Meetings Give Community Members a Voice
We’ve spent a busy fall researching the needs of the community for our next steps in education. We recently held a series of participatory rural assessments, known as PRAs, with four villages around Ballangk. The purpose of these assessments was to gather information from villagers and to brainstorm strategies on how the government, the community and our organization can work together to improve life in the area.
Communit
y members of all ages met with HT’s staff at the local primary schools, with children as young as two playing under stacked desks and grandmothers chatting while chewing betel nut. More than 100 community members participated at each of the day long PRAs. The day began with general introductions before breaking into men and women’s groups focusing on daily life, education and agriculture. In the primary education focus groups, 15 women between the ages of 26 and 65 sat in a circle with HT facilitators to discuss the community’s current issues with government schools. Many problems were discussed, but the two top issues brought up by the groups were 1) the lack of teachers / classroom overcrowding and 2) the need for a secondary school in the commune.
Some parents have asked teachers, who in turn have asked the government, to build a secondary school and hire more teachers, but haven’t been able to make any progress. The teachers and school administrators told us that they felt frustrated and defeated by the lack of support from the government Offices of Education. After years of civil war and upheaval, parents and other community members feel apprehensive asking the government themselves. They told us that even if they overcame their hesitations, no one would listen to them because they have no money and no power. One woman said she felt as if the entire community “had no voice”.
Working within the PRA, however, gave the participants an
opportunity to speak out. While they may be poor, they pledged what they could: in this case, labor, housing and food for new teachers coming into the community and a small monetary donation per family to build a secondary school. With this promise, we have gone forward and are now collaborating with the government, the military and other non-profit organizations in Ballangk and Siem Reap to find funds for a secondary school, hire more teachers for needy schools and send untrained government teachers to teacher training seminars. While the work is not easy or simple, we are making small steps daily to get pledges from government agencies. We hope that, over time, these collaborations will allow the voices of the people of Ballangk to be heard.
