Impoverished Parents Learn New Skills

Lida and her young children live in one of the many poor areas in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Her husband died of an AIDS-related illness and she is HIV positive. Suffering from depression and with no job skills, Lida relied on neighbors and on the money her children got from begging or selling scavenged scrap materials to survive.

But Lida’s circumstances have brightened because of the training and support she received to generate her own income through a project founded by EDC's Health and Human Development division and Mith Samlanh, a local non-governmental organization in Cambodia. As a result of her participation in this project, Lida is now able to support her family and afford her children’s education.

The project focuses on addressing the needs of HIV affected families living on the streets and in poor communities in Phnom Penh. Many children end up begging or in the sex industry to support their families, instead of going to school. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia—25% of the population lives below the national poverty line.

“Social and economic factors, such as poverty, can influence health,” say Angela Chen, the regional director in Asia for EDC's Health and Human Development division. “So we focus on mitigating these factors, particularly among people in vulnerable conditions, like Lida and her children.”

To effectively deal with the health and education needs of these street children means assisting their parents with generating an income. So together, EDC and Mith Samlanh started a project to train parents in textiles and basic business to help them develop the skills they need to become financially self-reliant.

Project participants work out of their own home, which makes it easier for them if they are sick or have no child care. Participants are also clustered together to provide each other with encouragement and advice. There is only one requirement—parents must make a formal agreement to send their children to school.

Lida was reluctant to participate at first. It took several months of encouragement before she felt she could do something for herself and her children. But when she saw how much her neighbors were beginning to earn from selling products they made at home, Lida finally decided to attend a training to learn how to sew.

Now, Lida earns $30 per week making and selling hand-made bags out of recycled newspapers. She paid off her debts to neighbors which has improved her relationships with them. Her home-based business also provided her with the capital to increase her earnings by starting another income generating activity—drying and selling fish. Without the training and support she received, Lida admits that she never would have had the motivation to do this. It has also changed her children’s lives.

“What is best is that all my children are off the street and attending school,” she says.

In 2008, 25 families participated in this home-based production project, each earning an average of $80 - $120 per month. Mothers, like Lida, affected by HIV have been able to sell their products in Mith Samlanh’s shop to tourists. Proceeds from the shop are reinvested in future projects.