In 1997, LWF-Cambodia started operating its development project in Prachum Ang Village, Choeung Kerp Commune, Kandal Stung District, Kandal Province. Five years later, LWF phased out but the development work still goes on through village development committee. Village bank service gets great support from villagers as it improved their livelihoods. For LWF Cambodia, this is a good model for other villages where LWF is operating.

Chamroeun receives award from Mr. Pen Samitthy

Under a concrete house with merchandises for sale in the front, six older persons were gathering together around a big table. This activity was not useless; it would provide benefits to 460 households living in Prachum Ang Village, Choeung Kerp Commune, Kandal Stung District, Kandal Province. Because of this gathering, this remote village far from a provincial town changed its image, both in infrastructure and human resource.

Mr. Din Dim, the house owner and the chairman of the meeting, revealed that they were discussing the plans relating to development in the community. According to him, everything in existence today resulted from the initiative of the Lutheran World Federation Cambodia Program (LWF-Cambodia), the first international organization to operate a development project in his village, from 1997 to 2002. This 59 year-old man, who used to be a village chief, was elected as Chief of the Village Development Committee to direct the implementation of the LWF project. He said before the arrival of the LWF Cambodia, the village's infrastructures, especially roads and bridges, were not good and most people survived with natural forces, poor sanitation and solidarity. Mr. Din Dim said with a smile, "L (LWF) provides assistance and teaches everything to develop our community. Those projects include human resource training, food security, education, health, environment and disaster risk reduction." He also revealed that the implementation of a project always used contributions of 40% from community and 60% from LWF. However, LWF provided equipments for most projects.

After phasing out in 2002, LWF transferred the whole responsibility for development work to the village development committee. Even though at that time he was the councilor of Choeung Kerp Commune, Dim did not abandon the responsibilities given to him by LWF because he was always elected to be the chairman of the village development committee thorough the election every three years. For him, this was a great encouragement.

Mr. Din Dim showed his strong commitment, saying, “L has taught us how to walk, so we have to try to walk by ourselves to avoid the criticism that we could do nothing after the withdrawal of L."

“With this commitment, we organized many meetings, both informal and formal, with chairperson, vice chairperson, secretary, accountant and members of village development committee to make plans and to solve the remaining issues in the village at large,” Din Dim said. "Regardless where we were, at home, pagoda, or at any other place, we always discussed the issues for the benefit of communities whenever we met. When there is any plan, we always submitted proposal to the commune, district, province or NGOs." He stated that the immediate issue was to repair roads which were destroyed by flood.

Mr. Yi Yong, Prachum Ang Village chief claimed there was significant progress in his village in the last ten years.

"In the past, cars could not drive into our village, but because of village development committee, we have roads and bridges which enable easy traffics,” he said. “In the past, people took turns in order to take water from only one well, now we have almost 100 wells in the village. Before, people left their land empty, but now they plant many tree fruits such as jack fruit, banana, mango, papaya, etc."

Women and youths also actively participated in community development.

"At every meeting, there is more participation from women than men,” Mrs. Seng Phal, Vice Chief of Village Development Committee, confirmed This more than 50 year-old lady with grey hair noted the positive change of women in the village. "Now, there are very few women who spend time finding hair-louses and talking badly about others, instead they are ready to help the development work." According to the leadership of Prachum Ang Village Development Committee, in addition to giving value to education, both women and men in the whole Prachum Ang Village have better understanding about health and they no longer believed in magic practice or praying. As for youth, they are always sent to participate in trainings organized by LWF or other organizations.

"The youth help us a lot in providing direct education to villagers and they always provide good ideas to the old people," Mr. Din Dim said.
 
Village Banks Contributed to Poverty Reduction
In 1999, LWF, or L, introduced a village bank establishment to village development committees in order to provide small scale loan with 3% interest to the poorest to start up businesses. Mr. Din Dim said that before the arrival of LWF, 75 percent of his village was poor but because of the good operation of the village bank the number of the poor dropped to about 25 percent. The bank received an initial investment from LWF of more than 5 million Riels (1,250 USD) and now this amount has increased to more than 40 million Riels (10,000 USD) and membership increased from 42 to 94.

