Introduction

“Drop by drop, to fill the bucket” is a Cambodian proverb meaning that a little work at a time will eventually lead to bigger accomplishments. I felt this was a particularly appropriate quote for this blog which will be an overview of some development work happening in Southeast Asia. As a Master of Nonprofit Management and International Studies student, I have an interest in how NGOs can work to lead a community to success or what work may actually create more challenges for them. NGOs worldwide fill gaps left by the government and the private sector. In developing nations, NGOs are often the only reliable institution to distribute health care, education and other basic needs. However, the weight of responsibility these organizations take on creates pressure for their employees and their donors to continue to provide these amenities, few resources and no end in sight. 

Understanding the pressure that international NGOs are facing, I wanted to highlight some of the work being done while also emphasizing the differences in the NGOs working in Southeast Asia. Whether it be healthcare, education, environmental impacts or clean water, these NGOs are working tirelessly to better the lives of the communities in which they work. For this blog, I want to also examine how involved local people were in the development field. There are many conversations happening within this field about the involvement of “westerner” in the development of other nations. Cultural appropriation, patriarchy, and neocolonialism are just a few concepts that are explored when thinking about how to be approach development work. It is often that one assumes money, resources, and/or education is only coming from the “west”, however, I am interested in the process of how and why locals Asians were active in developing their own communities through working with NGOs. 

This blog will cover multiple NGOs working in Thailand and Cambodia. The information gathered is based on conversations with at least one employee from each NGO and information gathered from their website. Ideally, I spoke to a local employee from each of these organizations. However, barriers emerged such as translation issues, unavailability of local staff or lack thereof. Each post includes information about the organization; including challenges, successes and funding sources. I also asked the employees why they wanted to be part of the organization. I hope for this information will paint a picture of the various types of NGOs and emphasizing the amount of local staff that are dedicated to improving their country “drop by drop”. 

Daughters of Cambodia

This is a  painting done by an employee of DOC

Daughters of Cambodia (DOC) was created by a British psychologist in 2007. She was studying the effects of the sex-industry on young women in Cambodia at the time and wanted to offer an alternative employment option that women could choose instead of working on the street, thus Daughters of Cambodia was born. Nine years later, DOC runs a cafe and a hotel, along with many production businesses. These businesses offer employment to those who have been working in the sex trade as alternatives. Though it was clear in speaking to some of the women working at the cafe that they will never make as much money at these businesses as they did on the street, DOC offers an option for those who choose to leave the sex trade. 

DOC also has expanded to working with male sex workers in a partner program called Sons of Cambodia. They offer many amenities including medical care, counseling and day care to all their employees and made it clear that taking part in any of their programs is voluntary. They are not a shelter and do not require their participants to live outside of their community in order to take advantage of what DOC can offer. They provide education opportunities and creative classes. The photo here is one that an employee painted herself. I have chosen not to picture an employee on this post due to the sensitive nature of this work and to respect their privacy. DOC is also a faith-based organization and offers religious classes based on Christianity to their employees. It was unclear if the people working at DOC’s establishments are required to attend these classes. It was also not obvious if the resources and classes are run and managed by Cambodians or foreigners. 

 DOC works directly with the Cambodian community and is offering an alternative lifestyle to those who do not want to take part in the sex trade any longer. This is particularly important for children who are trafficked or pressured to work on the streets in order to help support their families. DOC cannot provide the same financial compensation that women or men may find as sex workers, but this may not matter to those who are abused and/or mistreated in this line of work. Though DOC’s mission to spread Christianity may not be culturally comparable to this area of Asia, it is important that these people are being given other options for employment. 

Better Factories Cambodia

This is Chea

Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) was created within an agreement with the US and Cambodia. The work with local factories to cut down on unfair labor practices. They currently work with 40 local staff members and have over 48 buyers and 381 factories that partner with BFC. They have expanded the Better Factories model to Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar to help support factory workers. Some of the issues that are at the forefront of their work are forced labor, child labor (defined as between 0 - 15 years old), and freedom of association. 

In 2013, there was a surge of issues around factory labor practices which led to the beginning of BFC. They now go to governments to intervene in factories that have not complied with the outlined regulations. They also often make recommendations to the government on how to handle factories that are accused on these sanctions. However, BFC does not become directly involved. BFC focusing on working directly with government officials to increase their capacity to monitor factories. This explains part of their challenge as an organization, which is the enforcement of laws and regulars within the factories themselves. If they had more support for government to punish people for not complying, their mission may be more attainable. 

