Cottage Industry

Women farmers are responsible for producing over half of the world’s food and grow between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries. In nearly all of Africa and parts of Asia including Cambodia, this figure is closer to 90 percent. Women also are involved in post-harvest activities, such as threshing, cleaning, transporting, marketing, storing and processing food crops. Additionally, they play critical role in livestock management with activities that include tending, caring for, feeding and milking the animals, as well as processing and marketing livestock products. Women are a repository of knowledge about the preservation of seeds and other genetic resource of the food they process to its origin. Women farmers are uniquely gifted to be true custodians of our world’s natural resources.

Despite their critical roles, women farmers receive little recognition and, therefore, operate with few or no resources. Domestic violence, abuse, trafficking and discrimination against women and girls are occurring in Cambodia. Incidences of sex slavery are particularly high in Cambodia. It is estimated that there are close to 80, 000 to 100, 00 sex slaves and prostitutes in the country. Stated differently, one in 150 people are sex slaves or prostitutes. Sex trafficking of women and girls, including ethnic Vietnamese, is prevalent. The majority end up in and around the urban areas of Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanouk Ville where there demand is the highest. As we move into 2009, Cambodia remains a major receiving, sending and transit country for human trafficking. According to the most recent UNAIP report, many factors have contributed to the rise human trafficking in Cambodia. These include poverty, socio-economic imbalances between rural areas and urban centers, increased tourism, lack of unemployment, education, and safe migration; poverty being the most significant cause of trafficking. In a recent survey of trafficked victims who escaped from Thailand, conducted by the International Organization of Migration, 62 per cent reported that the original reason they left their homes was to find jobs to help support their family.

SSF’s Cottage Industry Project builds and improves economic sustainability through individual tailored projects for poorest and the most vulnerable families in hopes that they will become able to independently support their children in the future. The CIP prevents parents from pressuring their children, especially daughters under age 18, to drop-out of school and forge paperwork necessary for them to work legally or illegally to get and send money home. The primary objective of this program is to empower women who are the heads of poor households through grant aid and technical assistance. The assistance we provide has proven sustainable, because families enlisted in our project decide their own plan for income-generating activities that reduce poverty level and raise the standard of living, for themselves and their children.

The following assistances will be offered:

Child Support – SSF studies the specific situation of each extremely poor or vulnerable family that we intend to support to figure out ways the household can support itself in the future. If children are unable to attend school because they are needed to help support the family economically, SSF takes responsibility for the education of these children. In the first year of providing support to the children, SSF works with the family to devise an economic plan so that the children are able to attend school. SSF then works alongside the household head so that by the second year of working with us, families are able to support their own children’s education. If the family is still unable to finance their children’s education, SSF will continue sponsorship of the
children’s educational needs.

Household Work Plan
The Household Work Plan is the most important part of SSF’s work with needy families. SSF trains and explains to families better work management skills that produce higher productivity. Most of Cambodia's impoverished people conduct their daily lives with neither financial nor family planning. The Household Work Plan helps SSF families understand what they need to do daily, monthly, and annually to plan for future expenditures, so as to prevent debt in the future.

Grant Aid Package
The amount of grant aid from SSF to one of our target families to create a job or business for income generating activities is from $75.00 – $250.00 USD. Additional capital to support business expansion or improvements is also possible. In our Grant Aid Package, SSF does not provide net cash directly to families. Instead, we purchase all items as needed for business or career setup. Some cash is then provided for initial implementation costs.

Methodology
Every business or career that SSF supports already exists within the community. However, SSF works within the community to make family businesses and techniques more productive, introducing families to our New Routines (see below).

What is the New Routine?
SSF’s New Routine is a method to switch target families from repeating low-income generating activities to unique, financially sustainable activities that can support the entire family. For example, currently one SSF target family has used the planting of morning glory, a vegetable crop, on one ridge and waiting for harvest before planting another, rather than successive plantings for continuous harvesting. Under SSF’s New Routine, they will become more productive through more frequent planting for daily harvesting.

Technical Assistant
Technical support is provided to every SSF family to ensure they meet a high standard of work. This links to SSF’s Follow Up mechanism.

Follow Up
SSF has set up a two year mechanism to follow up on every SSF target family. Weekly visits at their family residence or their workplace are conducted by SSF staff. This will monitor how target families can run their businesses and technical advising will then be conducted to further their knowledge and business skills.

Evaluation
At the end of each one-year period, SSF will evaluate target families on their economic improvements and self-sustainability by measuring income and capital improvements. A family economic assessment form has been developed for this evaluation.

Furthermore, women involved with the Cottage Industry Project will have increased access to positions of power in household and community level decision making processes

* Women are using our training and the livestock we provide to start new income-generating activities.

* Village savings and loans groups mean women can manage their money in a simple way that provides them with sufficient credit to set up income-generating businesses such as goat fattening, baking, coffee shops and small restaurants.

* Women are intended to train as Community Based Legal Advisers (CBLAs), enabling them to advise other women about their legal rights in family law, land and property rights, and criminal law.

* Livestock breeding and fattening are becoming more profitable as SSF trained them essential basic veterinary care and advice. Healthy farming animals are more valuable at market and can assist them in farming work.

Who are we helping?
With the project's help, some 100 rural women will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities that will help them increase household incomes. This, together with more knowledge about their rights will mean these women are more involved in decision making both at home and in the wider community.