Author Archives: Deb

Written by Natalie Deuschle 

The Senhoa field team is evolving! In the past month, we have welcomed our new Country Director, Mida, who has been digesting a TON of information. There is a lot to learn in this dynamic and ever changing field of work.  Mida is doing a great job taking it all in!

As a way to understand each other better as both colleagues and friends, we spent a day engaging in various team building activities. In the morning, we headed over to the Khmer Ceramics Center to learn how to throw clay on the pottery wheel. Pottery making was an appropriate activity for the team, because like clay, we all start off in one form but have the limitless potential to be transformed into whatever we desire.

We started the morning off with ice breakers and introductions.

There was plenty of pottery for artistic inspiration.

Beginning with a big smile!

The clay starts to take shape.

After we put the finishing touches on our pottery pieces, we headed over to the Senhoa office to help our Jewelry Manager organize for a big upcoming collection. A team that beads together, stays together!

This day of bonding and learning truly served as an indicator for the bright future of Senhoa’s growth and evolution.

There are 2 main reasons why Senhoa requires volunteers to work a minimum of 6 months:

1) for the volunteer to make a meaningful impact within the organization

2) for Senhoa to foster warm-hearted humanitarians and help them realize their dreams and potential.

Jennifer Smith answers to both these reasons and is yet another prime example of the value we hold in our volunteers.

This is not an Apple product endorsement (but they are GREAT)

For the past 6 months, Jen has dedicated her heart, time and energy to Senhoa’s projects. Jen dipped her toe in the Lotus House and conducting English classes, but finally found her footing and played to her strengths in our Field Office administration. The importance of admin is constantly undermined in the NGO world (a whole nother story) so to see Jen boost Senhoa into another level of operations…wow. Jen sorted out our whirlpool of meeting notes, calendars, templates and pro-formas and transformed our office into a calm, blue ocean.

Participating in the team Strategic Planning Session

Jen first came to us in the search for something. She nor Senhoa knew what that was. And still, neither of us know what it is… but in the time that we had together, we’re all pretty sure that she’s that much closer to finding it.

Jen with a ‘home’

Thank you for your dedication and hard work, Jen. But most of all, thank you for your company. Your presence has affected all of us in the most pleasant of ways and you will be dearly missed.

All the best with your journey! We are blessed to have been a pit-stop

Bon Voyage!

With Hugs and Kisses from The Field

One component of the Senhoa Life Skills and Jewelry Program is to encourage the students to develop career goals for once they graduate from the program. Inspired by the Basic Budgeting classes that Senhoa’s Accounant, Houy, has been facilitating in the classroom, many of the girls have expressed interest in opening up their own business. Dara, the Lotus House Project Manager, is facilitating supplemental bi-monthly workshops on business management to support these ambitions.

The theme of the first workshop was Customer Care. The main purpose of this lesson was to introduce proper etiquette and behavior when handling customers. Dara explained how businesses are most successful when they are able to maintain a client base by remaining loyal to all customers. Role-playing activities helped them to understand what characteristics are important to have as a shop owner.

Role-playing: A shop seller

The second workshop focused on how to evaluate and record expenses and revenue. They created simple business plans where they designed their own business and thought critically about the expenses it would take to start up. They recorded the quantity and price of raw materials and tools and were surprised to see how quickly the costs added up! They also did simple exercises such as filling out sample receipts and revenue templates which are useful for everyday budgeting as they do their grocery shopping in the local markets.

Dara and Ly Sov introduce basic budgeting techniques

One of the girls’ basic business plan for a sugarcane juice business. In Khmer, it shows the equipment, tools, and cost necessary to start up the business.

Dara plans to continue these weekend workshops based on the girls interests and need and hopes to continue to inspire them to use this knowledge when exiting our program.

Evolution is transpiring in our Jewelry Workshop here in Siem Reap! In May, our Jewelry Program Manager, Linda Lam, was contacted by Sydney Scherr, the Jewelry Design Program Coordinator at Raffles College of Higher Education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia about the possibility working together on  an exciting new project.

As part of the Jewelry Design Program with Raffles, Sydney created a project that would involve her and her students to travel to areas of the world where child endangerment is endemic and teach simple, easily duplicable jewelry techniques to young adults who are at risk of endangerment, trafficking, prostitution, or simply living in desperate poverty. After a lot of research and exploring different countries in Asia, Sydney and her students decided to choose Cambodia as their case study.

The project culminated in a 3-day workshop in which the Raffles design students each developed culturally sensitive designs in order to teach these sustainable jewelry techniques to our service users.  The girls learned a new technique called piercing and they were encouraged to exercise their creativity by coming up with their own product.

We want to thank Sydney and her students for traveling all the way out to Cambodia, donating the tool kits, and teaching our service users such a valuable skill. They are still raving about it and insist to keep on practicing, which we will definitely do. Keep posted for more photos and new designs from the girls!

Sydney introduces the girls to a new jewelry-making technique

Raffles Design students are working hard to create designs for the girls to practice the new technique

Each of the girls who participated in the workshops received a toolkit that was donated by Raffles in order to continue practicing

Houy, Senhoa's Accountant, learns a thing or two from watching a Raffles student advise one of our girls in the jewelry-making process

Check out this cool design!

With April and May’s celebrations of Khmer New Year, International Labor Day, Visakh Bochea Day, the Royal Plowing Festival, and King Norodom Sihamoni’s Bday, Senhoa’s Service Users have been enjoying plenty of time off! That means, Senhoa Staff have been keeping busy designing and preparing for lots of exciting new programs here at the learning center.

After Khmer New Year break, the girls returned to a completely remodeled classroom space with new lockers and a break area. We recognize that it’s important to work in an aesthetically beautiful and organized space so we wanted to create an area where the girls feel comfortable, creative, and inspired.

Getting creative in the classroom!

Every day of the week, the Senhoa Trainees attend a 4-hour Life Skills Program. There are 2 sessions a day: 10am-3pm with an hour-long lunch break and 1pm-5pm. The two sessions overlap at lunch time for a chance to interact with one another. The Life Skills Program includes English and Khmer Literacy classes, lessons on health, hygiene, mind+body awareness, and focuses on each girls’ individual life goals. On Thursday and Friday, the trainees learn Jewelry Theory and work with the Jewelry Program Coordinator, Linda Lam, on creating and designing their own pieces.

Recently, Rockstar Volunteers Jen, Hannah, and Jenifer have been working alongside Outreach Worker Kimang to deliver these lessons in an engaging way.

Jen reviews the alphabet and introduces new vocabulary to the girls in the Beginners English class

The girls practice basic yoga poses which help them to connect their mind, body, and spirit

The sunny classroom encourages concentration and motivation

The Senhoa team is also currently recruiting artistic volunteers to work with the girls in designing murals for the walls and constructing an outdoor yoga studio on the roof of our new building. This space will serve as a tranquil haven for the young women to exercise both their minds and bodies. If you or anyone you know has an eye for design and an imagination that runs wild and happen to be in Cambodia or are interested in spending some time in Cambodia, you can contact Jen at Jennifer@Senhoa.org. We’re so excited about our new space and look forward to continue evolving it into an Eden of Consciousness.

With love,
The Field <3