SKIP Newcastle - Cambodia

SKIP Newcastle consists of a group of healthcare students from Newcastle University. Our mission is to create a sustainable, long-term project in the province of Kampong Thom, which supports and empowers the local community in a way that also respects their own culture, heritage and beliefs. We are currently working through this by providing health education and promotion, teaching English and setting up social activities for the children with our partner CoDeC (Cooperation for Development of Cambodia).

History

SKIP Newcastle was originally founded in 2005, where we originally set up a project in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, due to the civil war in Sri Lanka it was decided to pull out of this project as it was too dangerous to send out volunteers. It was then decided that we would set up an alternative project in rural Cambodia, and SKIP Newcastle sent a pilot project to Kampong Thom Province in summer 2009, and the first batch of SKIP volunteers in 2010. This project was mainly focusing on English teaching predominantly, but also on health promotion and research into the community’s needs.

Cambodia has had long standing political and economic problems, due to civil war and mass genocides, with the regime of the Khmer Rouge. Although currently politically stable, the country has suffered greatly from its past. Alongside poverty, children suffer greatly from problems such as lack of education, difficulty in access to healthcare, hunger and human trafficking, especially in rural areas. SKIP Newcastle has chosen to work in a rural area in the province of Kampong Thom, situated between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

We identified CoDeC as a partner that is based in Kampong Thom Province. Their vision is “that Cambodia is a society where all the people can have sustainable livelihoods and can improve their lives.” Their mission is “to increase the capacity of the poor to improve their livelihoods.”

CoDeC’s main program is the Livelihood program, which aims to increase the capacity of the poorest people to generate income. They chiefly run this by setting up and encouraging the membership of the Affinity Group Development program.

• Members save money each month and credit is provided to them at low interest rates
• They can borrow money for business needs
• They receive training in specific skills.

Improving health and sanitation is also a priority and they ensure that health promotion is incorporated into all of their activities, particularly focusing on HIV education.

What does our project do?

We will be working alongside CoDeC, targeting children to help with issues affecting the whole community.

Planned interventions will include:

• English teaching,
• health education,
• youth club,
• being there to help.

SKIP can also make contacts to help offer advice on vocational training within the community. We will continue to keep the children engaged in the activities we have encouraged them to participate in. These activities are designed to improve the children’s quality of life. The activities stimulate the children’s ability to try new ideas and formulate new ones. Daily evaluations will be carried out by the volunteers, and we will have regular meetings with CoDeC to check our progress. The children and their families will also have an opportunity to feedback and amend the project.

What are our goals?

The main goal for SKIP Newcastle goals is to set up a sustainable project in Cambodia, with many links within the community.

In order to achieve this, the focus of the project is on Primary Health Care and English language Teaching to educate kids and students in rural area, based in Chheu Teal Commune, Sandan District, Kampong Thom Province.

Further research will continue this summer to look into developing these themes for wider audiences, as well as reflecting on how our input has met the needs of the community, allowing us to adjust where necessary.

Another aim is to try to forge links with the local health centres over the summer to help with education and establish whether they would be interested in continuing this education for us making the project more sustainable and try to use previous research to target relevant health problems.

How do we raise money?

Last year we have had many successful fundraising events including:

• cake sales
• film showings
• curry and quiz night.

This year there is more planned, including more pub quizzes, Cambodia night, bucket collections and bag packing and more. Watch out for these being publicised and come along to help fundraise!

Contact us

For more information about SKIP Newcastle or our project in Cambodia please contact us at skipnewcastle@googlemail.com