternative foods (such as rice) is unhealthy
• They are not getting a lot of profit from feeding the chickens

We hope to address some of these problems when we submit our project proposal. We also asked the beneficiaries questions about the stigma association with HIV/AIDS and questions about their nutrition. Most of the communities that were educated did NOT discriminate against the victim. In addition, most of the beneficiaries ate very simple foods, such as rice, water lily stems, and fish. Often times, the beneficiaries did not have enough food to sustain themselves and their families; therefore, they used the chickens as an emergency food supply.

One of the chicken pens we saw during our interviews

Raza, Micah, and I after heroically pushing the truck out of the mud

On Thursday, we witnessed 2 families receive instruction for the business plan for the loan that BSDA gives to beneficiaries. Each beneficiary must go through a total of 3 meetings:

1. Explain the project and conduct training
2. Explain business plan and the budget
3. Staff comes to sign the contract and the team members meet with each other to build the chicken pen

BSDA aims to set up a system of accountability to hold each beneficiary responsible for each each other. I really like this idea, because it is not only sustainable, but it drives the community to rely more upon its members rather than BSDA. 

We also conducted a few more interviews with beneficiaries after witnessing these meetings. A few things that we found out from these interviews include:

•  The most successful beneficiaries are the ones that are the most motivated to maintain their chicken pens as a priority
• Transportation money for getting to the hospital for medication is often not enough for many beneficiaries

Conducting interviews like a BAWSS

Aryn checking out some chicken pens!

Monday, 22 July 2013

Sakhoeun, Micah, and Raza (left to right) in the MKK Village, currently under construction.

            Monday, the director of BSDA’s Mekong Kampuchea Kids Project (MKK), Mr. SAY Sakhoeun, took us on a tour of several communities helped by MKK.  These are some of the poorest of the poor, where there’s a recurring theme of families being relocated from fertile riverside land to small, infertile plots in dredged lakes.  One community was what Sakhoeun called a “rubbish community,” which has an especially uncertain future: this group of landless families collects cardboard and tarps to be sold in Vietnam, where there is recycling.  The community builds their homes based on whoever will let them live on their land (often temporarily).

            Despite these very difficult circumstances, all the communities we visited were incredibly welcoming, and very eager to help themselves rather than wait for various NGOs to come along.

After visiting these communities, Sokhoeun took us to the fascinating MKK Village.  Set to be finished with construction in 2016, this is BSDA’s self-sustaining master plan for the NGO’s headquarters.  Two residence halls will house 140 students, and there will be office buildings and a hostel.  There are multiple hectares for BSDA to manage its own agriculture, which dovetails beautifully with the vocational training program for cooking, and the market provided by the Smile Restaurant.  Additionally, there’s a building filled with looms for BSDA’s vocational training in sewing, a program where students are already making crisp clothing for export, as well as for BSDA’s own staff.  There’s also a solar-powered water pump, to boot!

We finished the day with a trip to the so-called “monkey temple,” where we fed peanuts and bananas to, well, monkeys!

Raza feeding peanuts to the most vicious female monkey.

Sunday, 21 July 2013

Zombie-Teletubby-Vandong

        Sunday, we decided to take another bike ride, this time to Wat Phnom Hanchey.  This ended up being a much loooonger bike ride than we intended, after some scenic and not-so-scenic detours and mix-ups, but the view from the “woman mountain”—adjacent to the so-called “man mountain”—was gorgeous.  Just before leaving the lookout, the sky tore open and we donned our colorful ponchos (which made us look kind of like Teletubbies).  As we started to make our way down the small mountain in the rainstorm, a woman told us there’d been an accident: a family going to see their son join the monkhood in the mountain’s temple had somehow run their moto-trailer off the steep road.  The vehicle had landed in the brush about ten meters down the slope, with the trailer half on top of the motorcycle half and the driver miraculously unscathed.  Amidst the strong smell of gasoline, we helped carry the family’s belongings up to the road, then, with help from several other Cambodian guys, we all heaved-and-ho’d and tugged-and-towed until the trailer and bike made it back on the road.  The family’s overflowing gratitude for all who helped—and our awe that no one was hurt—made it easy to forget the torrential rain and our bike-sore bums.

View from Wat Phnom Hanchey

A Wise Tree

Teletubbies! (Left to right: Micah, Raza, Vandong, Savoeun, and Aryn, with Abi as photographer)