More than just a job

Hi, Laura posting this time.

One of the privileges of working at AAC, is that I get to visit different vocational training projects around Cambodia. The best projects have been the ones that do more than just employ disabled people or train them in a skill - they have a holistic approach to helping people.

Like NYEMO Cambodia (www.nyemo.com), which provides vulnerable women, many of whom will have been victims of domestic violence or abuse, with counselling and other help. Or AFESIP (www.afesip.org/cambodia.php), which looks after sex workers and women who have been trafficked. There are not enough of things like trauma counselling for people who have been maimed by landmines or suffered abuse at the hands of family members. The people at these projects need more than just a job or chance to earn money. They need help putting their lives back together.

Some of the projects will treat people like cheap labour, not really addressing them by name, while others you can tell are really treating them with dignity. Like Peace Handicrafts & Silk, a project in Phnom Penh that has a real feeling of peace about it. The manager introduced Dave and I to all of the workers individually when we went there for a visit, regardless of whether they were shop staff or sewers making handbags.

In my opinion, a good vocational training project is one where they have a good working environment with fans, light and enough space to do their work. But more importantly, it is a place where there is no hierarchy, as this is very evident in the Cambodian culture. It is a place where the people in charge treat the employees as equals.

It’s been great visiting some of these projects and seeing how people have really had their lives changed. One of the best examples of this is a woman who now works at AFESIP. She was helped out of prostitution and is now married with a child on the way.

I hope that more and more women in Cambodia can experience this kind of new beginning.