It’s been three years since the first Social Work majors in Cambodia graduated from university, fulfilling a very real need in providing human trafficking and abuse survivors with expert care and support. With this in mind, we thought it was time we checked in with our Jeut Nung Dai social work training team here at Chab Dai…
Prak Chantrea is the Assistant Project Manager for Jeut Nung
Dai and a member of that ground-breaking
class of 2012 himself, having earned his Social Work degree from Royal
Phnom Penh University months before starting work at Chab Dai.
Building capacity in social work
So what does the JND team do day-to-day?
“We provide social workers with training related to direct
social work and counselling practice such as basic and advanced counselling
training, child development and parenting skills training, conflict resolution
training, peaceful family training and more.
“This helps social workers to build their knowledge regarding
strength-based and contextual approaches, and to improve their skills in
listening, asking, responding and counselling.”
Chantrea told me that many of the social workers he helps to
train are in fact survivors of abuse or human trafficking themselves, so having
the support of the JND team is really valuable.
“This training also helps them to feel confident of doing
their tasks with clients in the community. Some trainees have said they felt
healed with their experiences because they had opportunity to express their
feelings [to us] and reflect on their improvements.”
“The trauma-informed caregiver course was very important for me because
I can now help my team and family. I also can share it to my community as well
as I am able to help myself with trauma experiences.”
Counsellor, ARM
Stories of hope
Although there are challenges still in the field of social
work – “some organizations or managers do not give enough value to social workers,
or do not know clearly what the practices are” – there is plenty to be hopeful about
in Cambodia’s burgeoning social work sector.
“One organization which we worked with for a year runs a
shelter for women survivors of human trafficking and sexual abuse.
“Most of their staff lacked knowledge and skills in their
work field and they often did not have a social work degree or a relevant
background. The supervisor requested our support in building capacity for her
employees. JND provided them with training about case management and basic
counselling, as well as a mentoring service for four months to support and
encourage them to evaluate what they have learnt. We discussed the counselling
process and cooperating between social worker, counsellor and house sister
regarding cases.
"After we finished our support, the staff reported that they
have improved their capacity and feel confident to deal with families and
clients. They were also committed to continuing their learning.”
Chantrea explains that Jeut Nung Dai have also been
responsible for organising a social work conference every year since 2013.
“The conference aims to strengthen networking and capacity-building
of practitioners in Cambodia by sharing skills and expertise as well as discussing
how to address certain challenges and difficulties encountered in their daily
practices.”
Reducing vulnerability
Like many of Chab Dai’s projects, Jeut Nung Dai works to
stop human trafficking and abuse through both direct and indirect means, as
Chantrea affirms:
“We build the capacity of Chab Dai members and other staff,
but we also go to the communities and sometimes provide direct counselling and
group sessions. The main point is about reducing vulnerability.”
This seems an apt way to sum up not only the work of Jeut
Nung Dai, but what
Chab Dai is all about - empowering those working in counter human
trafficking, and through this, reducing the vulnerability of Cambodian people.
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