Overview

This Life empowers Cambodians to make an impact on complex social justice issues, using grassroots community consultation approaches, community development techniques, and strengths-based case management for direct service provision to children and families.

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Background

This Life started as This Life Cambodia in December 2007 while I was working for a large charity in Siem Reap. I was approached by members of a community who had big dreams of starting a community centre in their village. I told them to come back to me when they had something to show.  And so they did.  The community had built two thatch classrooms and had 200 students enrolled to study extracurricular activities.  Impressed by their initiative my initial thought was to write a project proposal to seek funding for further development.

At the same time I had a chance conversation with a local boy I’d known for some time. I’d assumed that he was attending school, but when I asked him what he wanted to be when he was older, he replied: “Next life I would like to be a doctor”. When I asked why he couldn’t be a doctor in this life, he said: “This life, I have no hope. I had to drop out of school two years ago in grade six.”

He went on to explain that his family was so poor they couldn’t afford to support his education and, in fact, they couldn’t even provide him with food and shelter. He had felt obliged to move away and live in a pagoda so that his family had one less mouth to feed. He also thought he would get some education from the monks. I couldn’t let go of the fact that this boy, who clearly had huge potential, might never get the opportunity to finish his education.

It was becoming apparent to me that communities and small grassroots organisations needed more than just a project proposal. There was a huge need for capacity building and training and there were no organisations in Siem Reap doing this. I decided that I would try and help this child and others in similar situations to get an education and fulfill their dreams.

Today, This Life has grown rapidly into an award winning, well-respected community development NGO with eight programs in three Cambodian provinces (Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Banteay Meanchey) which receives funding from individual donors, corporate funders, private foundations, and international development agencies.

Local communities are the experts when it comes to identifying practical ways to achieve improvements in their daily lives, and many hold an abundance of ideas for a better world. Working side by side with community residents, listening to their insights and acting on their input, we have developed a sustainable, empowering and replicable approach to development that works!

Value

• We Listen.  This Life was born out of the act of listening, when our founder listened to the fears and hopes of people in a Cambodian community who felt that they were never normally heard, and then helped them to overcome those fears and achieve those hopes. Listening remains a foundational value, whether
  listening to the people we support in communities, or to each other, or to our supporters and partners.
• We Collaborate.  Everybody has their own talents and abilities, but we know that these are multiplied when we work together, understanding each other’s expertise, respecting each other’s contribution and challenging each other to achieve even more. This collaborative approach doesn’t stop at the office door, but extends into the way we work with communities and individuals,
  and with our partners, donors and supporters.
• We Have Integrity.  We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards and we are open and accountable to each other, to authorities, to donors and to beneficiaries about what, when, why and how we do things. We keep our promises.
• We Balance.  For us to continue creating sustainable change, it is vital we are mindful of our personal lives and health, so we pledge to always find time to look after ourselves and look out for each other.

Mission

To listen to, engage with and advocate side by side with children, women, families and communities as they define and act on their own solutions to complex social challenges.

Vision

Children, women, families and communities are supported to access and create opportunities in this life.