Bridging the Gap

Chab Dai's long time staff member and co-founder of Chab Dai USA, Tania DoCarmo, is highlighted by University of California's School of Social Sciences as they report on her combination of experience in both academia and activism against human trafficking.

Reposted with permission from the UCI School of Social Sciences. See original post here.

Tania has worked for Chab Dai since 2006

For first year grad student Tania DoCarmo, the path to a Ph.D. has been anything but conventional. However, what her journey lacks in predictability, it makes up for in travels abroad, human rights work and practical, first-hand knowledge of human trafficking—her primary research interest. In fact, the sociology student’s proposed project on the subject recently secured her a fellowship through the National Science Foundation’s highly competitive Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which will fund her next three years at UCI.

Though her initial proposal to the NSF—involving a comparative study of humanitarian organizations in Cambodia and Ukraine—has been tweaked slightly, the focus of her current research remains rooted in the deeper understanding of counter-trafficking organizations. And after working for one such organization for more than nine years, she has some valuable insights.

DoCarmo’s interest in human trafficking is a direct result of her non-traditional route to academia. And though she has always loved learning, after her first year as an undergraduate at Biola University, she worried that she loved it a bit too much.

“I was sort of afraid that I was going to get stuck,” she explains. “I loved school, so I was afraid that I was just going to go to school and get married and never really go anywhere.”

So, the then teenager decided to drop everything and move to Brazil—much to the vexation of her parents—to participate in a humanitarian training program. It was in Brazil that she met her now-husband, and two years after she left the U.S., she set off on another life-changing adventure, this time to Cambodia. It was there that she met a woman who had recently started a group called Chab Dai, a non-governmental organization dedicated to uniting activist groups and ending sexual abuse and trafficking in Cambodia.

After volunteering with the organization for a short while, she eventually took on a full-time position, helping to research and implement effective training methods. It was during her time there that she noticed how distrustful activists were of researchers and journalists.

“Through that experience I just realized the gap that exists between what activists and organizations are doing and what academics are doing,” she says. “Historically, researchers from big universities would come over and want to interview victims and do their research and then you would never hear from them again. There was a lot of mistrust and a lot of feeling like they didn’t understand the context.”

Despite the skepticism, DoCarmo rediscovered her love of academia, took classes online to complete her bachelor’s degree and subsequently earned her master’s degree in anthropology while still working for Chab Dai. She felt that this bad blood between activists and researchers was doing damage to both sides of the cause, and she began to imagine combining her education with her passion and expertise for activism to bridge the gap.

“Getting my master’s degree reminded me how much I like academics and how much I believe in research. It really built my conviction that to do good work we need to understand what we’re addressing—and we need research to do that.”

So, after nearly nine years with Chab Dai and several moves back and forth from the U.S. to Cambodia, DoCarmo and her family made the trek back to California where she began UCI’s sociology graduate program in 2014.  

She is currently working on two research projects that have evolved from her research proposal to the NSF. The first, which she is working on in conjunction with Francesca Polletta, sociology professor, examines the use of storytelling and narratives within the activist community. As DoCarmo explains, there is sometimes a fine line between empowerment and exploitation, especially when the subject of a story may not be able to foresee all the potential ramifications of their participation.

“A lot of times, organizations will use a victim’s story to get donations or funding,” she says. “And while I see why people are doing that, my experience has been that stories can be very exploitative to the people whose stories you are telling.”

In addition to being manipulative, sharing a victim’s story can be damaging to their livelihood and reputation. DoCarmo explains that, in Cambodia, there is a very negative stigma associated with trafficking and prostitution. She has seen victims who are trying to move on with their lives be thrown back into a negative place when their community finds out that they had been sex workers. And there are even more sinister dangers—she notes that it is not uncommon for sex tourists to travel across the world in order to track down a woman that they saw in a documentary.

“Internally I’m still trying to wrestle with it, because I don’t think we should tell a victim what’s good or bad for them because they need to be empowered to tell their story if they want,” she says. “But we also need to be responsible for our part in it. So we’re interviewing organizations in the States and overseas and talking to them about how they’ve used stories—what’s been useful and what hasn’t been useful.”

