Case study: Child Club in Thmei commune

“Education is important to find a good job and protect ourselves from child trafficking” said one of the girls of the Child Club of Choubpring village.

Founded in December 2014, this Child Club met four times with our Transit Coordinator in December 2014, January, February and April 2015 to learn about children’s rights, child trafficking, child labor and child abuse. When we met its members on the 24^th of September 2015, most of them still had vivid memories of what they had learned and were convinced of the importance of education as a means not only to have a good future with good jobs and high salaries but also to better protect themselves.

“What is child trafficking?”, we asked them. One said it was the selling of children to another country to work but without any food or salary. Another asserted it was when someone gave some money to the parents to take their child to work in another country. This person would promise the parents their child would get the money from his work but would keep it for himself. Asked about child abuse they gave various answers such as “it’s the selling of children to sex businesses”, “it’s when the children sell something in the market and don’t go to school or when the children work at the factory” or “it’s when the parents do not let their children go to school” or even “when only 1 of the 4 children in a family go to school”.

We finally asked them about what they could do to help the children that were in these situations and got a genuine answer about “warning a girl that the candy she was given is a trap to harm her” or answers about reporting to stakeholders like commune council members, parents, schoolteachers or even just calling neighbors and warning other children. Empowered by the knowledge they got about their rights and the dangers they are facing, these children can then raise awareness about their rights and better protect themselves as well as other children in the village.

SVG Trained Beneficiary to Be Sustainable Farming

Mr. Dy is one of CCPCR's SVG leader in Tuol Korki commune, Mondul Sema district, Koh Kong Province. He is 44 years old and one of former of migrant abuse to work in Thailand. Mr. Dy's family was so poor and he had to respond for big family (5 children) without specific job or land and capital to do agriculture.

Before Mr. Dy migrated to work in Thailand, he also used to do agriculture and raise animal at home but it depended on natural resource so he did not get much income. At that time he also had no skill of raising chicken, it always failed (sick and die) and he wanted to continue career in Cambodia but he had no capital, then he heard information about higher salary of working in Thailand, therefore he and his wife decided to migrate illegally to work there to support their family and children to study.

He stated about difficulty of processing the legal document, it was not easy to get passport even thought he spended money, so he and his wife decided to migrate illegally with broker who claimed to know boss in Thailand. However, working there was not easy and got higher salary as he expected as long as he worked from the morning until the night.

He said "My difficulty that I challenged, I had no passport or document of legal work, so I got exploited of working, even the boss allowed us to work but we got less money and warned to be arrested by police in reason I had no legal document".

They worked there since 2013 until 2016 but they still did not earn enough money to support their children, so they fled from workplace to live in homeland. He said "In Cambodia If I try to work hard and work much as I worked for boss in Thailand and I may be able to get a lot money", said Mr. Dy.

Due to his interesting and experience of doing agriculture, he is efforts to raise animal and grow vegetable at home again.

In respond to reduce risky migration and eliminate trafficking, CCPCR' SVG with supported by USAID's partner CTIP implemented by Winrock International is supporting to improve living condition of vulnerable peoples and victim of the migration through training and providing loan.

Mr. Dy was admitted to joint CCPCR's SVG and he was selected by member to be SVG leader. He was trained on policy making, bookkeeping and loan management. He also got skill training on animal raising, financial and small business management at home.

"I was confident to start up new career with animal raising and growing vegetable since I participated with CCPCR", said Mr. Dy. His family condition is better than before, he can make a good income about $200 to $250 per month to support his family and all his children can go to school. His life is better than working in Thailand because he can earn to get early money and live happily with family. He can save money to buy more agriculture materials and raise more chicken, he wished to have his own land to increase and develop his career.