Showing posts with label Scholarships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scholarships. Show all posts
I am Konthea, Community Liaison Program Manager at Journeys Within Our Community. I have been working here for two years and learned a lot from this job. To be able to run this program smoothly I have contributed lots of ideas, energy and time. I learned from mistakes and adapted to changes to make the program better. However, to make changes to improve the program I have worked closely with my team of scholarship students.
There are a few points I want to share about them as I recognized they have been improving a lot through this program. One thing they are now able to do is provide half of the training on Home Gardening to the villagers by themselves. So, we do not need to spend money on an external trainer as before. This is quite important for JWOC and especially for themselves. I found they can take the responsibility of the trainings very well including explaining and leading people to practice what they have been taught and also they can deal with questions immediately and confidently. This is something that makes me really proud of them.
The other thing is that my scholarship students’ team is able to communicate with local people and the authorities very well, even without me. This point was a big concern for me before, as they always needed me to be with them and begin the conversation. But now they come back from the field with answers and or results I wanted. At the start of the year we provided a communication workshop which focused on this aspect of their development as I found this is the most important skill needed for the program, especially Community Liaison.
The last point I want to talk about them is they now understand very well about what they are doing. They know how to respond to the requests from beneficiaries, recognize problems and best practices and share it within the team. This point is something very great and it is what I want them to keep doing more and more.
Since they are developing every day, both new and old team members are helpful to this program. They are building trust for me and hope for JWOC. I wish I can help them to improve more in the future.
There are a few points I want to share about them as I recognized they have been improving a lot through this program. One thing they are now able to do is provide half of the training on Home Gardening to the villagers by themselves. So, we do not need to spend money on an external trainer as before. This is quite important for JWOC and especially for themselves. I found they can take the responsibility of the trainings very well including explaining and leading people to practice what they have been taught and also they can deal with questions immediately and confidently. This is something that makes me really proud of them.
The other thing is that my scholarship students’ team is able to communicate with local people and the authorities very well, even without me. This point was a big concern for me before, as they always needed me to be with them and begin the conversation. But now they come back from the field with answers and or results I wanted. At the start of the year we provided a communication workshop which focused on this aspect of their development as I found this is the most important skill needed for the program, especially Community Liaison.
The last point I want to talk about them is they now understand very well about what they are doing. They know how to respond to the requests from beneficiaries, recognize problems and best practices and share it within the team. This point is something very great and it is what I want them to keep doing more and more.
Since they are developing every day, both new and old team members are helpful to this program. They are building trust for me and hope for JWOC. I wish I can help them to improve more in the future. (1).jpg)
Hello! My name is Malin, I’m a 1st year scholarship student at JWOC. I have 3 sisters and I live with two of them. My grandma and my mom they live in Chikreng village to the east of Siem Reap.
I am looking forward to achieving my goals in 2015. For my goal in 2015 I want to work in an organization as a field staff member. I want to work there because I want to know how people in our rural society live so I can learn about what I can do to help them, first I want to understand them so I am able to connect with them better. I really want to work there because I love traveling to the country side of Cambodia, I find the people in the countryside really kind and welcoming and now people living in the city have different lifestyles to the rural population. I want to change my life, I want to experience new situations and environments and working in the field with rural communities is a perfect opportunity for this. I want to study their culture and I also want to share the knowledge with them that I have learned here at JWOC.
At Present, I’m studying at Build Bright University and work as a English teacher at New York International school, full time, but if I am able to find a job working with another organization I will cut my teaching hours down to part time. Teaching is just a small part of my dream; also I want to know one more language after Khmer and English. I told myself in 2015 I would have to learn one more language beside English. Also I am really excited to study harder and harder so I can be a good and proud employee in the Asian community. I want to help Cambodia strive to be a helpful member of the larger Asian community to do this I must try my hardest to be a good citizen.
I will always try my hardest to improve my studying so my dreams can come true, I believe that education is the key; it can lead me to do the right thing and be confident in my decisions. It will give me more opportunities to work. I hope that my fellow students can also study hard and help Cambodia grow.
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It has been such an incredible year at Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC) and we would like to share some of our most beautiful photographs with you. So much happens at JWOC in one year and we have done our best to capture the smiles and hard work that happens in the community.
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Happy Holidays from everyone here at JWOC
Hi, My name is Chhorvy Seng, I am a 4th year scholarship student volunteering in Communications at Journeys Within Our Community, studying Accounting in my final year at Build Bright University. I come from Svay Prei village in Siem Reap and I just started a new job working for Malaysia Airlines. I love volunteering with JWOC , I have made so many great friends and I love having the opportunity to be able to help my country. I have learned and grown so much during my time at JWOC
Why did you want to take part in this bike ride?
