Her Stories

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CONTENTPHOTO STORY: Street foods or nothing [P. 1]FEATURE: No money, no goodies [P. 2]....................................................................................PHOTO STORY: After the darkness [P. 3]FEATURE: Better stay home [P. 4]....................................................................................PHOTO STORY: ‘I’m weak, but strong’ [P. 5]FEATURE: Women can do it [P. 6]...................................................................................PROJECT COLLECTION [PP. 7-8]....................................................................................PHOTO STORY: Weaving the money [P. 9]FEATURE: The women saving group [P. 10]....................................................................................PHOTO STORY: The traditional midwife [P. 11]FEATURE: Toward safe delivery [P. 12]....................................................................................PHOTO STORY: The female communce chief [P. 13]FEATURE: Educate & empower women [P. 14]

DMC, 2012

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OR NOTHINGSTREET

Touch Sat, 29, from Svay Rieng Province, is a second daughter in a big family of eleven members. Since 2000, she has been working in garment factories in the hope to improve her family’s welfare. With her primary salary of 61 USD (244,000 Riels), she normally spends 0.5 USD for each meal because she needs to spend 20 USD for room rental, 10 USD for electricity and water supply. These previous two months she can spare only 13 USD (52,000 Riels) for her parents.

Touch Sat, fired by the Yu Da gar-ment factory because of her terrible health condition, is now working in CTW garment factory. She and other workers usually work from 8 to 12 hours per day. “I go to work from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. I neither cook lunch nor dinner because I have only one hour lunch break. We resume working from 12 p.m to 8 p.m.”

Hundreds of workers buy foods in front of a factory in Prey Tea village. Mr. Chea Mony, President of the Free Trade Union of Workers of Cambodia says foods sold in front of factories are innutritious and unhygienic because those foods are covered with dust swirled from the roads.

At around 11 a.m., the crowd of food vendors in front of CTW factory in Khan Sen Sok ‘s Prey Tea village have their foods ready to serve the workers.

In the year 2012, the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Train-ing urges the factories to build canteens that serve nutri-tious foods with suitable price for workers.

FOODS

oNO MONEY,

PHNOM PENH--Leaving loved ones behind to seek for opportunities that can improve quality of life is couragous yet physically

and emotionally afflictive to many people. Nevertheless, hundred of thousands of provincial residents in Cambodia still choose to migrate to Phnom Penh every year in the hope that jobs in the captial can pay them better than the profit they gain from rice and other agricultural products.

With the booming of textile and ap-parel industries in Cambodia making it the third biggest national income, garment factories have been the top priority for those migrants to look for employment opportunity as the de-mand for workers increases parrallel with the growth of factories.

According to a research by Action-Aid in 2011, it is estimated that there are around 450,000 people working in approximately 500 garment facto-ries in Cambodia. Most of them are female between 15 and 25 years old. The same research also stresses the main issue faced by many garment workers, pointing to heath care as the biggest problem.

In recent years, numerous reports have been made regarding mass fainting and anemia in many garment factories. Dr. Ou Kevanna, Director of National Nutrition Program, Ministry of Health said malnutrition and lack of calories in the food is one of the ma-jor causes weakening workers’ health condition.

“Generally, garments workers spend only 1,000 to 1,500 Riels for each meal, and the food they con-sume, especially junk food, like dry clam or fermented cabbage, cannot provide enough nutrition and calories to orchestrate a whole range of physi-ological functions for the entire work-

ing day,” he said. “They normally buy food from the street and eat wherever possible. This is very unhygienic and can cause severe diseases.”

Dr. Kevanna added that a grown up person needs food consisting of micronutrients with at least 2,000 calories per day; therefore, he or she needs to eat at least 200g of meat per day, green vegetables and right amount of glucose and lipid in sugar or oil.

However, 200g of beef alone would cost 5,000 Riels already. Is it possible for those workers to afford the food with enough “micronutrients”?

Sok Dyna, 29, from Svay Rieng, has worked as a garment worker for 12 years. Dyna said that her health was becoming weaker due to her work and many responsiblities while she barely had enough money to eat and go to hospital.

“I have never had enough food since I came to work in the city, and I always have to work overtime to get more money to support my living and my family,” Dyna said. “With only 61 USD per month, there is no way I can afford to have enough food.”

Just like Dyna, many other garment workers are facing similar problems. They need to pay bills every month for electricity, water, house rental and trasportation. For most workers, from Dyna’s experience, 2,000 Riels (0.5 USD) would be the highest price they can pay for each meal. On top of that, most workers have obligation to send their hard-earned money to those in needs in the province.

