“We are ready to continue the program on our own”

With more than 16,000 residents, Baucau is the second largest city in Timor Leste and is located on the northern coast of Timor island. Like Dili, the nation’s capital and a much larger city, Baucau is home to a national defense forces base.

The CWS team in Timor Leste recently traveled to Baucau to support HIV prevention information sessions and routine HIV testing. The base commander is very supportive of this HIV prevention program, so his troops were active participants in the information sessions.

“I’m happy because our messages were well received and many soldiers took the opportunity to be tested for sexually transmitted infections,” says CWS Program Officer Cristovao da Costa Ramos. He continued, “I joined CWS about a year ago to support this work, which I believe is having a positive impact. Our doctors and the other health care workers are doing a really great job. I have had the opportunity to see the work of my army and navy colleagues, and, in my opinion, we are ready to continue to HIV prevention program [on our own now].”

CWS has led the HIV education and prevention program with active engagement from Timor Leste’s nation armed forces and with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense HIV Prevention Program for almost a decade; our engagement will end later this year.

When a CWS initiative meets a mom’s initiative in Myanmar

Ma Khaing has her hands full. She’s a mother of five children who range in age from two up to 19. She also sells fish, and her husband Ko Ye Tun works as a daily wage laborer and fisherman. All five of their children live at home, including 19-year-old, married Yamin Hlaing. Seventeen-year-old Kyaw Min Hlaing is also a wage laborer; 10-year-old Phyo Min Zaw and seven-year-old Phyo Wai are in school; and little Thura Aung is a two-year-old toddler.

All eight members of the household live off a combined monthly income of about 120,000 Myanmar Kyat, which is less than $100. It’s not nearly enough to pay for all of their expenses, especially education for the youngest children. Education remains the family’s priority, though, even above having healthy and nutritious food.

It is tragic but not surprising, then, that little Thura Aung was found to be malnourished during a recent CWS nutrition screening in their village.

When this discovery was made, this mom stepped up for her little one. Despite being busy and tired from her daily responsibilities, Ma Khaing has actively joined every nutrition education session. She wants her son, and all of her children, to grow up healthy.

From the start, Ma Khaing has been interested in learning about the characteristics of the different food groups and healthy practices for preparing food. She received a rooster, three hens, five types of seeds and farming tools to start a home garden through the program. She immediately got to work expanding her brood of chickens and her vegetable harvest. She’s up to 22 chickens and counting, feeds eggs to her family regularly and planning to sell future chicks for profit. Her pumpkins, long beans, watercress, spinach and zucchini are all thriving, so the whole family’s diet is enriched and increased. And Ma Khaing knows how to make sure her meals are prepared and cooked in a healthy way.

There’s one other significant recent change, too. Because the family was so poor, they weren’t able to build their own household latrine. They used a neighbor’s latrine. Now, thanks to another CWS initiative – and her own clear initiative, too – Ma Khaing had the chance to get a latrine for her family.

First, she joined information sessions: what do you need to have to build a latrine? What are some basic sanitation and hygiene best practices to put into place once you have them? Then, CWS supported her family with building materials, including concrete rings, zinc sheeting and bamboo. The family contributed labor and other materials for the project.

Now, the family has their own latrine, and they can use it anytime.

Ma Khaing reports that she is happy with her son’s monthly weight gain and consistent growth. The whole family has healthy meals each day and better hygiene, which they have learned from their inspiring mom.

Dreaming of climate change resilience

North Belau village in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, is a remote community. It’s far from any city or town. Even worse, it’s prone to landslides.

Frederik Kimbun has been the village leader for more than a decade. Over the years, the 47-year-old has seen his community become more vulnerable than ever to disasters and the impacts of climate change. He tells us, “I receive many complaints about landslides into the river, which cause flooding of farmland and destroys crops. But I was at a loss as to what we can do about this.”

Unfortunately, the village’s situation wasn’t a bad dream. But there was another DREAM there to help. DREAM – which stands for Disaster Resilience through Enhanced Adaptive Measures – is a program that CWS started in partnership with PUSBINLAT Motivator, a local organization started by the Toraja Church. Through the DREAM program, we’re helping families in this district, the Tana Toraja district, build up their capacity to adapt to these challenge and become more resilient in the face of climate change.

Frederick says, “after learning about the DREAM project and the work [of PUSBINLAT Motivator], I realize that there are ways to make North Belau more resilient to disasters.” He continued, “I fully support the DREAM project and appreciate the helping hand PUSBINLAT Motivator and CWS are lending our village. Our dream is to become a climate change resilient community so our lives will be better in the future!”

PUSBINLAT Motivator received the ACT Alliance Disaster Risk Reduction – Climate Change Adaptation Award in 2017. CWS is honored and inspired to partner with them alongside the people of North Belau and other villages across Tana Toraja district.

A health clinic without a bathroom? Not anymore.

Two years ago, the health center in Chroy Sdao Commune in western Cambodia was in a state of disrepair. Perhaps the most alarming fact was that there wasn’t a functioning toilet – at a health clinic!

