Off to Cambodia to help break cycle of exploitation endured by women
by Sophie Rishworth
Published May 15, 2021 10:08AM

A strong sense of social justice and wanting to have an impact has led Ryan and Emma Hall to pack up their lives and head to Cambodia.

There they will work with disadvantaged young women who have been rescued from exploitation and help them develop job skills to take back to their villages.

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. The majority of young girls they will work with have received no formal education, which makes them highly vulnerable to exploitation, said Emma.

Everything Emma and Ryan own is now in two boxes, two suitcases and some hand luggage as they prepare to take off in two weeks.

The couple are headed to Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh with a one-year contract to work for with not-for-profit organisation Bloom Asia.

“This is what we want for our lives.” said Emma.

“I've always had a heart for social justice and empowering women and as a couple we have always wanted to make a difference and not just ‘get ahead'.”

Emma, 26, and Ryan, 31, have been married for three years. Ryan grew up in Gisborne and the couple have been here visiting family and friends for a month before they head off.

“Most of these girls come from villages where there are huge levels of poverty, and the majority of girls have never been to school,” Emma said.

“To break that cycle it is so important that they have support to heal from their past and give them the skills to build for their future.”

“Like jobs,” adds Ryan.

One of his main projects will be to start up early childhood centres and cafés at the Bloom Asia training centre in Phnom Penh, providing work and a place for the young women to develop employable skills.

Emma and Ryan will share the title of project manager. Emma has been working for Bloom Asia as fundraising manager, from their Queensland office.

They will join the Bloom team to expand their capacity for up to 150 women a day using the centre.

“Even if someone is rescued out of exploitation, what happens is unless they have support, or a job to go to, they are really vulnerable.

“That's why we get excited about this,” said Emma.

“Because the more jobs there are the more women we can help. Every dollar that comes in means more chances to heal and more hope for the women.”

The young women often return to their villages and take their skills with them.

Ryan said this helped normalise women having a job and an education in their villages.
In full: https://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/local- ... -by-women/

Flood of replies explaining why these people are assholes in 3..2..1...

*small countdown delay, sorry*
Nice & neat, best of luck to them.
Is the timing really adequate ? I thought PP was under lockdown ?

Can't hurt to teach food hygiene, basic literacy and numeracy, esl, etc.
Many young adults do not have these skills.
I wish them well.

Do gooders, possibly bible thumpers.

Hopefully their fluent in Khmer ???

Klangattack wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 7:56 pm Hopefully their fluent in Khmer ???

say what now?

nerdlinger wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 6:21 pm Flood of replies explaining why these people are assholes in 3..2..1...

No they are not assholes at all. This couple are leaving New Zealand where daily life is chill and almost normal.
They are idealists with good intentions, but it sounds like they have never been to Cambodia before, which will be challenging to say the least in these times of Covid.
With the best intentions, you can still be not very useful. As someone said above, hope they have learnt some language skills, and something about Khmer social culture.

Oh, and I hope this is not connected to an evangelistic church - redemption from slavery = come to Jesus.
(I have no idea about the origins of their association BloomAsia.)

Crazy timing....

Herr Nerdlinger,
Come and live here among us and get involved with the everyday struggle of it. Why do you insist on this cheeky chip on thy shoulder Herr Nerdlinger? For anyone that has lived here for any amount of time I can't imagine how they would NOT consider social work especially when it comes to young women. We get to see young women bullied and worse all too often, it hurts. We are told to let the Khmer take care of the Khmer and that there is nothing we can do. Anyone who is willing to dive in and go at it with basic competency skills with this huge underserved portion of the population here is welcomed and encouraged. I have yet to meet an expat here in recent times that is solely concerned with messing about with these women and not taking on some kind of teacher role with said women at some point in the relationship. Are they perfect role models ? No. Are these people that are coming to get involved going to get it all right first go? Probably not. People, all fucking people, have huge potentials and tremendous amounts of unpredictable creativity welled up inside of them to be used just in these instances. One of the reasons I suspect some of us DO enjoy living in Cambodia is that we get to dig deep everyday to try to understand and grow into and be a part of our chosen community. Nowhere I have ever lived in the world has shown me so much room for my own development as a human being, and sometimes my dreams get to intersect and click with a local person and its a beautiful thing to behold. Come, Herr Nerdlinger, come now- get off the bench, get a glove on and get in the game, this is your life mate.
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