Veoun Sam Art timidly controlled his excitement as he made his way to the group. He and his fellow home partners were to meet with the Habitat team for a build orientation. For Sam Art, this build was far from the ordinary. He was building his own home. There was no denying of his delight – he happily volunteered to watch over the storage room that was being prepared for the build and committed to help tidy up the site by picking litter, clearing debris and clearing the pathways, “We have to keep the site clean and ready. They (volunteers) are arriving soon.”

Veoun Sam Art and his wife Eng Sopheap and 3 other families – Chum Pov, Phan Na, Sous Chreb – have been preparing for the build that will lead them to starting anew. March 30, the conclusion of the 5-day Hands and Hearts Build, marked the tipping point in their lives. They fi nally have a stronger sense of security, they fi nally own their homes.HIV has made Veoun Sam Art and his wife’s lives very diffi cult yet they remain thankful, “We are thankful that our children do not have HIV, but we still fear how our disease affects their day-to-day lives. They experience discrimination from other neighbors. We worry every day about how they will live when our times come as we don’t have relatives whom they can approach for help.”

The couple was provided welfare support, and with their industrious nature, they were able to build a thatched house in a small plot of land for their four small children and receive a grant to buy a second hand motorbike. They work as fi sher folks in the monsoon season and become lotus bulb collectors during dry season. Veoun Sam Art also works as a public motorcycle driver. Sometimes his wife makes time to peddle clothes in nearby villages.

Just as they feared, Veoun Sam Art found outthat the land they live in will be seized by the government soon. Th is prompted him to apply for a house grant with Habitat for Humanity. “We felt very happy when we heard about Habitat’s project of building a house for us this month. It gives us peace of mind knowing that we will be able to leave our four children with a secure home,” he shared.

Th e 27 Australian volunteers have also been preparing months and months back for their trip to Cambodia. They individually came up with creative ways just to be able to raise funds to help many families such as organizing a ‘Clean-Up Drive for Cambodia’, a charity dinner and golf tournament, an auction, among many others. Th e build experience they gained affi rmed their drive to help.

More than laying bricks or building a foundation or simply mixing cement, the volunteers’ contribution and enthusiasm at the build site and during fund raising inspired home partners like Veoun Sam Art and many more volunteers who are considering volunteering and off ering their time, money and skills to help change people’s lives for the better.

Th e Hands and Hearts Build commenced with the volunteers’ tour at important historic sites in Phnom Penh, allowing them to know more about the country. An orientation was conducted by Habitat Cambodia and Australia staff , which helped volunteers know more about the projects and prepared them for the build.

Volunteers were eager to get their hands dirty on the fi rst day when they were greeted bythe home partners, skilled workers and the community people. During the week, they visited the Steoung Meanchey dumpsite to understand more about the housing situation in Cambodia and a Habitat home partner – Vorn Nhor – who happily showed them how to make fabric fl ower as her form of livelihood.

One volunteer, Glenn Schultz shared, “It’s hard to put in to words the experience of participating in the Hearts and Hands Build. Th ere are lows – seeing the living conditions and learning about Cambodia’s dark past and the highs- handing over the House, interacting with the local kids and working as Team with people you did not know prior. It’s hard work, in hot humid conditions and I came here not knowing what to expect, but you just can’t help fall in love with this place. The laughter and smiles from the Cambodian people fill the room and they are so friendly. I can easily say this is one of the proudest moments of my life. If you ever get an opportunity to go on a build, I highly recommend it. It’s one of the most rewarding experiences you could imagine.’’On the fi nal day, volunteers gaily decorated the homes. Photos were taken, simple gifts where shared, birds and fl owers were released for good luck, prayers, well-wishes, warm hugs and tears of joy were shared.

For the Hands and Hearts Build volunteers, and home partners like Voeun Sam Art, this was not the end. This was just the beginning.

The workshop was arranged to synchronize and strengthen HFHC’s understanding of the HFH strategy for disaster response as guided by the Pathways to Permanence. The workshop included discussions on globally-accepted guiding principles, standards, coordination mechanisms and program “products” for the post-disaster shelter and settlements sector.

The specific objectives of of the workshop include reach consensus on strategic opportunities posed by early engagement in post-disaster shelter assistance through implementation of program interventions consistent with latest sector trends, access to new resource development opportunities, and execution of partnerships and grants agreements in support of these interventions.

Participants of the workshop were some key management staff of HFH Cambodia and the DR AdHoc team.

Th e other purpose of the exposure visit is to learn from worthy lessons learned and take note from experiences shared by direct implementers and villagers who now have im-proved living and health conditions due to their creative toilets, hand washing stations, and the knowledge they have strictly put in practice on proper handling of drinking water.

Mr. Samrith Sophat, HFH Cambodia Wat-San CLTS Specialist shared his thoughts after the experience, “Th is one day visit is very useful, the team learned various things including eff ective leadership, a better and more practical way of setting up hand washing station, proper waste management, and demonstration of behaviour change among SAG members and eff ective promotion of latrine construction. The team received a practically reinforcement of its knowledge about the sanitation ladder techniques. We are optimistic we can improve our WATSAN project in our target areas in Siem Reap to strengthen our capabilities of serving our home partners.”

