Farewell Women’s Resource Center
My last week was full of tidying up loose ends, training the team on interpreting some of our new reports/processes, making sure there is a clean handover of all deliverables, and having some time to kick back, enjoy each other's company, and have a karaoke dance party. You will be rewarded with a 4 minute highlights reel of an almost hour long party from Tuesday by reading the rest of my last blog post.
Are you new to my blog? Check out www.afid.org.uk to learn more about “accountants without borders” and how you can get involved.
Wrapping Up. No well executed assignment with AfID is complete without proper handoff to the finance and accounting team so they are empowered to keep the momentum moving. We did training most of Monday afternoon on the new supplier / procurement process that we’ve designed to mimic the complex Finance Manual / policies in an easier to follow format. However, they need polishing and scrutiny before they can be rolled out to the rest of the WRC team. The finance and accounting officer will spend at least one month finalising the new process so she has identified all gaps before she trains the rest of the WRC team in local Khmer language. Throughout the 4 weeks I’ve been here Bunnak has taken a lot of notes about what she’s learned. I’ve typed up a one page document summarising our key lessons so the can refer back to it and locate more detailed notes in her notebook. Additionally, I have a much more detailed assignment report that summarises the entire assignment not just for the next volunteer (so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel) but for the Management Committee to use in the future. The report that I write has findings and recommendations that are more longer term (cannot be achieved during my assignment or need to be achieved by the local staff).
Wednesday we planned to train in the afternoon on the new QuickBooks reports we’ve built but the morning brought a power outage (lots of rain recently) so that set back our day. Power came back on during lunch and our afternoon training was back on! We had a lively session about interpreting Balance Sheet by Donor, Profit & Loss Budget Performance (Budget to Actual), and differences between budgeting and forecasting processes.
Facts about Cambodia.
Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world. It was originally built as a Hindu temple but some centuries ago was repurposed for Buddhism. It is still an active religious temple.
Cambodia tops the list of countries in the world with the most public holidays at a whopping 28 observed holidays.
When putting your hands together to greet or depart from someone the higher your hands go the more respect the person deserves. The top of the body (the head) is the most sacred and respected part of the body, the bottom of the foot is the opposite (which is why you should never point your feet towards a monk).
About the population and its connection to WRC.
Largely due to the deaths of millions of people during the Khmer Rouge genocide, 65% of Cambodians are below the age of 30.
The very young makeup of the population of Cambodian means that young people are poised to drive economic and social growth.
According to the UNDP “Cambodia’s achievements in economic development during the past two decades have resulted in significant reduction in the poverty rate, which stood at 13.5 percent in 2014 [MOP] compared to 50 percent in 1992. However, there remain many challenges for Cambodia to address. One of them is the growing inequality – income disparity, regional disparity between the urban population and the rural poor, and gender disparity. Women continue to face disadvantages in getting secondary and higher education, decently paid employment opportunities and decision-making roles in the government’s institutions. Gender-based violence remains a serious issue.” Source UNDP
1 in 200 women are at risk of dying during childbirth, 53.2% of men reported perpetration of economic abuse, 1 in 29 children die before reaching their 5th birthday, 1 in 2 children are physically abuse, 52.7% of women have experienced physical violence before they turn 18, and 1 in 3 men reported perpetrating physical and/or sexual violence against their intimate partner. Source WRC website.
Women’s Resource Center of Siem Reap Cambodia envisions Cambodia to be a fair and safe society with equal rights for all. Women and girls will be empowered, educated, respected, and able to make decisions about their lives. WRC wants to transform the way resources are offered and networked for women. This is why WRC only creates programs they feel are not widely available or have not been introduced as yet. In this way, they are not repeating or reinventing the great work done by others, but are instead focusing on filling the gap of services and information.
Celebrations and Farewells. This week marked not only my last days with WRC but Bunnak’s one year anniversary (finance and accounting officer). We started our celebrations with a little cake and to thank Bunnak for welcoming me to come partner with her. #accountingnerds A few photos from cake and our hard work over the last few weeks. Then we had an amazing farewell party on Thursday with lots of karaoke, dancing, food, laughs, hugs, and tears. The heartfelt notes are something I can cherish forever.
And now for the video you’ve been waiting for. A mix of karaoke and dancing, Cambodian traditional music, Cambodian dance music, and “Westerner dance music” (Eminem and Jennifer Lopez to be specific). As you can see, the ladies tried their best to teach me to dance but they concluded that while my singing skills are very good, my dancing skills leave something to be desired. Note that I am not the talented Eminem rapper this is Hannah, another volunteer with WRC who is here for one year serving WRC with communications support from an Australian volunteer organisation.
Farewell Siem Reap!