2015 is a special year for us, so we wanted to use this opportunity to ask some of our member organisations how they feel
about being a part of the Chab Dai coalition, and how collaboration with NGOs
here in Cambodia has helped them in their area of focus.
Some of our members work in legal
support, some in psycho-social aftercare, others are human trafficking
prevention organisations, working to raise awareness of the issue. All are
joined by a common bond of Christian fellowship and share in our vision to
connect, generate and share knowledge, advocate for change and bring an end to
human trafficking and abuse.
Here are just a few of their thoughts…
Supporting
grassroots organisations
One thing that Chab Dai champions is
providing small-scale NGOs with the necessary training and capacity to grow.
Jesse from foster care organisation, Children in Families (one of our early
members), explains their experience of our programs:
'Children
in Families is a local organisation that focuses on placing orphans and
vulnerable children in loving local families in Cambodia. We are a small
organisation with a developing staff that is taking on a major problem in the
country. For several years Chab Dai has been invaluable in providing
training and support for the staff of our organisation. We have benefited
from trainings focused on developing the internal structure of organisation,
social work trainings, and general trainings oriented towards building our
staff. There have been many challenges in creating and growing this small
non-profit in context of Cambodia, and Chab Dai has helped us to navigate many
of these hurdles.’
The
power of collaboration
AusCam
Freedom Project is dedicated to empowering those affected by abuse and
educating the wider community in order to prevent human trafficking, violence
against women and harmful cultural attitudes. Here, Julie Dowse, Founder &
Director explains what membership of Chab Dai has meant for AusCam:
“Cambodia is a country with a large
number of NGO’s - both local and international - with a mission to fight the
trafficking and exploitation of men, women and children. My early experiences
in Cambodia showed me that many organisations were operating as lone rangers
with limited partnerships and collaborative work. I soon learnt that the
primary motives of this were due to the ‘fight for the donor dollar’ which I
found very disturbing. I was very relieved when I found out about the coalition
formed at Chab Dai to provide a platform for a unified approach to our work and
to enable partnerships to develop, forums to discuss the challenges in
particular areas of work, training, research, accountability and conferences. I
have found all of these opportunities incredibly important in the running of
our organisation, including the support needed for our local staff.”
Education Advisor at Heart of Hope,
Colleen Briggs also strongly believes in connectivity to succeed in the
anti-trafficking movement. Ministering to exploited and at-risk children for 7
years, she told us:
“I sincerely believe that had God not connected us to Chab Dai we would not have been able to serve these children. We would not have known how to teach the children about the dangers of trafficking nor would we have been able to make the connections to other NGOs that have been so vital to us. In one case we were connected with a legal aid NGO who helped us work with the police and saw an arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of a perpetrator in the community. The children in the community now have a school and the families have a place to come to when they need a referral or assistance. Chab Dai has been a valuable guide and partner in most aspects of our program.”
To
find out more about becoming a Chab Dai member, follow the link to our main website for more information and to read about our current projects.
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