Regions: Africa   Asia   Latin America


Name of Organization: Women Development Association (WDA)

Country: Cambodia

Project Title: "Reduction of Child Labor Project"

Project Timeframe: May 2005-January 2006

Location of Project: Province of Prey Veng

Budget Amount: $ 9,700

NGO contact and website:
No 69 D0+1, Street 97, Group 31, Village 5
Sangkat Phsa Deum Thkov, Khan Chamcar Mon
Phnom Penh Cambodia
Phone: (855-12) 955-105 / (855-23) 720-807
E-mail: wda@forum.org.kh / 012955105@mobitel.com.kh

Project's Primary Objective: Raise awareness on the importance of education for all children, and to mobilize a wide array of actors in order to improve and expand education infrastructures.

Description of Organization: Women Development Association (WDA) was established in 1994 to respond to many issues that surfaced after the first election in Cambodia in 1993. Its vision is to improve people's freedom and capacity to cope peacefully with their difficulties, combat poverty and make affirmative changes in their lives. The organization has a special focus on women, children, and youth from poor and vulnerable families, aiming to strengthen capacity of community-based structures to achieve long-term development by addressing the following issues:
  • Community organizing
  • Non-formal education and vocational training for children
  • Children's and women's rights and child domestic labor prevention
  • Sanitation, hygiene, clean water and primary health education for poor mothers and community residents
  • Sexual and reproductive health
  • Peace building and conflict resolution
  • Income generation
Description of Project funded by CIRCLE: WDA's CIRCLE project will facilitate strong community, home, and school networks to achieve its objective of increasing community awareness about child labor and the value of education and improving local education systems for at-risk children.

Through awareness-raising activities in schools and communities, promotion and facilitation of at-risk children's access to vocational skills training, mainstreaming child labor issues in school curriculum, mobilization of child teams as peer counselors, special study sessions for in-school at-risk children and the integration of child labor and education issues in community development activities, the project expects the following results:
  • More parents will commit to enrolling their children in school
  • There will be a significant decrease in migration and trafficking cases
  • 120 at-risk children are retained in school
  • 90 children who have dropped out are enrolled back into formal school
  • 18 at-risk children will have access to vocational skills training
  • 228 (total target number) at-risk children complete their educational program
Project Targets (Common Indicators):
Enrollment: 108 children (90 out-of-school and 18 in vocational skills training)
Persistence: 120 in-school children
Transition: children enrolled in program are expected to graduate from formal school/vocational training.
Completion: 228 children