“It is hard for me to send money home,”said Touch Sat, another gar-ment worker from Svay Rieng prov-ince. “In two or three months, I can send only about 50,000 Riels (12.5 USD) home to support my parents

and many other siblings.”

Malnutrition is obviously an afflict-ed issue almost impossible to cope with, yet lack of hygience in food is also causing a lot of harms to those workers.

Chea Sophal, National Project Coordinator of International Labour Organization (ILO), said foods on the street without proper packaging can let viruses easily spoil the health of garment workers.

“To solve this problem, we need collaboration from factory owners. Having a canteen in the factory can give workers a proper place to eat and store their food, which indeed can help solve the problem,” he added.

According to the accouncement of Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training on March 07, 2011, a gar-ment worker should be paid on av-erage 80 USD excluding reward bo-nuses, extra food share, and seniority bonus.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hun Sen has recommended the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Traning during the 16th Forum for Private Sector and Government on November 23, 2011 to provide 5 USD extra for healthcare to all garment workers in Cambodia.

Chea Mony, President of Free Trade Union of Workers of Cambodia, said that the original proposal from the union to the goverment was to ask for 20 USD increase in salary for transportation and healthcare, yet the government responded by increasing only 5 USD.

“I’m so glad that the govern-ment decided to give 5 USD extra to the existing salary,” he said, “yet realistically,I don’t think those work-ers can improve their health with that 5 USD.”

NO GOODIES2

BY LANG MESA | ADDITIONAL REPORT BY RITHY CHEATANA AND SUN MESA

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DARKNESS AFTER THE

In 1996, Din Sayon, 30, became a maid victim in Malaysia for six months when she was only 16. “I was exploited, physically abused, banned from going out and connecting to my family. I worked almost 20 hours with only one meal a day,” she said.

Besides buying the products from the old and poor, she also bought them from some

orphan organizations that produce those kinds of stuff. “I try to help people by buying

their products so that they have job to do,” said Sayon.

Currently, Sayon has 12 staff, four of whom are abused maids who experienced working in Malaysia. In the future, she aims at running one small organization to provide job opportu-nity to more poor people, maid victims like her. Sayon said, “if you work in Cambodia just a bit harder than you usually do in here, you will be able to survive easily. You don’t need to go to work in Malaysia.”

After coming back to her homeland, Sayon was working as a maid again in a foreigner’s house, but she was much luckier than last time. Later, with the help from her foreign husband, she was able to open a new silk shop called Sayon Silkworks Cambodia. The success of the first silkwork shop in Phnom Penh allowed her to give a birth to another silkwork shop in Siem Reap province called “Silk Lounge Shop”.

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B E T T E R S T A Y

PHNOM PENH--“Cambodia is a very good place for people to work and earn, so don’t leave to work abroad; otherwise, you will

get trouble like me,” a former Cam-bodian maid working in Malaysia, Din Sayon, says. “I will never go to work as a maid in Malaysia again.”

Dressing like a Westerner, Sayon, 30, is from a family with two sons and four daughters in Prey Veng Province. Now she is the owner of Sayon Silk-works Cambodia shop located behind the Royal Palace, and she has been running the silk shop for seven years. This success of running this silk-work shop allowed her to recently branched out another silk-work shop called Silk Lounge in Siem Reap province.

The two shops have employed many poor and jobless people, espe-cially those who used to experience hardship like her in the last 15 years. Some of them are abused maids working in Malaysia.

She had bad experience work-ing as a maid in Malaysia since 1996. only 6 months in Malaysia, she said it was like forever to her.

“I became a slave for a Malaysian family. My life was meaningless and I wanted to die because I was very ex-hausted with a huge amount of work-load,” she says, adding that she had to be responsible for all of the works. In a huge villa, she had to clean two or three cars, do laundry, prepare rooms, take care of children, look af-ter pets like dogs, cook foods, do iron-ing, clean everything in the house and even bamboo’s leafs, and cut flowers.

One day, Sayon was detained in a small room without light, foods and drink for three day by the company because she broke expensive prop-erty of her bosses.

After awhile, she switched to be-

come a flyer distributor for the com-pany, but on the course of her work, she got lost and then she met one of her friends whose boss was a lawyer. Then her friend brought her to the lawyer’s house.