Mrs. Seng Phal, the bank accountant, said most members are poor people. Some of were refugees returning from camps along the Cambodian-Thai border. They borrow loans to establish businesses, such as expanding agriculture land, selling goods, and raising animals.

Mr. Pach Noeun, 51, said with smile that her family living condition has been improved due to a 75,000 Riels (18.75 USD) loan she borrowed from the village bank. This lady with five children claimed, "In the past, I always borrowed the money from a private lender with 3,000 Riels (0.75 USD) interest for every 10,000 Riels (2.50 USD) principle. This way did not improve my living and, in contrast, it made me poorer. Having understood the good principles of the village bank, I registered as a member at the first cycle." With 750,000 Riels, Mrs. Pach Noeun bought vegetables from villagers to sell at Doem Kor Market and bought merchandises from Phnom Penh to sell in the village. Her business progressed every day and her living became better. She said with pride, "I do not possess much, but compared to before 1999, it is completely different. Now, I have a motorcycle, cows in the stable and, especially, I have sufficient rice to eat."

Mrs. Dim Thin, 37, did not let her opportunity slipped away. This big-sized and outgoing lady said, "Upon hearing that the interest rate is 3% a month, I registered as a member of the village bank straight away." Not different from Mrs. Pach Noeun, she spent her first loan in the amount of 75,000 Riels to expand her vegetable farm. Because of this capital, her living has been improved. She had suitable house and was able to attend religious ceremonies at a pagoda.

According to Mrs. Seng Phal, all members had to pay monthly savings in the amount of 2,000 Riels (0.50 USD) and pay back the loans with interest every six months. She revealed that for those members who needed money urgently to organize a ceremony or arrange his/her child’s wedding, he/she could get a loan for one week without interest and the non-member could borrow within three days. If a member dies, the village bank will provided 100,000 Riels to 50,000 Riels (25-12.5 USD) to a family member of the VB member.

Mr. Mom Lack, village bank manager, claimed there are many people who want to become members of the village bank, but because of limited amount of money in the bank, the demand cannot be met. As a matter of transparency, at the closing of the account every six months the counting of money is always conducted in front of all members with the participation of commune, district and provincial officials.

Everything did not regress. Besides the village bank introduced by LWF, the village development committee initiated another bank called "Illiterate Student Bank" to enable students to earn a living in addition to their studies. Now, this bank has the total amount of more than three million Riels (750 USD) and 16 members.

The Work that Became a Model
Mr. San Vinich, a former LWF-Cambodia project manager in Kandal Stung District and was now a project manager in Thpong District, Kampong Speu Province, appreciated the activities of Prachum Ang Village Development Committee. He said, "It is eight years that our organization has not had a staff member working in that area, but we do not see any setback. Instead we see this committee even works better than when we were there." He noted the capacity of the committee members by saying that in the past they were only ordinary citizens but now they could bravely speak in public. Furthermore, he observed the strong solidarity of the villagers, saying, "It is a rare case that a project relating to money remains strong after the withdrawal of an organization and what deserves congratulation is that the amount of money in village bank kept increasing." In principle, even after L (as usually referred by people) phased out, it still continued to provide capacity building to members of the village development committee through various workshops.

Because of positive results, LWF Cambodia always organizes study tours for other village development committees to learn from Prachum Ang Village. For Mr. Din Dim, trainings for the next generation of youth are very important in order to sustain development as he does not want every thing to be finished at his generation.

H.E Sao Chvoan, Under Secretary of State of the Ministry of Rural Development highlighted the importance of strengthening the capacity of communities, which contributes to poverty reduction according to the policies of the Royal Government.

LWF or L
The Lutheran World Federation is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. LWF has established it representative office in Cambodia since 1979. Over the past 29 years, LWF Cambodia has closely cooperated with the government, especially the Ministry of Rural Development, to address community needs. LWF Cambodia has seven projects under the name "Integrated Rural Development through Empowerment Projects-IRDEPs" that operate in Kampong Speu, Kampong Chhnang and Battambang. As for Takeo and Kandal, these projects are under phasing out.

Mr. David Mueller is the 10th person who works as LWF Cambodia country representative since 1998. In 2010, this organization will be localized as an autonomous organization in association with LWF/DWS headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1997 to 2007, LWF spent 34 million USD on rural development in Cambodia.