Chea, who is the Senior Program Officer and Team Leader in Monitoring, spoke of his own background in human rights work in East Africa. Eventually, he was brought back to Cambodia. He enjoyed engaging with people and he is motivated by his coworkers as they enforce the culture of human rights in labor. His passion for human rights work is inspiring and it is apparent that he and his staff are innovative and excited about changing the status quo of factory work in their country. Though their funding comes from all over the world, including the International Labor Organization, they are working hard on the ground for their fellow countrymen as Cambodians in development. 

Equity Cambodia

This is Sothida

Equitable Cambodia (EC) was created out of the localization of an NGO by Bridges Across Borders Cambodia. However, that branched off to become Equitable Cambodia which is not locally run by Cambodians. They goals as an organization are community organization, rights educations, empowerment, research, and advocacy. With 48 local employees (20 of them are female), EC has been run by Cambodians since 2003. Currently, most of their cases include issues of land grabbing, conducting legal training, and community organization. 

EC working mainly with people and empowering them to stand up for their own rights. This allows them to work in many different areas such as health, food security, and education but also puts them at odds with the local government. EC working with local law students for universities as interns to help develop their skills. Many of the current employees at EC started as interns. Sothida was one of those interns, who know is heading the Community Organization for Housing Rights Program. She said that she wanted to work for ED because she has a passion to practice law in Cambodia. She wanted to help find justice for poor people in her country and how gets the opportunity to promote that law for the people of Cambodia. 

One of the projects that EC has taken on is helping local communities organize against large sugar farmers to prevent land grabbing or educate them in what they may do to fight for their rights at Cambodians. This is dangerous work because of the government system,  but it is clear that each and every one of these employees is passionate and eager about their work to better their own communities. It is inspiring to see a group of Cambodians take charge of their rights and fight for what they want their fugues to look like. Sothida and her team are continuing to add drops to the bucket of Cambodia. 

GERES

This is Bunthoeun

GERES stands for “Groupe Energies Renouvelables, Environnement et Solidarity”. Founded in France in 1976 after the world food crisis, they have been working in Southeast Asia since 1994. Their main focus is biomass energy opportunity worldwide, working with over 200 employees that are both locals and expats. GERES manages about 70 projects globally and has 10 prominent offices. In Southeast Asia, they have an office in both Cambodia and Myanmar. 

As a French organization, GERES is particularly interested in assuring their projects are culturally appropriate. Therefore they not only hire local staff but also implement a “buddy” program, where all foreign employees are accompanied by a local employee. They are very cognisant of the challenges they face as foreigners, which has pushed they to work harder at monitoring their work. They want to ensure that their projects are locally adapted and they continue to compile data to indicate the needs of various areas. 

GERES also work with local governments, providing recommendations and focusing on capacity building. They explained that NGOs in Cambodia have taken on what the government should be doing. GERES has brought the problems and the solutions to the government in order to serve as guides and work toward a sustainable development model. Bunthoeun is GERES Executive Director. He explained that some of their challenges include working with other NGOs because of the competitive nature of NGOs in Cambodia. He also expressed the issues with identifying the correct people in local government to talk to. Many times they felt it was convoluted on who has what power and how they can get things done efficiently. On the ground, he also felt that some of the implementation processes are difficult. This is due to lack of ownership on projects which will prevent them from being sustainable. 

In the future, GERES is looking to working more with industries, doing feasibility studies on food waste as biomass, and the using bamboo to create charcoal. They are also are spending a lot of time and resources with a local stove building company, to create efficient, low-smoke stoves for local communities. This work helps support a local company which is a great example of how GERES is focused on working with local companies and local staff, through their “buddy” program. However, it seems that most of their projects are thought of and outlined by their European staff. 

Trailblazer Foundation

This is Ratanak, pictured with school children in Siem Reap

After multiple trips to Cambodia, founders Chris and Scott Coats decided to move to Siem Reap, Cambodia to dedicate their lives to improving the water quality for local Cambodians. They began Trailblazer Foundation (TF) after seeing that some basic needs were not being met, such as clean water. Their first project was the building of a school but quickly shifted their focus to well digging and water filter installations once they saw they could serve more this way. Now they do branch out to things such as appropriate agriculture projects and micro financing, but it all started with water.  Weekly, they are still installing up to 14 filters in one of the 3 provinces in they work in Cambodia. 