“The lawyer helped me to find the Cambodian Embassy, and went to the company to get my passport back, but the company did not agree,” she says. “Three weeks later, I received my passport back and then I moved to Cambodia.”

Sayon could come back to Cam-bodia because she and her family agreed to pay the compensation for the company such as air ticket and a fine for leaving Malaysia prior to the contract expiration. It was 400 USD in total.

Din Chomroeun, 52, Sayon’s fa-ther says, “I felt very disappointed and I was wrong while I agreed to send her to work in Malaysia. It is my bad experience.”

Chomroeun adds, “I still plan to send my children to work abroad, but I have to do more research, observe again and again and ask my chil-dren’s ideas before sending them to work abroad.”

In contrast, Sayon says “I don’t want anyone in my family, relatives, friends or other to work abroad be-cause they will be exploited.”

After arriving Cambodia, Sayon worked as a maid for foreigners, who had one silk shop. Because of her good performance, her bosses de-cided to send her to work in their silk shop.

In 2002, Sayon got married to an American guy, who supported her to run a small silk shop called Sayon Silkworks Cambodia. However, in 2009, she got divorced when her daughter was two years old.

“My husband always used verbal and physical violence to me, and he took my daughter away from me,” she says. “I felt hurt and I just filed a com-plaint to the court, but the problem is not yet solved.”

Huy Pichsovann, program officer at the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), an organization help-ing the victims of labor exploitation, says there are several cases happened to Cambodian maids in Malaysia.

“Most of them were deprived of freedom and exploited for their la-bor, and time. Sometimes they got physical or verbal violence. Moreover, some victims were raped and some died of diseases,” he says.

In October 2011 Cambodia gov-ernment has banned Cambodian citi-zens from going to work in Malaysia as maids, following a series of horrific reports of beatings and rapes.

“It is a good sign and also a re-sponsibility of the government to take care of their people. The government should also help create job market for their people,” Pichsovann says.

Sayon says she is very happy since she is able to run her own shops and help the society by providing job to the former maids. “I want to give them opportunities to build up their lives again. I don’t want them to be hopeless.”

She adds that staff is given free food, free accommodation and 40 USD per month as salary.

“I always consider my staff as my relatives or members of my family and I always encourage them to find other good jobs to do. I feel OK to let them out if they think that they have enough ability.”

BY NGO MENGHOURNG ADDITIONAL REPORT BY KHUT SORNNIMUL ANDDARA SAOYUTHHOME

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I’M WEAK, BUTSTRONG

In order to support her poor family, Soy Sothea decided to become a boxer, a job which she can earn more money compared to working as a factory worker. Her passion and strong commitment allow Sothea to become

a well-known female boxer in the nation.

Sothea started her first boxing match 6 months af-ter she was trained in at Odem Key La Boxing club. Until now, she has been on the boxing ring for 11 times already and even won over other female box-ers who have heavier weight than her.

“Sport is not something that girls cannot do,” said Sothea, who used to be lonely and unemployed be-fore she entered the boxing career. She said box-ing makes her happy since she can get a job that fits her passion and interest.

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PHNOM PENH--In a boxing club, Oudeum Keila, where around 20 individuals are being trained hard to im-prove their boxing skills, 21

year-old Soy Sothea with her white T-shirt and black boxing shorts is prac-ticing her punches with two men for her upcoming boxing match.

Sothea possesses the look any woman would ask for – a slim body and rather fair skin. One would find it very appalling that she is currently subject her body to her unconvention-al passion: boxing. “Boxing is my pas-sion and it is my favorite sport though it is regarded as men sport or brutal sport,” says a well-known female box-er, Soy Sothea. “After my first fight, I chose boxing to be my career be-cause I could earn a good amount of money which can support my family’s living condition.”

In Cambodia conventional norms, women are not supposed to work out-side or do any activities that require a lot of energy like men. Women have limited freedom to involve in social activities or participate in men sports. Mainly, they must stick tightly to the traditional rules like managing all household chores and taking care of the family.

However, Soy Sothea, whose live-lihood currently depends on boxing, has complete disregard of the tradi-tional concept about gender roles. She says she is living in the 21st cen-tury and there are changes and devel-opments in society. So she does not care about people’s criticism or con-ventional norm, which prevents wom-en from involving in power sports.

“I just care about my self-interest

and my self-esteem,” she says, add-ing that, “I will keep trying and fight-ing for it; I won’t give it up. I will do what women are not supposed to do because I believe that if men can do it, so can women,” she says.