24 solar lamps and two boards of 135 Watt solar power were installed and put into use at the Khmer Harvest Build Community Center by Khmer Solar Company on 27 March.

The solar lamps are now being used by the community members allowing them an extended time and secure to walk around the community at night time. The lamps were installed right before the Khmer New Year. The community people were very happy to be able to celebrate the New Year together.

The Battambang project on Strengthening Civil Society-Government Partnership to Deliver Land Tenure Security (SCSGPDTS) continues to move towards accomplishing its goals. Habitat for Humanity Cambodia has formally opened the bids of potential suppliers to work on housing kits distribution and the construction of road and drainage system within the project area. The opening of bids took place at the HFHC National Office in Phnom Penh, joined by various construction companies.

Through this pitch, successful bidder for housing kits distribution will be responsible for the distribution of 60 sheets of zinc to 300 families, while the successful bidder of road and drainage construction will proceed their work on building eight lines of Double Bituminous Surface Treatment (DBST) roads, and 730 meters of drainage system on 6 hectares of land for the communities.

In an interview after the activity, Thoeun Sina, the Construction Supervisor for HFHC in Battambang said “It is very important to search for the most capable suppliers that are able to deliver the construction and distribution jobs efficiently and cost-effectively without disregarding quality. Timely delivery and completion is also essential. Hence through this bidding, we are able to find the right suppliers without any bias.”

After the completion of infrastructure, the project looks forward to the delivery of secure land tenure to all the land recipients, which will be followed by house construction services.

The 3-year project is under the Bati and Kirivong Area Development Program with an overall goal of improving the livelihood of the poor and poorest households and their children through the provision of appropriate shelter. As an established housing organization in the country, HFH Cambodia was approached by World Vision to part-take in the housing component of the project by building 30 houses each year for 10 years.

This new development also opens up new build opportunities for Global Village teams coming to Cambodia. “This project allows us to expand our target area. More importantly, this will lead to new opportunities for HFHC to provide Construction Technical Assistance (CTA) to organizations serving the neediest sector of the society,” according to the program leader – Iv Bonnakar, Southeast Program Coordinator.

The project is funded by World Vision Singapore and building kicks-off in April.

27 members of Sanitation Action Group (SAG) and 8 members from School Water Sanitation and Hygiene (SWASH) joined together in a Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) training in Angkor Chum District, Siem Reap.

The PHAST training led by CLTS Specialist was formed to bring community people to understand about participatory sanitation and hygiene transformation method and identify sanitation status in their villages.

Samrith Sophat, CLTS Specialist for HFHC said, “Improving sanitation behaviors in rural area is a great challenge, because villagers have developed their own habits. Through our constant efforts to educate them, we can now see that they are able to gradually adopt the proper practices and include them in their daily lives. ”

All participants were encouraged to join different activities during the training such as practical hand washing exercise, and identification of good and bad sanitation behaviors to ensure that trainees are able to take in proper Water, Sanitation and Hygiene practices and enable them to transfer their learning to other members in their families and villages.

23 villagers from SenSok, KorkKleang, and Andong attended the training to understand more about leadership and management skills and facilitation skills which they can use to solve problems effectively in their communities. The training also offered the participants the chance to learn how to create development plans to advance their communities and help improve their situations.

Ms. In KimSreng, Habitat home partner shared after the training, “this is a very good training, and I’m very happy to learn how to react to the different situations that affect the way we cooperate with each other in the community. I am also able to learn the qualities of a good leader. I’m very inspired by this class and I’m going to share and practice what I learn with my family at home, my relatives, including my neighbors. I now strongly believe that we can also make big changes.”

Ms. Tech Theavy, the trainer said, “I can see that villagers really pay attention during the class. They freely ask questions based on their day-to-day experiences within their respective communities.”

]]> http://www.habitatcambodia.org/building-more-community-leaders-in-phnom-penh/feed/ 0 http://www.habitatcambodia.org/ehophhs-livelihood-trainings-in-phnom-penh-and-prey-veng/ http://www.habitatcambodia.org/ehophhs-livelihood-trainings-in-phnom-penh-and-prey-veng/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:09:42 +0000 lyda http://www.habitatcambodia.org/?p=1195

Livelihood plays an important role in improving the housing condition in Cambodia. To support home partners in improving their livelihood opportunities, HFH Cambodia organized trainings on relevant topics including family financial management, fish raising in plastic pond, and chicken-raising to 73 participants in Phnom Penh and 23 in Prey Veng.

The trainings were conducted in order to help individuals and families to effectively manage their income and expenses and to improve their life chances through the new skills they acquire in the technical training on fish and chicken rising.

Mr. Keng Virak, the Project Officer of HFHC shared, “This is a very important support to our home partners. Through this kind of training, participants can further improve their living standard and teach other family members the importance of developing simple home-based business to maximize the opportunities presented by their new homes.”

The program has successfully guided home partners in developing their home-based businesses. Some families now raise chickens and ducks and sell basic merchandise and are able to save money from their earnings.