Community development and family follow-up in periburban settings

Main activities

1. Tending to the youngest children

E&D and its partner Krousar Yoeung have a deep familiarity with the development of young children in the Cambodian context. Our experience has shown us that the theme of preschool education and its administration by the community itself is a very effective entry point in the communities. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, E&D has developed a set of pedagological tools and training modules (in favor of the educators and parent members of the management committee) based on a community approach, essentially in rural settings. Krousar Yoeung, independently of E&D, has begun to adapt this approach to urban locales through its collaboration with an Italian NGO that works in Vietnamese neighbourhoods in the north of the Phnom Penh municipality.

Community preschools:

• Creation of preschool centres for children ages 3 to 5
• Continual training for educators
• Creation of parent committees to handle and assure the technical supervision of the centres
• Activities for parents: health education enlivened by youth groups
• PMI supervision by the local health centre

Child care for 0-3 year-olds :

Krousar Yoeung will identify solutions based on the context of each zone.

2. Family follow up

Family follow up is a methodology of social work which has proven itself in countries on the path of development. After a case study in the Philippines , Sovann Phoum started testing the method. Krousar Yoeung, already having put a network of parental directors in place in the context of its actions in the urban locale, participated with Sovann Phoum in the training workshops on the approach, led by a specialist from InterAide.

The goal is to give a sense of responsibility to the families, to mobilize them regarding precise health and education objectives, as well as access to civil status and employment; to reinforce their confidence in themselves and their capacity, and to encourage them to make use of the existing public and private services.

The sum and substance of the method rests on limited voluntary supervision (maximum 6 months). During the frequent home visits and in the scope of social services in the local offices, the advisor establishes relationships based on listening and trust with the family. Listening without judging and supportive attention given by an advisor provokes an upsurge of interest, most often from the mother, in regards to her own situation. She enables her family to better understand the causes of their problems and the possible solutions.

The social services are accessible to all of the inhabitants. The services offer families an area that is more neutral as well as the possibility to come on their own accord to meet with the advisors or ask for information. The hope is that the services will come to term with those of the sections of community relations (SCR) anticipated in the UN-Habitat project. The service also serves as a meeting place for specific actions which mobilize the beneficiaries in a broader area.

Family follow up addresses a precise number of families selected based on their problems and ability to resolve some of them. The team chooses 4 to 6 criteria relative to their vital needs (for example: the presence of non-vaccinated children, children not in school, number of children in relations to the age of the mother, problems with hygiene, presence of malnourished children, lack of administrative papers). With the assistant's help, the family will give itself precise objectives, with priorities and deadlines. It will then be easy to measure the results obtained and to show them to the family which will then be proud of its progress. In addition, we will be able to judge when to stop the assistance.

Family follow up is an activity that is particularly demanding both physically and emotionally. Assistants must be morally stable, well prepared and regularly supervised. They are preferably from the same neighbourhood, that is to say familiar with the situations that they will encounter and capable of establishing an amicable relationship without judgment with the family. They know how to listen to and analyze the details of the family's situation without assuming that everything is the fault of those concerned and of their incapacities. Rather, they look at the positive aspects of the beneficiaries. Finally, they must not attempt to resolve the family's problems for them but instead attempt to feel just how they can help the family in its approach without ever replacing it.

• Continual training of the assistants
• Family visits
• Interventions on themes such as:
• Malnutrition / tuberculosis / sexually transmitted diseases
• Mother and child health, family planning
• Pre-schooling, schooling, child psychology
• Professional training, preparation for employment, savings
• Judicial aspects and administrative documents, women's rights

3. Hygiene and the prevention of illness

Sovann Phoum, recognized today as a specialist in health education in Phnom Penh, has developed a series of trainings and tools aimed at health promotion through children and adolescents. Several story books and operating manuals produced by the Child-to-Child Trust have been translated into Khmer and are used today in several schools in the capital. Recently, Sovann Phoum, in collaboration with UNICEF, has put together a pack of games that increase players' awareness of the HIV virus and AIDS.

E&D, for its part, in the realm of its project of integrated and focused child development in rural locales, has acquired a certain competence in the training of peer group educators: groups of young advisors, on behalf of other younger children of the village; sketches; songs and games about children's rights; prevention of trafficking and other themes related to the preservation of childhood.

Creation of "peer group educators" (PGE) teams, based at the elementary school level, and intervening at several levels:

+ aid for the health centre's mobile teams (vaccinations, prenatal visits, height/weight screenings) in terms of population mobilization and health promotion

+implemented health activities, "child-to-child," in the elementary schools (in-class interventions, after-school health clubs)

+ diverse thematic activities in the community (at the learning resources centre, market, during celebrations)

4. Training - Employment - Activity start up aid 

Employment training

Five years ago Sovann Phoum established a network of artisans and entrepreneurs sensitive to the needs of the youth regarding professional training. At the same time, Sovann Phoum forged relationships with other NGOs offering apprenticeships in specialized centres, for example Nyemo, who trains young women in food service and seamstress careers.

The family assistants, trained and supervised by Krousar Yoeung, will direct adolescents in the target families toward the professional training programs (mechanics, masonry, ironworks, hairdressing, clothing industry.) of Sovann Phoum.

Before leaving for the apprenticeship, the beneficiaries receive a training/orientation on proper work ethics as well as their rights according to the Cambodian labour laws.

Activity start up aid

- Simultaneous savings and loans required (the beneficiary thus progressively builds-up the capital necessary for the consolidation of his/her activity);

- Training on various themes linked to running a small business