The onsite staff for TF is made up of 12 Cambodians and 1 American. Although the foundations members of TF are all American, they have been intentional of hiring local staff to run their Angkor location. This way they can continue to reach rural communities through local Cambodians who know the culture and NGO landscape. 

Ratanak has been working for Trailblazer for 5 years as the field manager. Here is oversees the many projects that TF Angkor take on. He is responsible for the over 200 volunteers that come to TF to help assemble the water filters for as short as just a day or as long as multiple months. They rely on this volunteer support to ensure enough water filters can go out to the many villages they serve. Ratanak says that he not only enjoyed the work but the compensation allows him to provide for his family. Ratanak along with the other employees at TF Angkor have dedicated individuals that are trying to answer the needs of their community and continually giving back. 

Started by an American couple, TF’s on the ground crew is solely made of Cambodians. They are a passionate group of young people that feel empowered to work with local communities on the group to make their daily lives better. With guidance from their founders, Ratanak, and his crew have autonomy to manage their projects in ways that are fit for the community. With the high intake of volunteers and interns, they also create a space for voluntourism to thrive. The volunteers work for both the benefit of themselves as they experience a new country and also the communities that receive TF’s services. 

Ponheary Ly Foundation

This is Ponheary (right) and Lori (left)

Comprised of two powerful women, the Ponheary Ly Foundation (PLF) is a mix of both “western” and “eastern” philosophy. Ponheary Ly is the founder and mastermind of this NGO. Born in 1962, Ponheary was born into an educated family. She started school, but that was quickly interrupted by the conflict with the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge influence dictated her life until 1979 when Vietnamese military liberated Cambodia. However, Ponheary lost her father and years of education during this time. 

In 1981, she started school again and it was soon after that Ponheary became a primary school teacher. Ponheary worked hard to became a teacher, which included learning how to speak English, French, and Russian. To make ends meet, Ponheary and her siblings also became tour guides. This was when Ponheary became more aware of the problem of child beggars in Cambodia. They are forced to work for money and are robbed the opportunity to go to school. Ponheary saw the problem with this and used the opportunity of being a tour guide to education tourists about the problem. 

Ponheary also started funding children to go to school. In 2001-2005, her and her family helped 200 children afford the uniform to attend schools. It was around this time Ponheary also met Lori on one of her tours. Lori was inspired by Ponheary’s story and mission to allow more children attend school each year. Lori, who was in banking, was able to help Ponheary financially and eventually started the Ponheary Ly Foundation. Lori eventually moved to Siem Reap full time to help Ponheary manage the foundation and now they support nearly 2,800 students. 

PLF works with 5 primary schools and are following their students as they continue to secondary school, high school, and even university. Currently, there are 50 students who are attending a university with the help of PLF, including 1 medical students. 

PLF has no intention of growing. They are aware of their size and the scope of work they can accomplish with their budget of $500,000 USD. They want to continue to fund children through the entire education journey, instead of dropping support after primary or secondary school. Lori discussed the challenge this presents with some of her donors that are more interested in funding young children, but lose interest as they grow older. They also have a social enterprise to manage. PLF is partially supported by a guesthouse in Siem Reap called Seven Candles. This is also where Lori and Ponheary Ly’s family live. With all these moving parts, PLF is growing their staff and donor reach. They want to continue to support children through their education journey, which included providing meals and clean water at school, IT and computer classes and giving them a sense of consistency and peace while expanding their minds.

Started by Cambodians, PLF is an inspirational story. As they grow in size, PLF has hired a multinational staff made up of Cambodians, Americans, and British, just to name a few. With the help of Lori, Ponheary was able to bring her dreams into reality and now manages a large NGO that helps thousands of young students every day.  

Elephant Nature Park

This is Ten

The Elephant Nature Park (ENP) was established in the 1990s to house elephants saved from the tourist or circus industry in Thailand. Located in the north of the country, ENP provides space for the elephants to wander, interact and explore their surroundings without being forced to perform. Co-founded by Lek Chailert, a Thai woman, who has been working in elephant conservation since 1996. 

