At Australian Yearly Meeting, Fleur Bailey reflected on how QSA’s country partners are responding to global instability, conflict and rising fuel and fertiliser costs due the Ukraine Russian war as well as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Fleur has worked with Khmer Community Development (KCD) in Cambodia for six years and recently returned from a monitoring visit.

KCD is a grassroots Cambodian organisation established in 2002. Based in Phnom Penh, it has worked since 2006 in Kandal Province, which extends towards the Mekong River and Vietnamese border. QSA has partnered with KCD since 2010.

Peacebuilding underpins KCD’s vision, planning and community development programs. Three projects are funded by QSA including a community development project that moves between districts and villages in three-year cycles, as well as community peacebuilding initiatives supporting vulnerable people, particularly women.

KCD works in communities with significant ethnic Vietnamese populations, including families who have lived along the Mekong, Tonle Sap and surrounding waterways for generations. Many depend on fishing and fish farming and experience disadvantage and exclusion.

These projects are supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).

Cressida Hall reported on the evaluation funded by the Jan de Voogd Peace Fund

KCD decided to focus on children. Their focus was on building knowledge and understanding to form strong, resilient relationships. They worked with schools, teachers, parents, monks, local authorities, and also with the children themselves. They brought together Khmer, Vietnamese, and Cham Muslim families to talk about the rights of their children.

Practical activities supported this work. KCD established Khmer language classes to reduce language barriers to education and organised child rights workshops, anti-discrimination activities and community dialogues. They also provided school uniforms, bicycles and learning materials. Importantly, KCD maintains a reserve of life jackets that can be issued during the monsoon season so children can travel safely across the lake and river to attend school.

None of these activities on their own may seem extraordinary, but together they have contributed to significant changes within the communities.

The evaluation found significant improvements in children’s education, safety, equality and community relationships. Almost 500 children and young people participated in child rights and anti-discrimination activities. Families responded:

• 86% know where to report child safety concerns.
• 90% said school enrolment was easier
• 76% reported improved school performance.
• 85% said children felt welcomed and treated fairly at school, while around
• 75% believed ethnic Vietnamese children now had the same educational opportunities as Khmer children.
• 54% of enrolments are girls, with school drop-out of girls becoming increasingly rare.
• 72% reporting that children from different ethnic backgrounds now play together more often.

Cressida Hall: In QSA, we’re not trying to solve every problem in the world because we know we can’t. What we’re trying to do is support communities to make their own small but significant changes that over time create something larger. We want to create communities that are safer, fairer, more resilient and more peaceful.