Vocational Training
Vocational Training
(as of
May, 2005)
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Peng Sophea and Sem Hung, graduates of TSF's sewing program, make gorgeous bags. |
About twenty adolescents have been sponsored by TSF for training in a skill they can use to earn their living. So far we have 16 graduates of a four month sewing program. 14 graduates now have supervisory jobs in the garment industry. In 2005, a new building was built to be a sewing school for a dozen girls a year and house a local shop where some graduates will continue to work. A young man who finished computer and accounting training now works at the Airport, and others graduated from TSF sponsored motor bike repair school.
January, 2003 Report
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| The graduates of the sewing program were hired to make school uniforms for 47 indigent farm children who are being enrolled in the public school for the first time. Most public schools do not allow attendance unless the child has a uniform. |
The
graduates of our first three-month course now
make clothes for local villagers
at a shop below our vocational classroom. Some graduates are also now employed
making school uniforms for the 200 poor children of the village who had nothing
to wear to school. The schoolchildren receiving their first real uniforms are
thrilled, the sewing graduates are happy with steady pay, and TSF is pleased that
people-helping-people is real in this village.
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TSF is really keen about these projects that involve Cambodians helping Cambodians. By funding the sewing project, these young women have a marketable skill. They are now able to earn money to support themselves and their families.
This first group of sewing trainees is now self-supporting, and as agreed, we will give each girl her treadle sewing machine six months after graduation if she is continuing to support herself through her sewing. The girls’ discussions about health, family planning, and self-esteem continue with Dr. Ly, and the strength of the group has raised the young women’s respect by the whole community.
April, 2001 Report
For five days a week, eight girls gather in a rented house across the street from Roteang Orphanage where they are part of an intensive, three-month sewing and life-skills course run by The Sharing Foundation. A Phnom Penh sewing instructor teaches the vocational aspect of the course, preparing the girls to either start a home-based business or gain a higher-paying factory job upon completion. Each girl who successfully finishes the course will be presented with one of the new, treadle sewing machines we purchased for the program. In addition, Dr. Ly Srey Vyna, the orphanage's medical director, and her husband, Dr. Om Kim Sir, the foundation's village liaison and supervisor of the program, will provide training in first-aid, family planning, basic health and home hygiene, all skills essential for running households of their own.
The program began in April, 2001 and the girls are all grateful for the training and excited at the prospect of mastering the skills. More young women in the area, even outside the immediate village, are already hoping for one of the slots in future three-month courses. At this point we're expecting to run at least one more cycle of the program, though its high cost - $4,700 per cycle - may force us to limit its future.