Livelihood Program

Although SSF is an org anization that is primarily concerned with the welfare of children who are in danger of being exploited as a res ult of their family’s extreme poverty, many families are unwilling to allow SSF to help their children because they need their children to stay at home and work in order to support the family. In order for their families to allow their children to return to or stay in school, SSF has sought to provide alternative ways for poor families to earn money that do not require their children to forego their chance to receive an education, in the form of start up capital for small businesses that help families to use the skills they have to earn income. Examples include grocery selling, morning glory and vegetable gardens, and cake baking. In order to achieve this goal, SSF treats each family as a special case. Providing both technical assistance and start up capital, the organization helps families to either use the skills they already have or teaches them new skills they can use in order to help find ways to reduce their level of poverty and raise their standard of living. Key aspects of SSF’s Livelihood Program include support for their children, work planning/goal setting, financial grants, and continued technical assistance, all of which are regularly monitored through evaluation mechanisms.

Support for their Children: Unicef has estimated that 158 million children aged 5-14 are engaged in child labor worldwide - one in six children in the world. Additionally a report from the international labor Organization published in 2000 has suggested that almost 3/4th of the child domestic laborers don't receive any pay. Child Labor usually interferes with children’s education, while the key to preventing child labor lies in ensuring that all children go to school and that their education is of good quality. Recognizing the problem is part of the Solution. If children are unable to attend school because they are needed to help support the family economically, SSF supports the child’s education in conjunction with their family to ensure the head of the household can run their business, without needing their children to drop out of school. With eac h family selected for support, the goal is that by the second year they are able to support their own children’s education, however if it is not possible, SSF continues to sponsor the child’s educational needs. Providing them with other ways to earn money has been an important factor in preventing poor families from pressuring their children, especially underage girls, to drop-out of school and get jobs using forged paperwork to circumvent child labor laws.

Work Plans/Goal Setting: Helping the families to set goals and create a successful business plan is the most important part of the Livelihood program. Through basic training in work management skills, SSF helps each family to reach higher levels of productivity, resulting in increasingly higher living standards. Most of Cambodia's poorest people lack a sense of direction when conducting their daily work, often failing to understand the link between their expenditures and profits. The Household Work Plan allows them to focus on what they need to do daily, monthly, and yearly in order to run a successful business.

This is accomplished by establishing what SSF refers to as the “New Routine.” The idea is to help targeted families to switch to unique and more financially sustainable activities that can support their entire family, instead of allowing them to continue repeating low-income generating jobs that do little to raise their standards of living. For instance, instead of waiting to harvest one crop before planting another, SSF encourages farming families to use successive plantings for continuous harvesting.

Financial Grants: Due to their extreme poverty, selected families do not have enough financial resources to start businesses on their own, even if they have the drive to do so. As a result, SSF provides initial grants from approximately $75.00 to $250.00 in start up capital. Additional support is sometimes provided in order to expand or improve the business once it has proven viable. As a rule, SSF does not provide the cash to families directly. Rather, the organization undertakes the responsibility for purchasing everything they need to get started.

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).