Conference and field visit

Last week I went to Siem Reap for a 4 day conference organised by ACR (Australian Catholic Relief), which funds one of CoDeC’s programmes. Attendees included representatives from each of the six Cambodian NGOs which ACR supports. CoDeC staff reviewed last year’s Community Credit / Savings Groups Project, and signed a contract for next year. As usual, although I listened intently to the discussions, I only managed to catch the odd word and I did not understand about 80% of what was said!
The Director of ACR, Sokhany, is an impressive woman, having previously been nominated for a Nobel Peace prize, and she sets high professional standards for the NGOs to achieve. For some reason she has taken me under her wing; in the group photo she is sitting on my lap!
On the final day of the conference, we went on a field visit to observe the work of one of the other NGOs. In this picture, all these healthy-looking people have been diagnosed as HIV-positive. We talked to them about how the NGO helps them to have medical care, counselling, support, training, money and food. We observed a World Food Programme lorry delivering food to the local monastery for distribution by the monks. Each person diagnosed with HIV or AIDS is given a card which entitles them to a weekly allocation of rice, cooking oil and salt. I found the visit quite disturbing, but I was very pleased to see that these vulnerable people are getting such good support and that the food aid is being honestly administered.