Before, Sothea’s relatives and neighbors disagreed with her deci-sion. “There are other kinds of jobs that you can do. At least, you can work as a garment worker with bet-ter salary than being a female boxer,” Sothea recalls what her neighbors said. Also, her mother did not support her decision because she thought it was too dangerous for women to fight. However, having seen her daughter’s talent and some income that Sothea can make from fighting, her mother decided to let her pursue this career.

“I tried to stop her from choosing this career because I was afraid that she might get hurt both mentally and physically. Then, I tried to persuade her to work in the garment factory, but she was stubborn and didn’t follow my advice,” says 61 year-old Pum Sov, cooking porridge in a small renting room near Oudeum Keila Club.

She adds that her daughter tried to explain her that fighting would not harm or get her into danger. Then her mother just accepted that and allowed her to pursue what she wants.

When Sothea fought for the first time in the boxing ring, Pum Sov ac-companied her and went to encour-age her daughter at the stage. She says, at that time, she felt anxious and nervous during the fight. She was worried very much about her daugh-ter and she feared that her daughter might get hurt.

“I could not open my eyes to see her fighting. I didn’t know what to do beside shedding my tears and sobbing , and I kept praying for my daughter,” says Pum Sov, adding that she heard her daughter moaning that night after the fighting. That was prob-ably because she got hurt during the match.

Pum Sov has always worried that in the near future Sothea may get some health problems. “However, boxing makes my daughter value her-self in her family, neighborhood, and society,” she justifies.

According to Soy Sokhom, Oude-um Keila boxing coach, it is very hard to get women to take up boxing with-out their willingness. Some women are passionately interested in boxing, but their parents do not allow them to do it; therefore, they have to give up.

“Unless they endure to fight for their interest, they can’t really involve in sport,” says Soy Sokhom, “but Sothea is different. She has never cared about what others or even her mother says.”

Nowadays, the number of women involving in sports such as boxing, soccer, baseball, taekwondo, judo, and wrestling is still low since they are restrained by their family members. Moreover, some women who are play-ing those sports may get their body muscled up and imposing, which is not desirable for Cambodian women.

However, Hun Satya, Doun Penh’s taekwondo club coach, says that it is wrong to think that women who play sports can affect their body shape. In contrast, playing sport will provide them with healthy body.

BY MAK KULEKAADDITIONAL REPORT BY HONG CHANNPHEAKTRA, KOAM TIVEA, AND SUY HEIMKHEMRA

WOMEN I’M WEAK, BUT

CAN DO IT

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Cover ing Women I s sues in CambodiaSix groups of Cambodian journalism students went to six different provinces of Cambodia to portray different aspects of women issues including, but not limited to, women rights, violence, gender inequality, women education, and women

leadership. It aims at examining problems Cambodian women are facing and giving voice to them to project their challenges, to claim their rights, and to acknowledge gender equality.

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Cover ing Women I s sues in CambodiaSix groups of Cambodian journalism students went to six different provinces of Cambodia to portray different aspects of women issues including, but not limited to, women rights, violence, gender inequality, women education, and women

leadership. It aims at examining problems Cambodian women are facing and giving voice to them to project their challenges, to claim their rights, and to acknowledge gender equality.

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SAVINGWEAVING THE

MONEY In Takeo Province’s Somroung district, Kruos village is the only village where the saving groups still exist. The villagers save money altogether and take turn to

borrow that money.

It is December 30, and the villagers are gathering at group leader’s house to collect money for the new month. The group leader (on the right hand side, and in pajama) is registering the members’ name who have given the money, while the cashier is counting the money to put into the box.

Not only do parents save money, but children also form their group. The structure of the group is the same as women saving group, in which there are a leader, a secretary and a cashier. Every end of the month, children members save 1,000 Riels. They hope that when they finish high school, they will have saved enough money to pursue to higher education in Phnom Penh.

Chandal is weaving the thread prepar-ing to make scarfs. She can make two scarfs per day. She sells them in one shop in Phnom Penh with the price of 4 USD per scarf. Thanks to the saved money, she can always have enough money to buy the threat to weave the scarfs, from which she can earn some money to support her family.

She also saves the money for her child. He is 4 years old now. She said, “when he grows up, he will have his own money for education. Thus, he will have a bright future with this bit-by-bit saving money from now on.”

Sim Chandol has been a member since the group was created in 2008. She has borrowed the money three times already, and she said, “I am happy to be part of this saving group. The money I got has helped my family’s condition.”

