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Together against marriages of girls in Cambodia

Girls in Cambodia who marry early usually have to drop out of school and experience violence. To prevent this, Kamboo Project conducts workshops to raise awareness among families. Through this, girls can again decide freely and self-determined about their future. Become a part of it - support the project now with a donation!
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Background

Girl marriage is still widespread in rural South-East Asia, as in Prasat Bakong district in Cambodia. This despite the fact that it is contrary to girls' human rights and national and international conventions (see UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Convention on the Rights of Women). Girl marriage has devastating effects on the girls involved. Girls under the age of 18 who would otherwise be able to attend school and who are married at an early age are often forced to leave school. They are also at risk of gender-based violence. Moreover, they often become pregnant at an early age and are financially and socially dependent on their husbands. Hundreds of girls could be additionally enrolled in the 30 schools we support in Prasat Bakong if they were not in this fatal situation.
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Idea

Let's take the example of Sing. Sing's case made us think. She is 20 today and was forced to get married at 14 and thus dropped out of school. Sing takes care of the household and cannot go to work due to her lack of education. "I've practically forgotten how to read, write and do arithmetic all over again since I got married," Sing says with her head bowed. "I actually wanted to be a librarian." We are now supporting Sing in other ways to make her dream come true after all. But her case has motivated us to be one step ahead and prevent further cases.
Through workshops with our trained team, we want to sensitise students, but also parents, that they can shape the family's future in a self-determined and sustainable way. The local education authorities, who cooperate with us, are involved in the programme. In this way, we want to expand the awareness of the entire community in Prasat Bakong step by step and end this devastating practice of girl marriages from within. Through our long-standing involvement in about 30 primary schools in Prasat Bakong, we have already been able to gain the trust of the community, which is the prerequisite for this awareness-raising work.
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Implementation

In 2022, we conducted a pilot project with one workshop at each of five schools. This involved 209 upper secondary school students, as well as their parents, teachers and a representative of the local education authority, if possible. The workshops were led by our team, with the addition of a trained trainer. We are encouraged by our early indicators of monitoring: school enrolment of girls in the affected communities is increasing - and deregistration is decreasing.
We have found that the intergenerational approach is very effective. The workshops are divided into three parts: 1) Providing information 2) Showing inspiring examples 3) Identifying families who will be active communicators and take the experience back to their communities.
The cost per workshop is about CHF 400. This includes the organisation, material costs, and the travel expenses of the workshop leaders.
Now we want to hold another 25 workshops in 2023 with about 10'000 girls and their families. These will take place until the end of November. To do this, we need funds of 10'000 CHF. Real impact - we are convinced. Join us and become part of this success story!
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Initiators

Kamboo Project is a Swiss non-profit association, which has been conducting projects in Siem Reap province, Cambodia, in rural districts, since 2014. In addition to this clear geographical focus, we limit our activities to three core areas: Drinking Water and Sanitation, Sustainable Construction and Renovation, and Education. Kamboo Project follows the principle of "helping people to help themselves" - with our projects, we help local people to improve their living conditions themselves in the medium to long term.
This project was initiated by a Swiss donor family (who wishes to remain anonymous), pre-financed and initiated by Kamboo Project. Our Cambodian colleague Somalita Keo is the project leader on site.
Learn here more about Kamboo Project on our website
Instagram: @kambooproject
Facebook: Kamboo Project
LinkedIn: Kamboo Project
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We are increasing the fundraising goal to CHF 10,000, the number of workshops that can be carried out to 25 and the number of girls to 1,000.

Increased Fundraising Target

Famille Blatter 300 CHF
Curdin Guyan 30 CHF
Anonymous 20 CHF
Demian Stocker 10 CHF
Renato Marni 100 CHF
Xenia Spörri 50 CHF
Anonymous 100 CHF
Andrea Darms 50 CHF
Gian-Andrea Claus 30 CHF
Anonymous 20 CHF
Berenice Wicki 50 CHF
Peter Lack 100 CHF
Franz Horn 100 CHF
Leonie Kreis 20 CHF
Bigna Ardüser 50 CHF
Anonymous 50 CHF
Zali Sutton 20 CHF
Jean-Michel Ramond 50 CHF
Anonymous 50 CHF
Jutta Umbhauer 50 CHF
Anonymous 50 CHF
Samuel Oettl 50 CHF
Nicklas Illi 10 CHF
Anonymous 20 CHF
Carina Schlegel 20 CHF
Anonymous 100 CHF
Pascale Meraldi 50 CHF
Fabia Prevost 10 CHF
Tilo Umbhauer 50 CHF
Maxim Streltses 500 CHF
Edith Lanfranchi-Klingler 50 CHF
Salzgeber Metallbau AG 100 CHF
Vanessa Hug 10 CHF
Valentin Treu 100 CHF
Anonymous 10 CHF
Claudio Viglino 200 CHF
leon howard-spink 500 CHF
Anonymous 10 CHF
Mirijam Joos 20 CHF
Gian-Andrea Claus 20 CHF
Anonymous 10 CHF
Jano Hartmann 10 CHF
Rakesh Makhan 30 CHF
Rita Gmür 1'000 CHF
Paul Sebastian Zebjeniac 25 CHF
Tobias Burkart 100 CHF
Andrea Wiesli 100 CHF
Daniela Bucher 50 CHF
Anjana Thatheeskumar 10 CHF
Sebastian Ferus 20 CHF
Gino Brändli 50 CHF
Lars Schär 5 CHF
Cameron Neilson 30 CHF
Sina Pally 15 CHF
Sarah Zoller 100 CHF
Christine Bauriedl 100 CHF
Aleksandar Maric 10 CHF
Mikael Blumenthal 10 CHF
Anonymous 500 CHF
Maïté Kreienbühl 500 CHF
Philippe Benguerel 50 CHF
Gianni Brusch 20 CHF
Elia Parolini 5 CHF
Anonymous 500 CHF
Sabyasachi Niyogi 20 CHF
Jean-Francois Meymandi 500 CHF
Gianni Stiffler 10 CHF
Mario Kunz 50 CHF
Stefan Pfister 50 CHF
Parrocchia Cattolica, Coldrerio 210 CHF
Vermittelt durch Swisscom 170 CHF
Thomas Gilbert 50 CHF
LGO Ottenbach 210 CHF
Currently, there are still no project partners if you are interested, please contact us via info@there-for-you.com.

Primary Partners