First day was ok. I'm so lucky that it is only
about 3-5 minutes walk from my guesthouse. Day starts at 7.30am and finishes at 5pm with
lunch between 12 and 2pm. I was very nervous at the start as it always is, like starting first day of work. But program manager Sopheak is very nice. He introduced me to everyone in the office. All ladies, he is the only male of the organisation. He is hoping that I can help improve his and staff member's English.
Staff here are really nice, especially all the women I am working with.
It is an Non Government Organisation (NGO) that aims to empower women
through giving them opportunities to increase their income through
projects such as fish farms and rice growing projects. It also works in
educating them about their rights, increase the presence of
women in leadership positions in the community, assist those
experiencing domestic violence in fighting for their rights and
accessing legal help. Banteay Srei offer this help also in the area of
land ownership too.
So far I have been given the task of editing a
bi-annual report for the organisation. The written English is not so
good, so I have been working through the document to edit it. Later in the afternoon, I attended a meeting where a British lady from one of their donor partners came to ask some questions about doing a possible international media story about the effect of tourism on women and their livelihoods in Siem Reap. It was extremely interesting. The program manager offered me the opportunity to accompany one of the girls on a project village visit tomorrow. He would like me to take some photos of the project activities there and to possibly write up a case study to tell a story so it can be presented to donors at a donor meeting. It sounds interesting and am quite excited to go.
The ladies here at the office are so warm and friendly. However, there is quite a language barrier. Luckily one of the ladies' English is quite good, which really helps in translating for the others. Even just one person whose English is moderately good really helps.
I really felt for Sopheak though during the meeting with the British lady Sarah from the donor organisation as she was asking questions and he was able to reply but I could feel how hard it was for him to accurately convey his message and meaning with ease. I feel it would be such huge benefit for them to improve their English especially if having to communicate often with Western partner organisations and can see that language barrier is a big challenge for organisations here in Cambodia.
I hope I can help, but not sure where or how to start! I really hope I can... let me see how..