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SAVINGTAKEO--Right next to a

house with palm- leaf roof, a group of women gath-ers – the one in the front is scribbling on a piece of

paper, while another woman is count-ing the money and keeps it in a big green metal box. The rest are giving out money as if they were doing nor-mal business transaction in the mar-ket. But this is not a marketplace. It is just another day that women in Kruos village, Ro Veang commune, Takeo’s Samrong district, meet up to collect monthly saving money. These are members of the Women Saving Group.

“Women Saving Group” is a group of women who have agreed to col-lect money to save, and take turn to borrow the money when they have financial needs. Every member is re-quired to chip in 6,000 Riels – 5,000 Riels (around 1.5USD) for saving and 1,000 Riels for emergency need in the group – to the group leader at the end of every month.

In return, each member can bor-row up to 200,000 Riels (50 USD) with only 2 percent monthly inter-est rate. The practice is beneficial to all members since the interest is low compared to other loans from micro finance institutes and private individu-als, and all interest money is eventu-ally added back to the saving money. This practice increases the amount of saving whenever a member borrows.

“If we borrow the money from other people or a bank, they get the inter-est, but for the saving group, the in-terest money is still ours,” says Choup Maliny, the group leader. “At the end of every year we calculate the amount of money from the interest, and then the money is divided equally for the members.”

She says the main purpose of the group is to promote the villagers’ living standard and so far it has greatly im-proved the socioeconomic status of all member families.

Deap San, already been saving for 7 months, says she is very happy to

join the group. She has already taken three loans from the group.

“I feel safe saving the money with the group because I can use the mon-ey whenever I need it,” says San add-ing that, “I can use the money to sup-port my son’s study and use it when I want to see the doctor.”

San explains she does not want to save in the bank since she has little money and at the same time, the bank saving process is complicated, even more so for the withdrawal.

“We need to fill in a lot of docu-ments.And when we want to borrow the money from the bank, we need to give them our land title. Unlike the bank, the saving group only requires us to sign a contract,” she says.

Sitting in her grocery shop, 42-year-old Pov Kunthea, who has joined the group for 5 months, says she has never borrowed the money. Even so, she is still happy, and is ready to get benefit from the group.

“I will use the money to expand my shop in the future,” says Kunthea. With a smile, she explains that she has not used the money since she has just joined the group, and she waits till she can get some interests.

“I have never thought of leaving the group because I love them. Not only can it get me involved in the community, but it also makes me have good relationship with other villagers,” Kunthea adds.

Dam Norith, Krous’s village chief, and also a member of the saving group, says he thinks the existence of this group is vital for women in the village to get involved in community development though it is not a part of the government’s work.

“Women also have equal chances and rights to men. I am very happy to have it in my village,” says Norith. He named the saving group as a ‘Defato Community Bank, the bank for better lives and community development.’

The saving group was, in fact, an

18-month pilot project of Pact Cambo-dia Organization, started in 2008 and ended in 2010. The program aimed to encourage and empower women to participate and get involved in com-munity activities and development through saving, leadership, manage-ment and education.

Four saving groups were created, but after the project ended, three of them gradually disappeared due to the lack of support. Only one group in Kruos village, named Rasmey Satrey Khmer (The Light of Khmer Women) with 26 members, keeps its existence owing to the leadership of the group leader. Chuob Maliny, the group leader, says so far there have also been some challenges in running this group.

With her hand under her chin, she says, “Some secretaries or cash-iers of other saving groups stole the money, caused arguments among group members which led to the dis-solving of the group.” She adds that sometimes the borrowers didn’t return the money on time, so the next one could not borrow the money when they needed it.

She says the leaders play a very important role in dealing with the problems and making the group run smoothly.

“To ensure accountability and transparency, in each group there should be one leader, and one sec-retary to facilitate all the processes, and a cashier to keep the money safebox. Only the leader has the key to open the box, so no one can take the money secretly,” says Maliny. She explains that to make the borrowers return the money on time, she has to keep reminding that person at least 2 months in advance.

Besides the Women Saving Group, now there are two more groups cre-ated – Children Saving Group, and Family Saving group. The village chief says, “These saving groups are one way to reduce the poverty and to have solidarity in the village.”

BY NOY KIMHONG | ADDITIONAL REPORT BY TET CHANN AND VENG RACHANA

GROUPTHE WOMEN

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Kampong Phnov is a remote village of Srey Santhor district in Kampong Cham province. Some people over there are not able to access to health center owing to the poor living condi-tions and poor road conditions to health centers. There are a few mid-wives in that village and one of whom is Sim Sam Oeun.

