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From November 8 to 12, Heifer Cambodia, in cooperation with Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA), provided a training course on “Gender
and Entrepreneurship” to 30 participants who are project coordinators (PCs), community facilitators (CFs), literacy facilitators (LFs), and members of project management committee (PMC) implementing Heifer projects in six provinces throughout Cambodia. The five-day training course, which was conducted in Kampong Chhnang province, aimed at expanding concepts and ideas for small business creation in communities and assisting the small business holders in successfully managing their businesses.
The participants fully participated in the training activities. They enjoyed every session of the course including educational games, role plays, exercises and field visits. They enthusiastically showed their interest in gaining new ideas and experiences from the course that was useful in managing small businesses.
“The most interesting topic for me was how to calculate production costs, as before I did not know how to do it,” said Ms Krouch Souk, LF from Banteay Meanchey province. “However,”
she continued, “after this training course, I know how, and I have ideas on how to make a product with fewer resources and look nicer.”
“When we go back, we will make a plan with the CF to provide a training on small business to self-help group (SHG) members in our communities to help them in managing their existing small businesses or creating new businesses,” said Ms Bouy Phal, PC from Disability Development Services Program (DDSP). She and her colleagues were very interested in bamboo handicrafts while making a field visit during the training. They had an idea of establishing a group to work on bamboo handicraft.
Ms Put Sinoeun, CF from Svay Rieng province, also showed her commitment in transferring new idea and knowledge gaining from the training to her communities. She will provide a training course to SHG members, and work with PC to seek new skills for her communities.
“After the training, small business holders in communities know how to calculate production costs and know how much they can sell their products for profit,” said Ms Bunchhith Veasna, trainer and Director of Economic Development Department of MOWA. She added, “They also show their creative ideas for improving their products to look more attractive, and use fewer resources in production. Costs and price calculation is an obvious change. The communities also change their way of thinking and performance.” She also observed that after the training, community people accept new ideas from others and create business networking.
This course has opened the participants’ eyes wider in small business management, inspiring existing small business holders to improve their businesses, create new businesses, and think how to use resources in effective and efficient way. When community people have their own business in the village, labor migration will be reduced that triggers farm families to live in harmony.
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