Day of Hope for Cambodian Youth

The youth of Cambodia are in danger! Global and local influences are dramatically changing the landscape of their country. Unlike in the past, Cambodian youth no longer have the traditional community and family safety nets to protect them from some of the more insidious influences of the West. With the rapid increase in labor based migration, gender-based violence, child labor, drug abuse, human trafficking and other exploitation, rural youth are left to contend with increasingly high risk circumstances. And while the Government of Cambodia has been working for the last three decades to rebuild the infrastructure of the country after the devastations of war, medical personnel and teachers continue to struggle to serve and equip young people with the limited skills and resources at their disposal. The bottom line is that immediate action is needed to protect the youth of today.

In answer to this crisis, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), in partnership with Management Sciences for Health (MSH), launched Turn Up the Volume: Advocacy for Reproductive Health – Leadership at All Levels on January 20, 2009 at the Phnom Penh Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Secretary of State Representatives from the Cambodian Ministries of Health, Women’s Affairs and Education, Youth and Sport officiated during the workshop while Ms. Sylvia Vriesendorp, Senior Organization Development Specialist of Management Sciences for Health facilitated. The aim of the workshop was to align national level stakeholders through the creation of a shared vision and to introduce the Leadership Development Program (LDP) which is the primary strategy of the project – which will work with 13 Health Centers and 208 youth advocates in the Kompong Cham Province.

“A youth is like a bamboo shoot,” H.E. Tann Vouch Chheng Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Health stated. “In the future these young people are going to replace the old people and take the lead. We need to care for them and help them to become good bamboo.” Dr. Naomi Miller of ADRA International shared that ADRA first utilized the Leadership Development Program over 2 years ago in Nepal, where they experienced a great deal of success. In reference to the Cambodia Turn Up the Volume launch, she stated, “we are especially interested in this project because not only will it be applied at the health centers, but it will also be applied to the youth of the community which is a new application for the Leadership Development Program. We will be watching it closely.” Stay tuned…

“Turn Up the Volume: Advocacy for Reproductive Health” is implement by ADRA Cambodia in partnership with the Cambodian Government and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development, Management and Sciences for Health, and ADRA International. Author: Satha Sin, ADRA Cambodia.