In the past time, she worked as the traditional midwife and peasant, but after that she decided to learn how to compound herbal medicine from her relative since she is getting old and her children moved to Phnom Penh. Moreover, the money from giving birth to the baby is so little. Nowadays, she always goes to other provinces to sell the medicine. However, she still delivers the baby in case of urgent need.

Sam Oeun, 57, is a widow who has two children. She is known as the long-experienced traditional midwife in the village. “No one teaches me. I know it from the spirit. It [spirit] tells me how to help women in labor.”

she said that she has been assist-ing the delivering of more than 300 babies and there has been no death or any risky issue happenned to the mothers and babies so far.

With a folded piece of paper, she is showing a razor that she uses for baby delivering. However, she stopped working as the traditional midwife now since the Health Ministry has forbid-den all traditional midwives across the country in delivering the baby in the last few years.

THE TRADITIONAL

MIDWIFE

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KAMPONG CHAM--An el-derly woman is taking the folded white paper out of her bag. Inside the paper is the razor blade which she

always keeps with her whenever she goes anywhere in case she is asked to deliver the baby in her village.

Living in Kampong Phnov village, a remote area of Srey Santhor dis-trict of Kampong Cham province, Sim Sam Oeun, 57, used to be a well-known traditional midwife in the vil-lage. However, now she rarely uses that razor due to the fact that Minis-try of Health has banned traditional midwives across the country from as-sisting in child birth since the last few years.

Sam Oeun did not learn how to de-liver the baby from her relatives or any medical professionals, but the spirit has guided her to do the delivering since she was 13 years old. However she only started the job when she was 30.

“No one taught me. I know it from the spirit. It told me how to help wom-en in labor,” she says.

However, fatal risk of the babies and mothers during and after the de-livery assisted by untrained midwives is still the concern despite the de-crease in such practice.

Hor Molika, a professional midwife at Prey Romdeng Health Center says delivering the baby by traditional mid-wife runs the highest risk since they do not know how to deal with the pos-sible problems happening during or after the delivery.

“The traditional midwife’s working is still limited. They do not know how to prescribe the medicine to help the women or know what the signal that women are facing dangers in the la-bor is,” she says. “They [mothers] are susceptible to a lot of high risks if they are assisted by traditional midwives.”

She adds that women delivering the baby at the health center are able to gain a lot of benefits for themselves as well as for the baby since the doc-tor will provide them supplementary medicine for their health, get their baby vaccinated and advise them on how to look after the baby health.

However, “The shortage of profes-sional midwife in the remote areas is

still the problem,” she says. People live far away from trained midwives, so they decide to go for traditional midwife close to them.”

“The women still have the idea that delivering the baby by traditional midwife at home is more convenient for them.” Sam Oeun says she has helped deliver more than 300 babies and there has been no death or any fatal issues to the mothers and babies during the delivery so far.

“I know how to deal with all the work related to delivering like when the baby is not in the right position,” she adds.

Regarding hygiene, she says she has her own tools like scissors, wo-ven, razor and she always cleans her hands and sterilizes the scissors be-fore helping deliver the baby.

In 2009, in Kampong Phnov vil-lage, a woman named Suon Cheang nearly lost her life while delivering a baby with a traditional midwife. Ac-cording the record, she was suffer-ing from blood lost. Luckily, a doctor saved her on time.

Maternal mortality rate has de-creased from year to year. In 2011, it decreased to 143 per 100,000 live births which is far lower than 206 in 2010, according to Ministry of Health.

Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia (RHAC) is working on health issue across remote areas in the country. RHAC Team Leader, Soy Pheng, who is working in Srey San-thor district, says the use of traditional midwives in the district has declined to only 10 percent among women since 2008. The fall was result of the pro-hibition of traditional midwife’s service and the availability of health centers. However, he is still concerned with the lack of health centers adjacent to those women, poor living condition and the shortages of information re-lated to health.

“They used to deliver their first baby by traditional midwives and it was safe for them, so they keep us-ing them thanks to the absence of the

problems for now. They also follow each other and sometimes, midwife is their relative,” he says.

According to Soy Pheng, RHAC has built health centers and allowed women to deliver the baby at the cent-ers without payment. His team goes to the field directly and raises aware-ness to people about how to seek for professional midwives at health cent-ers.