ENP now also has become a home for other animals including hundreds of start cats and dogs, and a herd of water buffalo. They invite volunteers to come out to ENP for day trips or long-term volunteer opportunities. These volunteers get to work with elephants in multiple capacities and learn about how to care for them and some of their dark pasts. Elephants come to ENP in many ways. Most of the time it required ENP to purchase the elephant for between $2,000 - $10,000 USD from private owners. Many times these elephants have worked for local circuses, have been used to ride by thousands of tourists, used in the illegal logging industry and/or been used in local urban spaces to solicit donations. Sometimes these elephants are injured with broken legs, backs or have been victims of landmines. 

Once ENP receives an elephant, they are medically cared for and then they are given (or sometimes choose) a mahout. Mahouts are people or are paired with elephants. Many times these elephants have grown up with humans and feel very “at home” hear humans. It is important to ENP to keep their level of comfort and security high, therefore having a mahout is necessary for each elephant. This is often a lifelong bond, but maybe the first human bond that the elephant has had that doesn't include abuse. it is clear that each mahout cared deeply about their elephant, and I like to think the elephant feels the same way-way.

Ten was a tour guide for the park. He has been working at the park for almost 5 years and enjoys teaching visitors about the elephants. He is very knowledgeable about the history of elephant abuse in the country and believes strongly in ENPs mission. He explained that most of their funding comes from tourism. Visitors pay to visit the park and get to do things like pet, feed and bathe the elephants. These gentle giants look very comfortable around people but are not put through the physical strain of carrying them or performing for them. 

ENP is a wonderful story of local citizens identifying a wrong within their culture and trying to change by setting an example. Ten said that since ENP opened, other elephant tourist attractions have copied their model by not allowing tourists to ride the elephants and increasing the educational components of their programs. Hopefully, this continues to trickle through the rest of the country and one day Thailand can be free of elephant cruelty. 

Art Relief International

This is Emma

Emma is the Art Director for Art Relief International (ARI). Emma, whose is Canadian, became familiar with ARI by being a volunteer in 2013 for 3 months. She loved the organization. She has not been working with them for a year and a half. This job has made her want to go on to become an art therapist in order to continue to promote art as a form of expression and therapy. 

Emma explained that ARI’s cultural campus is located in Chiang Mai, Thailand and offers opportunities for volunteers to come and work with local community artistically. Their staff includes 2 foreign paid staff, 2 Thai staff and 15 volunteers. ARI goes to all their clients. Some of the places they work are within prisons, single mothers groups, refugee populations and school-aged children. Their exposure to these groups can be anywhere between a one-time visit, so a weekly/monthly on-going relationship, for between 1-2 hours for each visit. ARI sees their work as allowing others to express themselves and offering a time to relax and meditate through art. Most of their volunteers are coming from other countries and stay between 3 weeks and 6 months. This presents part of their challenge as an organization, which is the turnover of volunteers. Emma explained that it often takes a couple of weeks to get “plugged” into their programs, and if volunteers leave after only a couple of weeks, it does not give much time to get comfortable with the world. Another challenge is the language barriers between volunteers and participants. ARI only has one paid staff member who speaks the local languages, making it difficult to talk to participants. However, Emma said that the positive outcomes are a sense of community, even without a common language. Lots of the sessions focus on self-confidence building, particularly with the children they work with. 

Emma talked about some of the opportunities in the near future being reaching out to more of the local population in order to incorporate more culturally appropriate art into their programs. They have begun to work with Chiang Mai University to get their students more involved. She identified that volunteering is not within the Thai culture the same way it is ingrained in many western cultures. This creates a challenge when they try to include more Thai people into their art education.

ARI relies on private donors and volunteer fees to fund all their programs. It costs volunteers about $700USD to volunteer with ARI. Therefore, this is also a consistent hardship and that may help explain for their slim staffing. Many nonprofits will echo difficulties with funding, particularly those that are smaller. However, ARI is working hard to work consistently with the communities that they’ve built relationships with. They are a passionate group that had big hopes for the future and lots of room to grow.

ARI’s Thai employees serve as drivers and a translator. Emma identified the need to take on more local influence in order to better serve their community. Without that, ARI is at risk of continuing to push “western” ideals and culture onto Thai communities. Although ARI is offering a great opportunity for people from other nations to come and engage with some Thai communities, there is the question of who are the people they are truly serving? 

