Cambodian Adventure

 

Over the next couple of weeks it transpired that I would often have to think on my feet to draw from my past work, education and life experience to tackle new and varied challenges every day of my placement.

 

This included, building rapport quickly with members of the CVD team, communication with various stakeholders, reviewing systems and procedures, report writing, training, teaching, interviewing, proposal writing & presentation, poster creation, various correspondence with foreign embassies & International donors based in Cambodia, attendance at NGO events....and of course finding time to make lots of new friends over tasty Khmer cuisine!

 

I was welcomed by lots of cheerful faces at CVD, a trait that seems to be widespread throughout Cambodia...It was clear from the start that the small team at CVD was looking forward to getting additional support and expertise. Sarath and Kosal, the director and manager of CVD, gave me a tour of the office and premises at CVD, which includes a language school & skills training centre, and garment factory for disabled young adults...

 

I had researched CVD in the run up to the placement which came in handy as before I knew it I was assisting Sarath with the completion of CVD’s response to their latest audit management report. It was critical for the report to be completed accurately and promptly given a key donor was awaiting the response...the report was completed and sent by the end of the day easing the pressure on CVD by meeting their donor deadline

 

There was also time for a quick jaunt around Battambang and lunch at a nearby restaurant to complete my 1^st day orientation.

 

 

Having quickly built up a rapport with the CVD management team it was time to dig a deeper into the key issues facing CVD and to find out more about how CVD operate. The AFiD questionnaire provided a good starting point to get an insight into everything from long term strategy to the workings of systems and procedures. This information would be the source of planning my time during the placement.

 

The key issue facing CVD related to long term donor funding so I spend some time with Sarath looking at past projects to assess strengths/areas of expertise and drafting proposals that could be used as templates for future proposals.

 

After tackling some IT issues, in the afternoon I was asked to say “hello” to some of the 700 students from disadvantaged families being taught English at CVD. Having never taught anything in my life a quick “hello” turned into almost 3 hours of impromptu teaching! There was alot of Q&A with my favorite off beat questions being; how do I get a nose like yours and have you ever met Angelina Jolie before?! It seemed I made a good impression as further requests from other teacher to have me attend more lessons soon flooded in....I obliged by trying to get to the lessons as often as I could during my time at CVD, something I found to be great fun.

 

 

By now I had swapped the tuk-tuk for a morning walk and was greeted by lots of inquisitive glances and lots of smiling hellos from locals on their way to work...my placement also seemed to grab the interest of other westerners enjoying their holidays in Cambodia.

 

Following from the questionnaire I concentrated my time on providing some basic training to CVD’s new accountant, mainly on the procurement system and report generation. This also involved checking the integrity of donor report templates and updating them in excel to make the preparation a smoother process going forward. The afternoon allowed some more time in the English lessons...