Chhay Svang Chea Ath, director of the Cambodian Midwives Association, which operates under the Ministry of Health, says that the ministry does not allow people to use traditional midwives and the midwives must be responsible if problem happens dur-ing the delivery.

“We tell them [traditional midwives] to take the mother to the hospital. The use of traditional midwife is rare now,” says Chhay Svang Chea Ath adding that the ministry has been trying to ex-pand and train midwives in the rural and remote areas and then people will stop using traditional midwives.

However, several cases of tradi-tional child delivery happened since some mothers still needed help from the traditional midwife urgently. Sim Sam Oeun says that the midwives dare not help the women now unless she is presented with urgent need of assistance.

“It was late at night and they were far away from the health center. They implored me. I pitied them, so I had to help them.” However, Sam Oeun says that the woman’s husband and relatives must be responsible in case something bad happens. “If the hus-band guarantees, I will help the wife.”

According to the official from Na-tional Maternity and Child Health Centre, some 85 percent of mothers across the country go to have their health checked and deliver the babies at health centers. People are now highly aware of safe child birth and they are trying to find professional midwives and go to the health center for health checkup.

BY SUN NARINADDITIONAL REPORT BY VORN MAKARA AND SOK LENG

TOWARDSAFE DELIVERY

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THEFEMALE COMMUNE CHIEF

Douch Malin is taking a girl to have her nose checked. Her motorbike is a very important vehicle to send patients to the hospital, no matter how far it is, or what kind of diseases they have. “I helped take HIV/AIDS patients to check their health until other people are afraid of riding my motorbike,” she said, add-ing that, “They discriminate those patients.”

She is overseeing the construction of the new health center. Douch Ma-lin has a lot of achievements. Roads, schools and health centers exist when she holds this position. “The health center is very important to pregnant women. I used to give birth to five chil-dren. I know what hardship women face when there is no health center. My goal is that I want women to give birth to their children safely.”

People in Yang village always ap-proach Douch Malin for advice or suggestion when they have problems or disputes. She can help those peo-ple effectively since peaceful or legal solution and negotiation are her priori-ties.

Because of her outstanding achieve-ment and strong commitment, Douch Malin got a chance to join a training about woman empowerment and leadership in Vietnam. “I will use what I have learned to develop my community and promote gender equality in society,” said Malin with warm smile.

With five children, Douch Malin, 50, is now a commune chief of Yang Commune. She said, “I would not be able to work as a Yang commune chief in Puok district, Siem Reap province if my husband was alive. He was so jealous that he always put social pressure on me.”

oE DUCATE & EMPOWER

SIEM REAP--It is a little af-ter 11 o’clock in the morn-ing and the bell in Yang secondary school in Siem Reap starts ringing. Stu-

dents are rushing out of school. Just four years ago, students in this village had to travel nearly 5 km to their class in another secondary school in Sor-sor Sdom commune. Fortunately for the children, Yang secondary school was built in 2008, initiated by a female commune chief, Duch Malin, 50, along with the ‘one commune one second-ary school’ policy of the government.

After the school was built, almost every child in Yang commune can go to school. Malin says, “It helps pro-duce more human resources, and I am very happy whenever the gradu-ates come to ask me to sign on their application forms to apply for jobs or scholarships.”

Duch Malin is among the increas-ing number of women who are ac-tively involved in social work as well as leading positions. Consequently, women education has been promot-ed.

However, there have been some challenges for women to have oppor-tunities to pursue higher education. Those include the lack of universities in provinces, parents’ perception of women education, and poverty.

Prum Bopha, 36, a director of Ru-ral Aid Organization, has tried very hard to earn a living and afford her own study as her parents are fam-ers and their living condition was very poor. She graduated in 2006 with a law major.

Bopha says that she doesn’t agree with old Khmer concept that ‘women cannot work outside homes and they should not go to school because no

matter how high their education is, they will have to get married and look after the children at home.

“When women are educated, they not only can help themselves, but also their family and the society; they can have their positions in the govern-ment, NGOs or companies,” says Bo-pha.

However, according to 2009-2010 report of the Department of General Secondary Education for Scholar-ship Student in secondary school, the number of female students enrolled decreases from 28,837 to 25,059.

“When female students study at secondary and high school, they are at the age of finding jobs to support their family’s living condition. So most of them drop out of school and work in garment factories or migrate to the city,” says Ung Chanthida, planning vice chief at the Department of Gen-eral Secondary Education.

