Provide women and girls education in Cambodia

Meet Phalla* who has benefited from the activities and programs offered by the project. Phalla is a young woman who had very limited access to information regarding reproductive health. A concept that was not taught in school nor amongst family and friends. So when Phalla became pregnant she became very concerned about her health, her unborn child's health and how to care for him.

Phalla reached out to Women's Resource Center to share her story and her concerns. The team at WRC were able to reassure Phalla and show her that she was not alone and most importantly that WRC could support her. The team discussed our Health Workshop with Phalla and she became excited at the content wanting to start straight away!

During the workshop sessions, Phalla was able to learn about health and reproduction, family planning, contraception and pre and post natal care. Through her participation in the workshops, Phalla developed a new found confidence in herself and her ability to care for her child. She became excited about raising her child in a healthy way with the knowledge she was learning. She said that attending the workshops during her pregnancy also encouraged her to attend regular doctor appointments each month and to take regular iron pills recommended by the doctor. 

Phalla recently gave birth to a healthy and happy baby boy! Prior to attending the workshop, Phalla said that she felt very scared and uncomfortable to discuss contraception with her husband. Phalla says that she has been able to apply what she has learned in our workshop and shared the knowledge with her husband and other women in her community.

"I am more aware about what family planning is and what contraception methods are available in Cambodia now. And after learning from the sessions at WRC, I feel more comfortable to speak to my husband and discuss contraception and he is very supportive with my idea."

We are so pleased that women in the community are reaching out to WRC and developing the knowledge and confidence that they have learned in our workshops!

We look forward to seeing Phalla's baby boy continue to grow healthily and happily!

*Name has been changed

Meet Sokun (15) who we met in our workshop

In this update, we would like you to introduce you to Sokun (not her real name), a girl we met in on of our workshops recently.

“I am 15 years old. I study at Wat Chork Secondary school in grade 8. Before, I knew almost nothing about the impact of using drugs and alcohol. I never knew the use of drug and alcohol has serious effect on health as well as your family and society .

I was told by school director about the workshop that would be given on drug and alcohol awareness conducted by Women’s Resource Center. I was happy that I could join this workshop, as I feel that the sessions on drugs and alcohol awareness are really good and important for me to understand how to prevent use and abuse drugs and alcohol.

After I had learned these topics, I got more understanding about the impact of drug and alcohol in our body and its effect. The things I learned helped me to reflect that most of the people are not aware of this impact from the use of drug and alcohol especially the young adolescents at my age.

After taking these workshops I have shared this knowledge to my family and friends, because it’s not just the impact to themselves, it is also effect on the family, community and society. I also share to them about how to deny drugs and alcohol or how to deal with peer pressure.

Sokun told us:

“I want to request the teacher to integrate this topics to formal school’s curriculum to provide knowledge and information to students to prevent themselves from drug and alcohol abuse”

At Women’s Resource Center we are always looking for new opportunities to get our message and workshops out there and we are looking forward to giving our workshops at more and more schools in the local communities. To make sure we are able to do that we’ve launched a new fundraising last week. You can read more information or donate here.