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Heifer Cambodia's 10-year Program Achievements

On June 24, Heifer Cambodia organized a workshop on its 10-year program achievements and to set up the plan for the next few years, at Cambodiana Hotel in Phnom Penh. The purpose of the workshop was to share Heifer Cambodia program experiences in development work over the past 10 years including successes, challenges, and lessons learned on project implementation and to increase better collaboration with government institutions, civil society and the private sector in poverty reduction. About 100 guests participated in the workshop, including Secretary of State, Under Secretary of State and government officials from the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). Other participants included provincial authorities, representatives from local and international non-governmental organizations, Heifer project partners, project coordinators, community and literacy facilitators, project participants and media. In her welcome speech, Heifer Cambodia Country Director Keo Keang said the workshop would help all participants understand Heifer’s history, vision, mission, model and approach, activities, achievements and next five-year plan for Heifer Cambodia. She said, “This basic understanding will assist the participants in increasing relationship and collaboration with Heifer Cambodia to reduce poverty and promote gender equity in the Kingdom of Cambodia.”
	“I warmly welcome and appreciate very much Heifer Cambodia for active involvement in community women empowerment including woman leadership, health, life improvement and prevention of domestic violence through implementation of Heifer’s Values-Based Holistic Community Development (VBHCD)
approach and model and 12 Cornerstones, which are the right path to make positive change of attitude and behavior of men and women who are essential partners in development of family, community, and society,” Her Excellency Nhem Morakot, Under Secretary of State of MoWA, said. She added that on behalf of MoWA, she has strongly supported Heifer Cambodia and appealed to other NGOs to pay attention to building local human resources, especially, strengthening women’s capacity so that they have skills to earn their life, self-reliance in economy, self-esteem and gender equity toward elimination of woman discrimination in Cambodian society.
In his opening remark, His Excellency Soa Chivorn, Secretary of State of MRD, said the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has highly evaluated good cooperation between MRD and NGOs, in particular Heifer Cambodia. “Development work needs involvement of government institutions, private sector,
development agencies and civil society in implementation of holistic development projects,” said H.E. Sao Chivorn. “Heifer Cambodia focuses mainly on increase of income of rural farmers through implementation of rural community development approach in order that they have enough food, appropriate house, good health, education and trainings to improve their standard of living. The activities are compliant with the RGC’s rectangle policy on poverty reduction.” He also asked civil society to continue their plan focusing on poor farmers, children, women and vulnerable and disabled people based on the principle of equity, justice and sustainable development.
A presentation on Heifer Cambodia program’s 10 year achievements was given, to reflect its model and approach in project implementation, successes, challenges, lessons learned and project impacts, followed by a documentary show. Heifer Cambodia and its partners have tried their best in the development of rural communities. As a result, the communities have better living conditions, including increase of income, adequate nutrition, good clothes, appropriate houses and a higher rate of school attendance for their children. The communities have also made positive changes in terms of attitude and behavior by giving up negative habits in exchange for farming and animal management, capturing new simple techniques with greater benefit, stopping domestic violence, increasing family harmony and taking advantage of valuable time for their family. Heifer’s model and approach are also acknowledged by local authorities and relevant institutions, and replicated by some organizations to enhance potential works in improving the standard of living of poor communities.
The next five-year plan for Heifer Cambodia was set up to focus on the areas of: Women’s empowerment Women and education—values based literacy skill building Gender and domestic violence Youth empowerment Environment and health issues Women and HIV/AIDS • Migration and human trafficking Improvement of poor families’ living conditions
During the workshop, there was also a question and answer forum with a panel of six speakers, who were project partners, project participants, a school principle and a district governor, sharing their ideas and experiences with Heifer project implementation and project impacts. It was a fruitful workshop since the participants had the opportunity to share and exchange experiences and build closer relations, solidarity and mutual understanding.
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