Lack of school and university in their local community is also the main factor contributes to the decrease number of students. Such provinces as Mondulkiri, Pailen, Keb, Udor Me-anchey, Preah Vihear are good ex-amples since there is no university, neither public nor private, according to Ros Chan Sophea, policy and cur-riculum development vice chief office at Department of Higher Education.

“Parents are worried about the chil-dren’s living or security if they study far from home. However, the number of schools and universities in the city and provinces has been increasing remarkably including private ones,” says Sophea.

The number of female students from 2010-2011 is increasing from 420, 410 to 420,930 in the whole coun-

try. Among those, female students in capital city increase from 113,484 to 114,025, while the number of female students in provinces decreases from 306, 926 to 306,905 according to Ed-ucation Statistics and Indicator.

Sophea adds that because of the availability of study hours of private universities, women have alternatives to choose study time shifts and are able to work at the same time.

“Parents also understand the im-portance of sending their daughters to school. Unlike before, they just prior-itize learning opportunity for their sons in case they can afford to send only few children,” says Sophea.

Every academic year, Cambodian government grants 15 percent prior-ity scholarship to female students to encourage and give more chance to them to pursue higher education.

Although there are some strat-egies or plans to promote women education, low access of women to education has persisted. The 2008 Cambodian National Census shows that nearly 90 percent of Cambodian male adult are literate, but less than 70 percent of female adults are liter-ate.

The gap between male and female in education is still wide. This discour-ages women to initiate and participate in decision making, workforce and so-cial development.

As Bopha used to be looked down by her neighbors who do not give val-ue to the education, she recommends that women and men get equal right to be able to go to study, while she believes that women can work even better than men do.”

BY LAY RATTANAADDITIONAL REPORT BY LY YOU Y AND KIM SAMATH

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WOMEN

oDEPARTMENT OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION

ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF PHNOM PENHRussian Blvd., Phnom Penh, 12156

Tel / Fax: (+855) 23 884408 | [email protected] www.dmc-cci.edu.kh | www.dmcpost.com

WORDS FROM REPORTERS:

We are delighted that this paper and the short documentaries were finally and professionally produced. This multimedia production aims at por-traying and disseminating information about women issues in Cambodia to the public. Women in Cambodia still face many problems such as abus-es, gender inequality, education and empowerment, and gender-based

violence although many NGOs and the government have been working to promote equal rights between men and women. After producing this pro-duction, we have in-depth understand-ing about women issues, on one hand, and our multimedia journalism skills are broadened, on the other hand. We believe that audiences who read and watch this production can gain more

awareness and understanding about the issue. Sincerely, we would like to express our thanks to Mr. Ung Bun Y for his helpful instruction and supervi-sion, which plays a very essential role in achieving this final project. Moreo-ver, we are grateful to ActionAid Cam-bodia for the financial support. Last but not least, we are also thankful to the DMC, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, GIZ and all people involved in the project.

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

This paper was produced by the Batch Eight students of the Department of Media and Communication (DMC) of the Royal Univer-sity of Phnom Penh as part of their Multime-dia Journalism class. The DMC is financially supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Six groups of students went to six differ-ent provinces to portray different aspects of women issues including, but not limited to, women rights, violence, gender inequality, women education, and women leadership. Then they produced six multimedia news packages including mini-documentaries,

feature stories and photo stories. This pa-per which includes feature stories and photo stories is a supplement to the mini-docu-mentaries which are featured on the DVD.

The aim of this production is to examine problems Cambodian women are facing and to give voice to them to project their chal-lenges, to claim their rights, and to acknowl-edge gender equality.

This project was produced with the financial assistance from ActionAid Cambodia. The views expressed herein are those of the pro-ducers and therefore in no way reflect the official opinion of ActionAid Cambodia.

Instructor/Supervisor:Ung Bun Y

Design and Layout:Tith Chandara

Editor:Ung Bun Y

Writers & Photographers:Dara Saoyuth, Hong Channpheaktra, Khut Sornnimul, Kim Samath, Koam Tivea, Lang Mesa, Lay Rattana, Ly You Y, Mak Kuleka, Ngo Menghourng, Noy Kimhong, Sok Leng, Sun Mesa, Sun Narin, Suy Heimkhemra, Tet Chann, Veng Rachana, Vorn Makara & Rithy Cheatana

Proofreader:Meas Raksmey

Photo Editor: Tith Chandara

Cover Photo:Suy Heimkhemra