In addition to this work, DoCarmo is also working on her own project that she hopes will help shed light on how human trafficking came to be a “new” social problem despite having been around for thousands of years. She believes that global interest in the issue became prominent after a 2000 U.N. convention that essentially coined “human trafficking” as a term.

She hopes to find out why, if trafficking has existed for centuries, was there a sudden explosion of concern about it. She’s seeking answers to her questions through archival research and hopes to, eventually, incorporate her work as a chapter in her dissertation, though that won’t be for several years. Her ultimate goal is to repair the bond between academics and activists in the counter-trafficking world, which she hopes will improve overall understanding of the topic.

“Sometimes when I read, there just seems to be a disconnect between how practitioners see a problem and how it’s written about in academia,” she says. “Through my research I want to reflect the practitioner’s view with the academic’s. I think together you have a better understanding.”

For now, DoCarmo is happy to be merging her two passions, academia and activism, while raising her two children with her husband. And with the NSF fellowship to help fund tuition and research expenses, she can spend the next three years focusing on how to make a difference.

—Bria Balliet, School of Social Sciences - See more at: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2015/2015-07-14-docarmo-trafficking.php#sthash.eBe2i3Mp.dpuf

Talk it Out to Walk it Out

As a person who has studied communications and now works under that same title, I am very aware of the nuances involved with... communicating. That includes verbal and nonverbal cues, as well as the delicate process of conveying information across a variety of media and through diverse cultures. Now, that's not to say I'm any kind of expert in this field because I'm not; I'm just sensitive to the difficulties inherent in good communication. There is a certain level of trust you have to reach with others to feel safe enough to be honest with one another. That's true for any kind of relationship -- romantic, platonic, familial, professional, etc.

When you have a team that works on two different continents, separated by a 14-hour time difference, awareness of and sensitivity to the details of communication becomes even more important. A third of my team works in Cambodia while the rest of us are located in California. That third is crucial to the work we're doing here, and we need them to be effective. It's easy to get sucked into our individual tasks and forget to check in with each other to make sure we're all on the same page, even here in our little offices where we share square footage and sometimes (often) desk space. But we've learned how crucial it is to talk to each other on a regular basis, beyond even the monthly team meetings we schedule out.

I love this quote by George Bernard Shaw: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” This is one of the truest statements to me. We often assume that other people have the same thoughts, ideas and beliefs as we do, but that's rarely the case. We are all unique individuals and bring varying stories and abilities to the table (see my last post on playing to your strengths), and that's a very positive aspect of being on a team. But it also means we have to talk to each other with that truth in mind, recognizing that others' understanding and expectations are going to be different than yours or mine.

Our team communicates a lot. We have email threads and Google Hangouts going pretty much all the time to ensure those channels stay open. Everyone has the opportunity to be involved in the decisions that affect them, or at the very least to stay "in the loop" with the various aspects of current projects. We're not perfect at it, and there can be a breakdown in communication simply due to the distance element. But we're trying and I like to think we've got a fairly good handle on it. We all recognize the importance of cultivating this skill and we are willing to put in the time to work it out.

So what's my point? It's never going to be easy to communicate. I don't care how awesome you are at relaying your feelings and how in-tune you are with the other person, you're not going to always agree or even understand each other. But you have to keep trying. You have to fight against the difficulties of remote team members, lack of clear tone in emails, opposite skill sets and conflicting goals or priorities to help each other out. Don't assume anybody else thinks the way you do. If you do not understand something, ask about it. Be proactive about creating clarity and refuse to get your feelings hurt due to imperfect communication channels. When you're working with other people (and we all are unless you're the sole human in a robot company, in which case I'm very glad I'm not you because that is terrifying), this is the reality of being effective within those office walls. And, like most things in life, the more you do it the better you'll be at it.

"It's Better When We're Together"

By Kristina Novak

I have always admired the dedication and focus of people willing to put aside small differences and be ready to connect with others to increase the quality and impact of their work. Margaret Mead, a great anthropologist and social reformer, understood well, the power of dedicated individuals working together for a common purpose.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Now imagine that there is not one but many groups of dedicated individuals - each person is different, yet working together for a common goal.  What happens when such a coalition forms? The impact increases, lessons are shared, accountability grows and gaps are filled with the various skill sets.

