NEWS

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Girls Speak Out Sunday Workshop

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COSECAM Organized Girls Speak Out Workshop

COSECAM Launched Its New Project

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COSECAM conducted Organizational Management Training Program

COSECAM organized "Girls Speak Out" workshop

COSECAM joined the Rural Trade Fair in Kampong Cham Provincial Town

COSECAM conducted a "Girls Speak Out" wrokshop on 28th November 2007

Vocational Training Makes Life Better After Reintegration

One year ago, Sina endured great hardship as a result of serious physical and mental abuse from her father who repeatedly committed acts of domestic violence against all people in the family.

Her mother died in mid 2008 as a result and her father was later arrested and jailed for one year for committing the domestic violence.

Today Sina, who is now 18 and lives with her father, one younger brother and an older sister in Kampot province, has become the family’s breadwinner after receiving vocational training at the Good Day Centre (GDC) run by the Healthcare Centre for Children (HCC). This organisation is a member of the COSECAM coalition and is also supported by the European Union through COSECAM’s CETHCam project.

Sina said her father, a former construction worker, had been a drunkard and gambler and that because of his behaviour she had suffered mentally and now has physical problems with her internal organs. She also said that her father’s violence had caused the death of her mother.

“Domestic violence has made me too scared to sleep at home and feel ashamed,” she said.

“My father destroyed our property and beat my mother until she died. As a result of his violence, we lost our mother and we received very little education.”

Following the death of her mother, Sina was sent to the Good Day Centre in early 2009 so that she could receive vocational training and start a new better life for her and her two unmarried siblings.

Sina said while she was at the centre she received training in hairdressing, medical check-ups, informal education, life skills, three meals a day, safe accommodation and other basic support.

“When I first arrived I was scared, but after a week or so I became happy because I was learning to be a hairdresser. I have wanted to be a hairdresser since I was young,” she said.

Six months after staying at the centre, Sina was reintegrated back into her community and was provided with hairdressing equipment to start her dream career as a hairdresser.

“HCC worked with the Cambodian Red Cross to provide me with some money to buy better hairdressing equipment and to open a small salon at home,” Sina said.

Today, from her skill, she could earn between 8,000 and 10,000 riel (USD$2 – 2.5) a day to support her family.

Sina has paid gratitude to HCC, its centre and the girls who stayed with her as well as the donor that provided her with support and assistance and helped change her life.

“Whilst I was at the GDC I received good care from the teachers and the other girls who provided me with the opportunity to learn a new skill," she said.

Meanwhile, her father has been released from prison and is no longer violent because he has stopped drinking and gambling.

“We are now all able to live happily together which we were never able to do before,” Sina said.

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