Last night our new Peace Coordinators arrived at the Phnom Penh airport after a harrowing journey from the other side of the world. Their first flight had ‘technical difficulties’… Which is the tactful way to say that it collided with another plane while taxing at the Philadelphia airport. This delayed their departure from Philadelphia causing…
Category: MCC in Cambodia
Some old friends are moving in
Difficult times are also opportunities for people to come together to find solutions and build up community. COVID-19 has presented many challenges to MCC’s operations around the world. I wanted to share one of the most straightforward actions we’re taking in response – some old ‘Friends’ will be subleasing a room at the MCC Cambodia…
Clivia Dione Avila
In March, Cambodia banned entry of foreigners from Italy, Germany, Spain, France and United States to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Our new Connecting Peoples Coordinator, Clivia, was in Pennsylvania for orientation and flew to Cambodia arriving just six hours before the travel ban went into effect. Clivia is a fourth generation Mennonite from Honduras….
COVID-19: First Project
In March, MCC Cambodia partnered with 11 local churches to provide food relief to 150 poor households (approximately 600 people) as our first COVID-19 specific project. The primary goal of this small scale initiative was to provide these households with enough nonperishable food to enable them to shelter safely in place during a three week…
First Program Review
Last week we had the pleasure of going through our first country program review with our Area Directors. Arthur and Phyllis Mann are multi-term MCCers who live in Chiang Mai and supervise programs in Southeast Asia. Their wealth of experience in MCC, in international living and in transitions and living abroad with kids is so…
ODOV Proposal Revisions
On the Thursday and Friday after Christmas, I headed out to rural Prey Veng province with our new Planning/Monitoring/Evaluation Coordinator Visal to meet with one of MCC’s long term partners, the Organization to Develop our Villages (ODOV). ODOV was, originally, MCC Mesang until it localized in 2004. The file cabinets seen in the photo above…
Cambodian Labour Law
I don’t often talk about my work because it’s largely administrative. It’s more interesting (and photographic) to share what other folks on the team are doing. But I thought that I’d give you a quick snapshot into one of my current projects. It helps that Catherine decided to read my Cambodian Labour Law book for…
Rural Primary School Teacher Coaching
Early in December we went on field visits to three schools in rural Prey Veng province. I shared a bit about the breakfast program, now let’s get into teacher coaching. It is difficult to be a teacher in the countryside. The pay is low, supports are few, and absenteeism is common. Some teachers routinely skip…
Documentation Center of Cambodia
Last Thursday I visited the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) with Annaliese. She’s a SALT participant working with long term MCC partner Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Cambodia Peace Gallery in Battambang. She scheduled the meeting with DC-Cam’s Information Technology Coordinator, Morm Sophat, to ask DC-Cam for recommendations on archival databases, how…
Fred Kauffman
This morning I received an email from MCC Cambodia alumni Carol Buhrman letting me know that Fred Kauffman had passed away suddenly. Fred had a long history with MCC and with the Mennonite church, but we feel a special warmth for him in Cambodia. Fred and Minh were the first MCC Cambodia personnel. They arrived…