Story by Chanthon Uy | Senior Program Manager | Heifer Cambodia
Photos by Makara Orn | Training Officer | Heifer Cambodia
On April 23-28, 2013, Heifer Cambodia staff attended Heifer International's 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development Training in Siem Reap Province, Cambodia, along with representatives from eight other countries.
Heifer Cambodia Senior Program Manager Chanthon Uy, Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Officer Toeng Rothy and Finance Officer for Programs Dy Thida represented Heifer Cambodia. Colleagues from Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, the Philippines, Zambia and the United States also attended.
The training was co-organized and co-facilitated by Heifer Nepal Training Manager Buddi Bahadur Khatri, Heifer Cambodia Training Manager Nita Huong and Training Officer Makara Orn and their colleagues.
Classroom sessions and field visits helped participants target the communities where Heifer partners are working to gain insight from self-help groups (SHGs) currently practicing the 12 Cornerstones.
"I find Heifer's 12 Cornerstones training is very useful and helpful for me personally," Chanthon said during a reflection session. "It helps me to simply mirror my personal behavior, attitude and values. I believe that I can do much to change my personal life and my family, as well as community people, with Heifer's 12 Cornerstones. They are simple, practical and easy to apply. I will share my knowledge as much as I can with other people."
Participant Rothy Toeng agreed, "I feel that I gained more knowledge about the Cornerstones and I learned a lot from our colleagues here in the room and from the community people, especially the members of the self-help groups. I commit to pass [the Cornerstones] on to other people."
"Before this training, I heard about the Heifer's Cornerstones as important, good and positive from my colleagues," Thida said with a smile. "Now I realize that Heifer's Cornerstones are really practical and work well among the people. Women who are members of self-help groups whom I visited become strong to make a living. They said to me they use Heifer's 12 Cornerstones after they received training."
After the training, participants agreed to apply the Cornerstones in their personal lives, with their family, and in their work because each one is important, useful and helpful for eliminating hunger and poverty in their communities.