This is the case for Chab Dai. In Khmer, the name literally means “joining of hands” and that’s what it really is -  a set of connected organizations that vary in expertise and have one common purpose - to fight human trafficking and exploitation. I love witnessing how this ethos results in providing better protection from exploitation and care for survivors.

One of the ways Chab Dai facilitates better connectivity between its members is through various forums such as Child Protection, Aftercare and our Social Work forum. The day is usually spent in sharing lessons learned and looking at best practices and challenges that may lay ahead as well as create space for the forming of new partnerships.  

When it comes to collaboration, there is one forum that I really appreciate right now, which is our Outreach Forum. The Chab Dai members that work in direct outreach to the vulnerable and exploited children, women, men and the transgender community here in Cambodia (altogether 44 participants from 17 organizations), spent a day sharing their work and learning from each other’s field experience.

Collaboration was unfolding right in front of my eyes. As I was taking notes of the meeting and hearing stories from the field, I could not help but admire each individual’s hard work and dedication to serving and protecting our most vulnerable. Their dedication is mirrored by the long hours they invest in their field and by the their resilience and faith they hold for those they help. All of this came across in the presentations they shared.

But there was something else that gave the meeting its energy and focus. It was this unfolding of collaboration. With such a variety of organizations that Chab Dai coalition encompasses - even just within its outreach field - the mutually beneficial lessons, skills and resources of the forum members were quickly recognized. Participants presented on their programs, including their outreach on the streets and in entertainment establishments, running day centres, dorm houses and health clinics, and providing education and employment training. 
Q & A sessions followed each presentation which fostered dialogue on the conceptualization of collaboration for their projects. 

Alongside the building of partnerships, a short training was provided by a member organization on legal issues surrounding outreach and work with vulnerable populations. Such knowledge is essential for protection of outreach workers as well as for educating clients on their own rights in Cambodian law. 

Apart from the presentations, participants engaged in a “Service Mapping” exercise by marking out the geographical areas of their outreach on maps of Phnom Penh and Cambodia. They also used colour coded papers to show data about their services:  Orange indicated "Who For?" (client group), Pink - "Where?" (The establishment), Green answered the "What?" (services and programs), and Yellow indicated "When?" (Night or day). On its completion, the final product had a clear visual of the existing services and mapped out areas of possible collaboration.

It is truly inspiring to see the manifold impact a simple connection can have.  After all, as a line from one song goes, “it’s better when we’re together.” The Outreach Forum organized by Chab Dai was one such space where, even as the forum was progressing, new partnerships formed and the lessons shared were turned into action strategies. I call that a time well spent. Together.

Play to Your Strengths

If there's one truth I've consistently encountered in all my jobs, it's that every person has a unique skill set they bring to the table. And while some people prefer to work alone, the great thing about being part of a team is that you have access to all these different skills rather than being confined to rely only on your individual strengths. You also have a place to lend your talents where they're needed.

For example, I'll openly admit that I'm not the best at being a visionary. I'm not the “ideas” person. But if you pair me up with the ideas person, I'm pretty good at figuring out the logical, feasible way of implementing the vision. You tell me the outcome you're hoping for and I'll work really hard to make that happen for you.


This concept also implies that no single person should try to do everything. That's the perfect way to get burned out but accomplish nothing. I'd be foolish to say that I'm going to establish a marketing company, and that I'm going to do it alone. Even if I'm the best marketing professional in the business, if I can't come up with the pitch to pursue I'll never get anything done. Not to mention nobody would actually hire me.

At Chab Dai, I'm fortunate to have people around me with a variety of strengths available to tap into. Our team has some great visionaries with really wonderful ideas on how to aid in counter-trafficking and encourage collaboration within the movement as a whole. We have people who are good at seeing the big picture, and others who are more detail-oriented. Each of us have different interests, educations and experiences that we contribute to the team. We all are very good at our individual jobs, and we're most efficient when we let others do what they do best instead of trying to take on everything at once.

So embrace the team. Offer up the best of your unique skill set and accept that there are some things others can do better than you. Let them, so you can focus on your own contribution, and then the whole group benefits. Working alone, we are ineffective. But together we can really get somewhere.