Even while up against these odds, the clinic staff were still intent on providing basic care and services for people in four villages – nearly 12,000 people! Like in any community, people here had a diverse set of health care issues and needs. Clinic staff were seeing between 20 and 30 patients each day for services ranging from prenatal checkups, delivering babies and post-natal care to vaccinations to treating malnutrition and tuberculosis.

Many patients and their families spent long hours at the clinic, which of course means they needed to use a bathroom during their visit. And given that it was a health center, urine and stool samples were also part of caring for patients.

CWS partner Rural Development Association began a partnership with the health center in 2016. This partnership was aimed at fostering much-needed nutrition, health and hygiene education. Having a safe, sanitary toilet was an obvious supporting activity to further ensure the success of this partnership.

Once RDA alerted our team to the situation, CWS provided funding for the clinic to repair a two-room sanitary latrine. This was just one of the many latrines built or repaired as part of CWS programs in this commune; in addition to this two-room latrine and a similar one built at a nearby primary school, 31 families received support to build sanitary latrines for their homes.

Our team recently visited the clinic for a follow up visit. The center director, Ith Vuth, told us, “Before it was difficult for patients – especially women, people with disabilities and the elderly – who came for services, only to find we didn’t have a latrine. They needed to go a nearby home for this.”

Now, thanks to a relatively small investment, things have changed for the better. This is thanks, in no small part, to the generosity of those who support CWS so we can help vulnerable families and communities around the world as they work to improve their own lives.

One grateful Cambodian patient is Chanthou, who now visits the health center for prenatal treatment for her third pregnancy. She told us, “I am so happy that there is a latrine for patients. Now we have privacy, unlike before when, for a urine test sample, we had to go outside the clinic and ask a neighboring family with a latrine at their house to use it. Or, sometimes, we had to use an open outdoor space! In the past, I felt such shame in this that I sometimes didn’t come for my check-ups. But now I come regularly to my appointments, and I notice that many others are doing the same as me.”

A new toilet (and inspiration for their neighbors!) with an assist from CWS

Pann Sreytouch, 23, lives with her husband, Doeun Tith, 25, and their two-year-old daughter in Teuk Kraham village in northern Cambodia. They are farmers with a small land plot where they grow rice, cassava, eggplant, citronella and basil. They sell the cassava locally for about $450 per season, and the other crops they keep for family use. Despite some earnings, the family is still poor. CWS team members began to work with the family last year to consider and pursue their goals.

Among other things, Touch and Tith joined CWS-led awareness and education sessions to learn about water safety, better personal hygiene and improved sanitation. After learning more about the importance of sanitary latrines and good hygiene, they were inspired to build their own toilet – with a little help from their new friends at CWS. With some material and technical help from CWS, including expert advice to be sure the septic tanks were properly set, and with about $140 of their own money for good quality walls and a tin roof, the family also made sure to learn how to safely empty the septic tank as needed. Now, Tith says, “I am so happy with the toilet!” We don’t go use the field as our toilet anymore; and “the health of my family is better.”

Neighbors are also stopping by to use the toilet, which the family is happy to share. “My neighbors have come to see how [our latrine] works, and now they plan to build their own. I’m thankful to CWS for their support and can already see benefits for my family and the community.”

Research, analysis and hard work mean hundreds of dollars in savings annually for this mom in Cambodia

Veth Sokhean, runs her own business. Surprisingly, 65 percent of Cambodian businesses – many small and informal – are run by women.

Sokhean lives in Choam Ksant village in northern Cambodian with her husband Lum Loep, 33, and their three sons ages 13, 9 and 4. Loep is a wage laborer with low income due to the seasonal nature of his work, and the family often struggled to have enough to eat in the times he had no work at all.

Many years ago, CWS began working with the family to help them change their situation, and Sokhean was active in a variety of activities in pursuit of their “family improvement goals,” which were agreed to when they became a CWS partner family.

When Sokhean said she wanted to start her own business, she was advised to join a meeting about profitably poultry-raising, followed by a training about basic market analysis, and then marketing, for micro-business start-ups. After she completed these sessions, Sokhean also received six chickens to support her family with eggs for eating and selling, which would help her start her business with sales profits.

Separately, she received a $30 grant to start her ‘dream business’ – a noodle shop, which she knew from her research could do well. “I earned about $4 a day from selling noodle dishes, and the profit [after costs] was used to buy rice and support my children to go to school,” Sokhean told CWS team members who visited her recently to see how she and her family are doing – which is quite well!

Some years ago, seeing a gap in the market, Sokhean shifted from selling noodles to selling very popular local desserts, which sold well. Now, Sokhean’s profits are almost $9 a day and she can save as much $750 annually. Thinking about her success, Sokhean said, “I knew how to make these desserts, but I didn’t have the confidence to make them for a business because I thought, ‘I am really poor and people will not buy from me.’ But with learning from CWS-organized workshops, and with their support to build my confidence, I [proved myself wrong!] My family now have enough to eat, I can send my sons to school and even manage to have some savings [to invest in more improvements to our house and business]”.

A place to learn, live, play … and sketch!

