September Monthly Report

It's the end of the month again and here I am with the progress report for the month of September. This report covers the activities implemented within the month of September.

As a summary, the whole month of September had been a busy one for the project staff. We spent our time implementing activities based on our project plan. The following had been accomplished for the month of September:

1. Two new staff members were employed. They are Pin Tara who replaced the Research Coordinator Loek Sothea, and Sok Kanra as Community Facilitator in Tean Pleung hub.

2. Infrastructure (solar panel and internet connection) at the HQ and three selected village hubs (Tean Pleung, KCM Choeung, and La’ak) had been completely installed in September 26. The installation was done in two stages: 1) solar panels were installed temporarily at the HQ and the two hubs (Tean Pleung and KCM Choeung). Internet was only connected in two more hubs in Sept 9; 2) the temporary solar panels were replaced by the Solar Company in September 26.

3. Election of the management committee members had been elected from the three communes. As a result of the election, 12 representatives coming from the three communes (including 6 women) were elected in the management committee. Preparations for the election of the Management Committee started as early as the first week of September. The PC went around the community meeting with the villagers, explaining the rationale of the formation of the Management Committee, the roles and responsibilities of the said committee and the election process.

The election was done after the community approved the Community By-Laws. The election process involved two steps:

1) selection of representatives for each hub at the village level

2) villagers elected candidates (who were the representatives at the village level) at the commune level.

Since there is a big population in the three communes, it was agreed that each commune will have equal number of voters to ensure fairness and equality. The PC explained the election process as indicated in the community by-laws. In order for a candidate to win, he/she should have a vote of 50%+1 and when it comes to gender, the ratio employed was either 2:1 or 3:1, meaning for every two/three seats, one should be a female. The election was facilitated by the project staff with the student-volunteers of Maharishi Vedic University assisting the staff.

4. KCM welcomed the visit of Maria Ng Lee Hon (IDRC) and Denis Roy (Office of the Auditor-General of Canada). On September 11, 2007, the KCM Pilot Project staff welcomed Maria Ng Lee Hon and Denis Roy, a representative from Canada’s Office of the Auditor-General together with Sean O’Siochru, Ms. Seng Theary of CSD and the Research Manager. The delegation was welcomed by the PC, who then introduced the whole staffs to the visitors. The PC also gave a backgrounder on the installation of the infrastructure and the election process of the management committee. The activity was highlighted by the groups visit to the two village hubs, KCM Choeung Hub and Tean Pleung Hub. In both hubs, the group was able to meet and interact with the newly-elected management committee members.

5. Two audio materials were produced and broadcasted. The materials were dubbed in 21 tapes and distributed to 11 pagodas in the three communes of Kamchai Mear. Two topics were produced and recorded into 21 tapes. There were still several topics that are lined up for production (water sanitation, brown plant hopper, pregnancy, and student enrolment. To ensure that materials had been played, the CDs (Content Developers) visit the pagoda during the broadcast day and see how the activity is being received by the villagers.

6. PC attended the IDRC All-Partners Forum as well as the NiDA Research Seminar. This month, the project coordinator was invited to attend in the IDRC All Partners Forum and in the presentation of research by NiDA. At the IDRC All Partners meeting, we were able to meet with other IDRC Partners and it was an opportunity for all of us to introduce ourselves and share experiences among the partners.

8. The project provided training on Internet and Email to community and students. More than 100 students registered and 0ver 60 students were trained both in HQ and Tean Pleung hub. The training was conducted by Mr. Hen Sokchea the Technical Support. We had a large turn out of students who registered with us all hoping to receive training on basic computer and internet use. Of the 100 students registered, 60 had already been trained both in the HQ and in Tean Pleung hub.

Despite the many accomplishments, our team also met several difficulties and the following are some of the difficulties we've encountered:

- We do not have a proper place for recording, thus, we could not produce a high quality recording of audio materials. The staff used the agriculture office of the MVU for recording, however, since it is not noise-free, the quality of our recording is bad.

- Limited production skills and experience of the Multi-media Coordinator (MC). We are currently in discussion on how to better the capacity of the MC to produce good quality materials for the community.

- The installation of the infrastructure took a bit longer than expected. Being newly-installed and alien to us, we could not manage it well yet. We are slowly familiarizing with the infrastructure for better management and development of services for the villagers in the coming days. It will take a long time for us to get used to it.

Despite the above-mentioned difficulties, September was good in terms of implementation of activities. Special mention to the election of the management committee. We are so happy about the results because we have seen full cooperation from the villagers and local authorities.

As a parting word or conclusion, our team is slowly getting to know each other as we basically are a complete team. We are getting to know and are adjusting to each staff's work style and attitude. We find it important to each other so that there is harmony and cooperation (teamwork) within the team and we could find a way to solve project issues together. No doubt, the commitment of each staff is there.

Now that the much-anticipated infrastructure is in place, the community is starting to see what the project is all about. They can access the services provided by our project. In our view, this is the first time that a project is providing services such as outs in the community. They are all excited even if only two hubs at this point in time are working.