It is good exercise!!! but also it is an opportunity for me to represent JWOC and help them to tell people about all the good things we do. JWOC has given me so much help and support over the past 4 years, I wanted to do something to say thank you for this. Riding with the other scholarship students and staff for JWOC will be such a fun opportunity, I hope by doing Race4Change, friends of JWOC around the world will want to support and help us. If I can't donate to JWOC myself, I want to try and inspire others to donate themselves.
Have you ever cycled 30km before, do you think you can do it?
I have never! but I will try my best, it will be such a wonderful experience and it is around the Angkor temples which makes it more special. I am so excited to be part of this.
I have never! but I will try my best, it will be such a wonderful experience and it is around the Angkor temples which makes it more special. I am so excited to be part of this.
How will Race4Change help JWOC?Each of our 4 programs are trying to raise money for parts of their project which are really important. We are trying to raise money for 140 water filters, to continue our art and science classes for one year, fund 15 microloans and provide one whole village with 60 Home gardens. It is a dream of ours to be able to achieve this but if we did, my community would be proud of my hard work.
Kimleang, our 1st year scholarship student tells us about Pchum Ben, Cambodia’s upcoming festival where families pay their respects to deceased relatives. My family always enjoys Pchum Ben; it is one of the best holidays of the year. Before the festival arrives, we always spend time preparing and buying things. Every year, when we see him, my grandfather always tells us the story of Pchum Ben.
Pchum Ben, the ‘ancestor’s festival’, is a Cambodian religious festival celebrated by Buddhists. It is one of the longest festivals in Cambodia, lasting for fifteen days. A Ben is an offering. The first fourteen days are called Kan Ben, where villages take turns making offerings, and the last day is Ben Thom, great offering, where all families go to the pagoda to make an offering. Pchum Ben is celebrated every year at the beginning of the 10th month, Phutrobot, of the Khmer calendar. During the fourteen days of Ken Ben villages take turns bringing food to the temples and pagodas. The last four days of Pchum Ben are public holidays in Cambodia and most Khmer people will visit the province where they were born for family reunions. The fifteenth days, Ben Thom, is the special day when all families bring overflowing baskets of flowers, and children offer food, sticky rice cake and presents to the monks. It is a colorful festival and everyone is dressed in their best clothes, women wear bright colored silk scarves, blouses and dresses. During the festival, special rice offerings are made called ‘Bay Bens’. Bay Bens are balls of sticky rice cooked in coconut milk with various ingredients depending on local customs.
Cambodians celebrate Pchum Ben because they believes that after death they become ghosts whose earthly actions shape their appearance and that they walk the earth at this time. Everyone prays to help their ancestors pass on to a better life. According to Khmer belief, people who do not follow the practices of Pchum Ben will be cursed by angry ancestors. The living relatives ease their sufferings by offering them food. People also make offerings of money, dresses and other items to the monks in the pagoda. The offerings made are shared by the poor and the disabled during Pchum Ben.
I hope that all of you enjoyed learning about Pchum Ben and understand more clearly about Cambodia culture. I wish all of you and your family all the best like my family too.
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My name is Mao Chhoeun. I come from Kampong Svay District, Kampong Thom Province. I have been volunteering in JWOC for around four years with the Clean Water Project and Microfinance Project beginning in October, 2010. I am very happy to join with the team in Clean Water Project and Microfinance Project. The Clean Water Project is a new experience for me.I have been learning many skills from this project, such as how to survey villagers, hygiene training and ceramic filter training. All of these skills are very good for me. The Clean Water Project is a very special project that I really enjoyed joining and I was able to improve my leadership and teamwork within our community.
I have been volunteering with the Clean Water Project for around two years and I changed from Clean Water Project to Microfinance Project. I am a loan officer. I really enjoy working with the Microfinance team. I have been learning many skills from this project such as how to complete loan applications, communication with villagers, and balancing the cash from borrowers and reporting to the Microfinance Project Manager. Part of this is working in-groups, leading and inspiring each other.
I really love all programs at JWOC. All of these programs are very important to share with our community. JWOC has made many opportunities for me, other students and people in community. JWOC is a good organization that has been creating many projects for supporting peoples and students alike. Especially, JWOC has a Scholarship Program for the students in the community that they don’t have enough money to continue their studies at university. I love the slogan of JWOC “See a problem, solve a problem”.
Being part of this community has given me more opportunity than I had in my life before, it is very different now. I got a Scholarship from JWOC; this provides me the information to get to know everything in our community. Understand Cambodian culture and US culture, working in-groups, project training and many other workshops. This program has made me a better person. I really love all the staff at JWOC they are very friendly and they make me happy every time and I really enjoy working with them.