On a rainy Jakarta afternoon Mohammad* and Ahmad*, who are asylum-seeking teens from Darfur, Sudan, are sitting on the balcony of their CWS-hosted group home passing the time by drawing in their sketch books. Ahmad is a very talented artist, and he is teaching Mohammad. They both have lived in Indonesia for more than a year, having escaped violence in their home country.

“I was born in a huge refugee camp,” Ahmad remembers, “and when I first arrived in Indonesia I was homeless. With no money and nowhere to go, I ended up camping out in front of a United Nations office. I am lucky that [because I am a minor child here on my own] CWS staff could bring me to this group home, where I now I have a place to live, learn and play.”

CWS manages five group homes that host almost 200 unaccompanied and separated asylum-seeking and refugee children with financial support from the UNHCR, the US Department of State and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. The children are mostly teenagers from Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia, and they have shelter and protection thanks to CWS and our donors. In addition to basic care, the children also have some opportunities to learn Indonesian, English and computer skills, to have recreational activities and, as with Ahmad and Mohammad, to teach and learn from each other … and pass the time as they await others’ decisions about their futures.

*names changed to protect identities.

Twelve women. Two-thirds of an acre. New income and better nutrition!

Twelve women in Eonfetnai hamlet of Enonaubuasa village in West Timor, Indonesia, recently got together to form a farmers’ group. Their goal was to be more self-reliant and create a new source of income and nutrition for their families.

Through the CWS Timor Zero Hunger program and with support for their district Department of Agriculture, the woman formed the Tunas Muda women farmer’s group.

“What motivated us to establish this group was a desire to be more self-reliant, particularly … for vegetable gardening. This not only helps us meet our families’ food needs, it also helps us increase our income when we sell vegetables in the market,” explains Antonia Liunokas, Tunas Muda’s treasurer.

With motivation and new knowledge from being part of Timor Zero Hunger, Tunas Muda members grow a variety of vegetables – morning glory, shallots, spinach, tomatoes, and chili – in a garden that covers about two-thirds of an acre.

“We are grateful for the information, new knowledge, mentoring and guidance from CWS staff and our agriculture extension workers. [We learned] not just about vegetable-growing, but also group management and how to handle our finances,” says Ketura Selan, Tunas Muda’s secretary. “Group members make between $5 and $8 in profit each harvest. We use $2 to buy new seeds and the rest we use to buy rice, salt and cooking oil,” she added. “For the future we will cultivate even more land with corn, beans and nuts. We also are planning a savings group.”

One workshop means better access to books for hundreds of students in Vietnam

Inspired after a CWS-led workshop about child-friendly libraries, Le Thi Kim Lan, from the Than Uyen district Education Department, shared her thoughts when we met again after some time: “You know, Yen, we teachers used to share ideas about child-friendly libraries during summer vacation times; but we were just learning on our own. We never had a chance to join a professional training like the one CWS organized.”

The workshop was the Than Uyen primary school teachers’ first time for learning and sharing with outside help. “What we have learned is great,” Teacher Lan said, “Now we understand that a child-friendly library is where children are at the center; it is not developing a library just to meet the required ‘fancy’ criteria set by education professional — that is inconvenient and unfriendly for children to use.” It is just the opposite! “We now know how to organize the library in a child-friendly way and use color codes to categorize the books so that even a first grader can easily find a book of interest.”

Teacher Lan went on to say, “One example I want to tell you about is Pha Mu primary school, which did not have a library. So, after the CWS workshop, the teachers mobilized parents to contribute bamboo and labor to make an outdoor reading place near the bike park.” And, “In other schools, teachers and parents worked together to make bookshelves, reading tables and chairs; and, more importantly, it was children who were the ones to arrange the books, and to freely to take them out and return them to the proper place after their reading.” And finally, “What we appreciate the most from the workshop is that it helped us truly understand the ‘child-friendly’ concept [so that now our students really are the center]; also, we realized we could mobilize the community and local resources in making it happen.

“The water becomes smelly and dirtier when it rains”

Fifty very young children spend their whole day at a small satellite kindergarten in the remote mountain village of Na Dinh in Vietnam. These children spend their days learning, having meals and playing while their parents are working.

Some time back, I met with Teacher Ha Thi Thao – who is from another province and had been teaching in Na Dinh for two years – when I visited the school.

Teacher Thao told me that the school was using mountain stream water for drinking and cooking, and she said she was concerned about the quality of the water. The water did look unclean; it was very cloudy. Teacher Thao also told me that the teachers put water in plastic buckets and leave it for some time for the dirt to become sediment and sink to the bottom before they used it to drink and cook.

Still, Thao believes that, in the long run, this method is not good for her children’s health. Showing me the school water tank, she added, “The water becomes smelly and dirtier when it rains.”

I knew that CWS could help. I took the opportunity to introduce Teacher Thao to a biosand water filter, which can help address her concerns. Visiting Na Dinh again, I am happy to know that all the teachers are pleased with the filtered water, which is crystal clear – and odorless! Also, parents who came to the kindergarten to help teachers cook lunch for the children asked about the biosand filter and how it worked … and some said they would want to use it for their families, too. So, a new phase of improving water and health is underway, and CWS is happy to help!

Story written by Tran Van Thang, CWS Field Officer, Than Uyen district, Vietnam.