Childs Dream

This is Manuela 

Child’s Dream Foundation (CDF) was established to focus on health, basic and higher education in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. The Co-Founders and head of Development met in Hong Kong after working in banking in Switzerland and decided to create Child’s Dream Foundation after identifying a need to address basic health in order for children to feel well enough to go to school. Manuela, from Switzerland, is the Director of Development. She has been with CDF since its’ early existence. 

She explained that much of their basic education intervention includes infrastructure because there was a lack of classrooms within the government schools. For their higher education, they fund scholarships to see students complete school through university. Currently, In Myanmar, they have 275 students being sent to university up on their scholarships. In addition, they help support 14 junior colleges in refugee camps on the country borders. 

CDF does take on volunteers for no less than 6 months. Those volunteers work in the office performing administrative tasks or working as English teachers in small villages. Other than their volunteers, CDF has 34 paid staff, which include 5 “western” staff members coming from Europe or America. In the office, there are 11 nationalities represented. Their field staff includes people from those respective countries in order to have a better cultural understanding of the projects on the ground. 

With its founders coming from Swiss banking, there was a strong financial foundation to build CDF. For the last 4-5 years, they have worked with a budget of $6 million USD. This allows them to continue to build a school and build futures through scholarships. However, they still face challenges which Manuela described Thailand being one of the largest. She explained that the dynamics of how the country handles the NGOs has proven to be very difficult. In addition, they continue to have issues of the closing of refugee camps within Thailand for refugees from Myanmar. This continue interruption in their lives makes it very hard for CDF to create stability or consistency with its students. 

In the future, CDF will be pursuing the building of more secondary schools overall. They will be moving away from some of their work in Laos and searching for more areas that can be served in Myanmar. The continuation of their work on the ground is made possible by their initial hiring of all local staff. CDF, though started by “westerners” has a strong on-the-ground team of those who understand the cultural implications of their work so they can effectively work with the students benefitting from their work. It is not clear that CDF could hand off CDF to all local staff, but it is clear they are aware of the cultural sensitivity of their work and focus on hiring locals. 

Conclusion

Nine very different NGOs sprinkled over Southeast Asia with nine very different missions. As I approached learning more about NGOs in this part of the world, I tried to keep my expectations limited. What I have come away with is a wealth of appreciation for the passion these organizations put into their work. Whether they have spent their time bringing new art forms to Thai populations or are actively empowering local Cambodians to fight for their rights, I respect and admire the work being done.

With that said, I cannot ignore some of the organizations that I believe are being more thoughtful about the long-term effects of their work. One theme that came up time and time again was that of “western” culture vs. local culture. Some of these organizations are bringing over the beliefs and values systems from other countries and apply them to the local communities. I don't believe this is being done maliciously, but instead out of ignorance. As “westerners” coming to a new place, I think it is important to be culturally sensitive in the work being done. This can include working in local languages, respecting gender norms, respecting religious practices and/or taking the time to learn more about the local culture and history. This is not to say that some of these things cannot be questioned, but first, they must be understood. Not all organizations I spoke with were actively practicing this type of cultural insight, but some were. As an outsider, it seems that those who were being aware of their cultural impact on the communities were also better able to measure their impacts and better speak to how they hope to improve their work.

A second theme was NGO’s that were run/founded by locals vs. those run/founded by locals. I was generally surprised at the amount NGOs that were created by local people. I believe that many academics focus on development work being done by “outsiders” but there is a thriving group of locals that are invested and excited about NGO work within their own country. This was what I was hoping to see, and I was pleasantly surprised. In addition, I was excited to see the amount of local women involved in the creation of NGOs in both Thailand and Cambodia. Though gender norms may not reflect those of “western” cultures, the women I was able to speak with were empowering, independent leaders in their communities. They were respected by their local and foreign peers and role models for younger generations.

Nine more drops to the bucket of development in Southeast Asia. Whether I agreed wholeheartedly with their mission or felt that there was lots of room for improvement, each of these NGOs is working to assist the countries in which they work. I felt lucky to have a moment to hear their stories and be inspired by their passion for the work. I was particularly touched by the stories from NGO workers who were from the local communities themselves. Their drive to make their communities better excited me about the work being done from within these countries. To think if each of us had this same drive to better our own communities, how fast we may fill the bucket of this world. One can only imagine.