Provide women and girls education in Cambodia

We hope you’re enjoying your holiday season! We have a story to share with you about a woman called Ty whose life you’ve touched through your contributions to Women’s Resource Center. (Thank you!)

Because there are many more women we still need to reach, though, I first must tell you about this: GlobalGiving has challenged us to raise $3000 by the end of the year, funds critical to continuing our programs in 2015. If do, we are eligible to win up to another $3000 in the Giving Challenge!

This grant is only available if we hit $3000 in the next 2 weeks! We hope you’ll take a moment to renew your commitment to Cambodian women by donating today. Thank you so much for your support.

Your gift goes toward helping Cambodian women create better lives for themselves and their children. One of them has allowed us to share her story with you today. Out of respect for her privacy, let's call her Ty:

Ty came to Women’s Resource Center ready to give up her daughter for adoption. At just three years old, Ty’s daughter is severely disabled in body and mind, and she is mute. Ty doesn’t know what her daughter’s affliction is because she can’t afford a doctor’s visit for a diagnosis. Understandably, Ty arrived overwhelmed and wanting a better life for her daughter. She was unable to find work since her daughter required her attention throughout the day.

After learning from her WRC counselor of the hazards of Cambodian orphanages, Ty quickly decided an orphanage wasn't the place she had hoped for her little girl. She needed love and care, and Ty wanted to be the person to provide it. She told us, "I want to keep her and I want her to be happy and healthy."

Ty’s WRC counselor worked with her to identify her strengths and create a plan for a steady income. Ty is a gifted seamstress and dreamt of working from home sewing while caring for her daughter. We connected her with a local foundation offering small business loans and coached her through the process.

Ty secured her loan and just started her own stall in the market in her town! Ty lives in her market stall as well as works there - she has room for both, and now she has her daughter with her in her care full-time.

What about Ty’s daughter? WRC introduced Ty to a local health organization that now makes house calls to ensure Ty’s daughter’s needs are met. She now is in physiotherapy to help her development. There is no cure for what ails her, but she will have quality care and grow up knowing the feel of her mother’s touch.

Ty’s life was transformed, and it only took 7 weeks (and your help!). Her daughter will have a better life, too, because of you and the community of donors who keep Women’s Resource Center’s doors open.

Thank you so much for making this story possible. If you’re able, please contribute to our Giving Challenge so we have many more success stories to share with you in 2015. For every woman we reach, there are hundreds more in need of an advocate. Please help us reach those women in 2015.

28%. That’s how many Cambodian men agreed with the statement, “There are times when a woman deserves to be beaten” when surveyed by the United Nations.* That’s almost one in three, and that’s just the men who were comfortable admitting it.

Women’s Resource Center is working to change that statistic, and we need your help. We’ve got to reach community leaders and men, too, to change the trajectory of domestic violence. Last week, we kicked off this outreach with our Say “NO” to Violence Against Women workshop for 100 village and commune chiefs, police officers, health workers, and men and women from the community.

Will you help us reach 100 more?

The response to the event was overwhelmingly positive. One police officer even gave us his personal phone number and asked that we call him directly when one of our clients has a domestic violence issue so that he can respond personally. This may be commonplace where you live, but it’s groundbreaking for women living in communities that consider domestic violence normal and even justifiable.

Please donate now and help us raise $1000 before Human Rights Day on 10 December (WRC's 5th birthday) to keep this community outreach going! Each village chief we reach can help dozens or even hundreds of women in his or her community. The impact is HUGE, but we need your help to make it happen! 

As always, THANK YOU for supporting WRC and women in Cambodia.

Links:

• *Source: The Cambodia Daily, 7 February, 2014