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Issue No. 135 | 10 May 2002 |
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The Costs of War
Interview: Squaring Off Industrial: Heroes Betrayed History: At The Coalface International: Wobblies With Chinese Characters? Politics: Dancing with Trotsky Economics: You Are What You Eat Poetry: Alexander's Bragtime Band Satire: Stott Despoja Celebrates Engagement With Minor Party Review: Painting Paradise
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Bosswatch Week in Review Tool Shed
 Heaps and Heaps of Hate MailNo ChoiceWho Rules Australia?No Wrap for Song Comp Abbott's Contempt
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Postcard Slow Train Coming
*************** Since last postcard the Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA program has been developing well. The Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA offices in Cambodia and Lao PDR combined in organizing a great Cambodia study tour for our Lao partners, the Lao Women's Union (LWU). There are great challenges setting up a vocational training program from scratch for the women's union. Besides the issues mentioned in Postcard 1, key questions are how to effectively target the poorest people, how to assist trainees in actually finding jobs from their training, and how to avoid re-inventing the wheel!!! To assist them in this task the Cambodian study tour was placed early in the project, so the LWU could benefit from the lessons in all these issues from our 15 years of developing similar programs in Cambodia. The first difficulty was the need for 3 languages in every meeting. Only one of the 6 Lao group members spoke English and Khmer is not very close to Lao - so it was a bit tricky. The Cambodian organisations we visited did a great job in preparing reports to help this problem. In Lao, we had worked through the key questions that we wanted answered and emailed them to the Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA Cambodia office before we left. These were translated and sent to all partners in Cambodia we were to visit. It worked well as the key information required was presented clearly. Given the pace of the schedule this was very important. We visited 6 of Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's partners in 3 provinces in 5 days including 4 vocational training centres, fish farming and industry training. The Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA Cambodia office did a fantastic job in hosting the visit. Both project managers and trainers took part in the tour. Trainers of two subjects within the program here in Lao took part - hairdressing and tailoring. The trainers were places alongside Cambodian trainers to share experiences for an additional week and the managers met also with their counterparts in many centres. For Mrs Bounthon, the tailoring teacher, it was her first time out of Lao and first time in an aeroplane!! What did the study tour mean for her? "It was extremely useful for me - I don't have a lot of classroom teaching experience but I have been a tailor for many tears. For me it was very good to share experience with other teachers, to see first hand different teaching methods, to get new ideas for structuring my 4 month course, and to better manage students and the use of materials". For Mrs Vanh Pheng, Project Manager at the Vientiane Municipal Women's Union, it was a valuable experience: "For me I was keen to get greater understanding of training centre management issues, share experiences with women in Cambodia and see what the Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA program had done over such a long time. The result was much more than this - for the real inspiration for me as we start our program here in Lao, is the way people can win against poverty. There is great effort in the Cambodia program in targeting the very poor and we met both these trainees and some who had set up small businesses in the market after their training was finished. Besides this, I also gained good experience in timetabling training, integrating other issues like literacy and HIV into training courses and how to follow up the result of training to see how successful students are afterwards." All in all a very good exchange of information and practical teaching resources. Besides the work - in good Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA study tour tradition, we had an all-singing all-dancing tour as well!!! As usual also, the Australian contingent was outdone terribly in the cultural exchange department - relying on Waltzing Matilda and the Ballad of 1891 against a wide range of beautiful Lao and Cambodian songs. I won't even describe the difference in national dance displays!!! We also visited the genocide sites from the Khmer Rouge time, around Phnom Penh - a new subject for some of the younger members of the Lao delegation. Since our return a few weeks ago we have been working on the first 12 month plan of training and how to incorporate lessons from Cambodia, finalizing the renovation plan for the Vocational Centre planned for Vientiane and interviewing for project staff locally. What does the project mean by poor? In one of the poorest countries in South East it means targeting those earning the equivalent of less than $Aus 4/week in rural areas and $5 a week in the city!! Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's Lao vocational project 2001-2004 is supported by AusAID and matching donations from Australian unions and individual supporters. You can support this work in Laos by becoming a donor. (link to www.apheda.org.au/donor.htm) For more information about Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA go to: www.apheda.org.au or contact Alison Tate on: (02) 9264 9343 or on [email protected]
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