LHA

For those of you wondering what I am doing here, I am working at a grassroots local community organization called Life and Hope Association. It was started in 2005 by the visions of the charismatic head director, Venerable Somnieng. His life story itself is an inspiration, coming from an impoverished background himself. He became a monk to get enough funds to finish high school and eventually he made his way to complete a bachelor’s degree at an American university. Just recently, he completed his intensive Master’s degree at Harvard Kennedy School. In fact, he is the reason that I have decided to work at this organization as I was so touched by his visions. Currently Life and Hope Association runs five programs in which I am assisting in three of them.

 

One of them is Program Advancing Girls Education (PAGE) in which high school aged girls in impoverished areas around Siem Reap are brought in to live at the PAGE house (which was recently newly built by generous donations from Robert Pattinson and the cast of Twilight!) to get a proper education, housing, and food.  This gives them a better chance of getting into a university or vocational school.  My specific tasks are still in discussion but I am most interested in helping providing additional resources and programs for the girls such as health and career counseling. I am also trying to negotiate to spend more actual time with the girls so I can do some mentoring. 

Another is the foreign language school in which underprivileged children and local workers can enhance their skills in English, which is essential in a tourist heavy location like Siem Reap. The school is currently expanding yet the program itself is in process of restructuring in which the volunteers and I are a big part of. So far we’ve been reviewing the English curriculum and setting up classrooms for the new term.

LHA also runs a sewing school in which girls from poor villages are brought over to learn sewing skills as well as basic life skills and English to prepare them for a career in the garment industry. I’m currently assisting teaching English to the girls with another volunteer. In addition, we are now in talks of bringing in guest speakers and forming workshops so the girls will have additional practical life skills when they graduate. 

Although they sound like impressive projects, reality is that unlike many of the established NGOs, LHA is very local and community based hence we are lacking in many areas, namely the structure itself within the organization. To illustrate how disorganized it has been, the volunteers do not get a proper orientation nor have they ever had a volunteers meeting until recently. This is not to say that the organization is ignorant of the volunteers; but because the monks are so involved and occupied with their own projects, volunteers tend to get brushed aside. Unlike many of the NGOs, there is no one that can coordinate the volunteers to establish a core curriculum. As a result volunteers become confused on what their tasks and roles. We have heard many voices from past and current volunteers who had become frustrated with the organization.

Luckily in the recent weeks, a group of strong core volunteers have started to collaborate together. We now have weekly volunteer meetings (every other day in the past week) and I have a strong support of mentor volunteers that heed to my opinions and ideas. It's just been such an amazing teamwork despite of our different ages, specializations, and backgrounds. We are all united under the firm belief that the work we do will bring change to the community. We also all truly believe and support the visions of Ven. Somnieng and LHA and we want to continue to see the organization grow. Having that spirit is pushing us hard and we've been coming up with a storm of ideas in the recent meetings. I am certain that big changes are underway. And because we are a grassroots organization, every effort and improvement counts. I am not sure that I can accomplish everything during my term here but am determined to dedicate my time fully into the organization and community

 

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