Founded in 1993, the Cambodian Women's Development Agency (CWDA) is one of Cambodia's first NGOs dedicated to advocating for women's rights and promoting women's self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Using a participatory and empowerment approach, CWDA implements programmes in areas such as awareness and literacy, health and HIV/AIDS, vocational training, savings and credit, rice and cow banks. It has been instrumental in setting up the Cambodian Sex Workers Union. In 1997, in response to an alarming growth in the levels of trafficking in women and girls, CWDA started the Research and Action Project on Traffic in Women in the Mekong Region-Cambodia, with technical support from the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW). The project shows how action taken by a few women can bring about change and have a roll-on impact in other places.

The project, which ran from 1997-2000, consisted of two phases. Phase One consisted of a 12-month period of research. Information was gathered using various sources: (1) governmental organisations and NGOs; (2) a review and analysis of national policies and laws related to trafficking of women and girls; and (3) recorded testimonies of trafficked women, obtained through participatory action methods. Using these research findings, in the second phase of the project, CWDA formed and organised community groups in collaboration with the women in the provinces where the research had taken place. These groups focused on social action to prevent further trafficking of women within their communities through a wide range of community activities.

The communities where the project was implemented, Kvet near Phnom Penh and Battambong, consist of large families with an agriculture-based economy. The small farming plots are insufficient to meet the most basic subsistence requirements. People's lives are further devastated by natural disasters. As a consequence, both men and women leave their villages, some on their own initiative, but many because they are deceived by promises of a better life and good money.

Organising community groups

Project participants were local community members, including women who had "returned". Many of them had been working as domestic workers, in factories and in what is called "hidden work" or prostitution. They returned because things were not quite as they had expected, as they were working in low paid jobs with no security, and vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse. Many of them participated in the first research phase of the project and had thus become more aware of the risks of being trafficked during the process of migration. The research findings confirmed that much of the trafficking was possible because women lacked knowledge and information about the dangers and risks they could face.

Community members decided to form groups in each village to start raising awareness by disseminating information about trafficking. The aim was not to stop women who wished to migrate from doing so, but to make them aware of the risks and dangers. The first of these groups was formed in 1998. All members know, understand and participate in all activities in their village: they are from, by, and for themselves.

Raising awareness and sharing information

The groups are visibly active in raising awareness and solidarity within communities. In order to deal with non-attendance by women due to other daily-life pressures, villagers themselves decided to select a group leader who would pay regular home visits to all group members at a convenient time, to share information, discuss issues and assist with problem-solving. Groups also work through village volunteers who keep records and gather statistics on migration rates, numbers of girls trafficked or leaving the village to take up high-risk employment (e.g., beer promotion girls), education and literacy levels, and other data relevant to the work of the groups. This information is shared more widely through CWDA provincial coordinators. Village volunteers communicate regularly to update one another.

In response to the educational needs identified by the communities themselves, and using the research data, information materials, such as posters, leaflets, flip charts, videos and music cassettes, were developed with active community participation. Specific examples include three songs about the risks of migrating to the city for work by a popular singer, a talk show on trafficking, a case study about a trafficked woman and one about trafficking law. A flip chart was developed showing the "tricks used by traffickers", as well as one outlining the specifics of trafficking law. All materials have been widely disseminated to other communities country-wide.

Important are the moundol pormean, or local information centres. They vary from a corner in someone's house to a room in someone's backyard; they are built from locally available materials by the women themselves. The centres cover a wide range of developmental topics and are instrumental in bringing community members from all walks of life together – women and men, adults and children, old and young. The systematic efforts to involve community leaders and other members in project activities have shown positive results: the three villages around Phnom Penh have built a special room for the information centre on community-donated land (the earlier room was in the yard of someone's house, which made it difficult to access easily and at all times).

How does CWDA help?

The CWDA head office in Phnom Penh supports the communities mainly through training, communication, some resources and administrative support. Twice a month, CWDA staff and volunteers meet with the group leaders to discuss progress of project activities, problems encountered, and strategies to deal with them. CWDA also regularly visits communities involved to facilitate capacity building for volunteers and group leaders, give support at meetings, and provide feedback and information where needed.

Periodically, meetings are held with local authorities, police and other relevant government institutions to ensure their continued support for the groups, and to promote a favourable environment for the project. CWDA seeks their direct participation in developing strategies as often as possible to ensure that they feel part of the community and group.

From ripples to waves…

A growing number of visitors come to the community information centres, and relationships with district officials and other organisations have improved. The success of the community groups and information centres has spread to other communities, who have asked CWDA to facilitate the development of similar groups in their villages. Women's groups have made plans in conjunction with CWDA to develop more IEC materials that are relevant to the local context. This information will not only be aimed at raising awareness about trafficking and migration, but also about how to create "a better life back home" by improving living conditions in the community itself.

As the facilitating and coordinating NGO for this project, CWDA is committed to scale up project activities to other communities. Tentative plans exist to organise a national workshop sometime in mid-2003, in order to share the project experiences so far with governmental and non-governmental organisations, media and journalists, and to present a workable model of community initiatives for the prevention of trafficking of women and girls. So far, the project has caused ripples in the water – but we will see these ripples build into waves!