Ending trafficking before it begins in Cambodia

Dear friends & Partners,

I always love being able to share wonderful sories of empowerment, growth and determination of the girls we have the pleasure of working with at AusCam. I am always so proud of their achievements so it is wonderful to be able to share with you also as our friends and donors so you can also be excited about their achievements.

Our Girls Empowerment & Mentoring Clubs (GEM ) has been a part of AusCam since 2015 and were established in local Government schools as a platform to empower and equip adolescent girls to lead their own groups where they can learn, share and interact through peer to peer support so that they can be better developed to help themselves and contribute to society. The Clubs act as a support system for girls to come together and discuss various topics and challenges they face at school or home and also encourage the leaders to pursue a form of community service to develop their skills while helping others at the same time. The Clubs encourage skill development including leadership skills, time management and self-confidence while also focusing on topics that are typically void in society such as gender-related issues, menstrual health, general health and mental health.

Girl Club #4 is led by three of our senior girls who have been with AusCam for several years. Together they act as role models for the younger club members at their school demonstrating how they too can make a difference in society. 

The Club leader is 20 year old Sophea who aims to pursue social work as a future career. She is assisted by sub leader, Suyeng also 20 years old, who hopes to become a dentist and acting as finance manager is 20 year old Sokea, an aspiring accountant. Together they hold regular meetings and organise different group activities for the 13 members.

Upon organising a consultation in a slum area located nearby a local landfill, the Girl Club leadership team witnessed a high number of children suffering from avoidable illnesses and infections. Thereby realising a primary issue in this area was a lack of knowledge on basic hygiene practices.In order to understand why this is such a pressing issue in the area, the team conducted thorough research speaking with various members of the community to conclude that poverty and a lack of education to be the primary factors of poor hygiene. For instance, parents are working long days trying to earn enough money to support their families therefore, sacrificing the time to take proper care of their children and teach them basic life skills.

Once the Club leaders had completed their research they began to think about how to address this issue which required further research in their spare time which was made more challenging with limited access to computers and the internet. However, the girls managed to produce a detailed proposal with a problem statement and budget submitting it to the AusCam Girls Club Mentor for approval of funding and general support. The leaders also took it upon themselves to meet with district authorities to gain permission in running this type of seminar in the selected community.

Although Sophea, Suyeng and Sokea were nervous before the seminar they managed to engage the group of 34 children throughout the entire session. Suyeng said, “Before this, I had no experience of public speaking but I found it came naturally to me even though I was originally afraid to lead a group discussion.” The girls spoke about hand washing before eating, regularly bathing, cutting their nails and brushing their teeth.

Half way through the session, the girls club leaders found parents of the children were also joining the seminar and listening intently to the information being shared by them. Following the seminar, the girls received strong positive feedback from everyone in attendance especially from AusCam staff members who came prepared to assist the girls but ended up only observing.

After the success of implementing this project organised entirely by the Girl Club, the leader Sophea stated, “We have many more ideas we would like to carry out in the future but for now we must focus on our studies with our final year 12 exams approaching shortly”.

How proud we are of them. They are the future women leaders of Cambodia.