The project Economic Empowerment of People with Disabilities establishes a network of people with disabilities to influence the commune council to consider challenges (health and education) faced by people with disabilities and include them in the commune investment plan. Representative Self-Help Disabilities Organisation Batheay (RSDOB) uses a Twin Track Approach by strengthening the capacity of the network of people with disabilities at village level and to promote dialogue between the authorities and persons with disabilities to understand their issues and service requirements. The project addresses two key priorities: First, the concerns and issues of people with disabilities have not been included in the decision-making on policy at a sub-national level. Second, it lacks mechanisms to promote access to health services and vocational education services for people with disabilities while these public services need to be equitable and inclusive.  In order to address these priorities, there is a need to include them in the three-year rolling investment programme for Kampong Cham province as well as the Three-Year Implementation Plan (IP3) to respond to the need of people with disabilities to access to health services and vocational education services.

“The main goal of Voice is to give a voice to those voiceless groups and that is also our main goal.” Batheay from Self-Help Disabilities Organisation Click here to see the Facebook post

The main results from this project were as follows;

• A total of 437 People with disabilities from twenty villages of four communes were selected to participate in this project. 442 of them were referred to receive a disability classification. Therefore, they get an identity card for people with disabilities that allowed them to access free health care services in Kampong Cham provinces. As a result of the classification, 375  people were eligible to get the identity card for people with disabilities.
• RSDOB has coordinated and supported sixty-five people with disabilities to get health treatment free of charge from the referral and provincial hospital.
• Through a series of activities and advocacy approaches, sixteen target self-help groups managed to gather their common issues and needs, to be addressed by local and public services at the sub-national level. 4 communes councils have accepted and included the common needs raised by the self-help groups in the 16 villages in their commune investment plan. Around 30% of the needs raised were included in the commune development plan’s priority list to be implemented in 2020.
• RSDOB has succeeded in dialogues with the provincial vocational training department to organise 2 training sessions related to agriculture and other livestock raising skills to 100 self-help group members, promoting their economic empowerment.
• Sixteen self-help groups have expressed their confidence and delight. This is because they had been recognised, respected and heard on their demand for identity cards for people with disabilities. The local authorities and provincial governor had addressed this demand.
• The needs and issues of people with disabilities have been heard and addressed especially during the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. RSDOB coordinated and worked with the local authorities to identify the most economically vulnerable people with disabilities to receive an identity card that enables them to receive emergency assistance from the government with the cash transfer programme.
• For more than two years of project implementation, aside from supporting the sixteen self-help groups to raise their voices, RSDOB also succeeded in strengthening a good relationship with local and provincial authorities to see the real need of people with disability and take quick action to address the needs based on the law.
• On the ENPower learning trajectory, RSDOB organised and conducted the “Diary Entry Training” for Self-Help Group Members. Seven members of the self-help groups were selected as “Diary Keepers” for the EnPower project with facilitation support from This Life Cambodia (TLC) and the Voice Coordination Team.

“The main goal of Voice is to give a voice to those voiceless groups and that is also our main goal.” – Representative Self-Help Disabilities Organisation Batheay District (RSDOB) 

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For the “Economic Empowerment of People with Disabilities” project by the Representative Self-Help Disabilities Organisation Batheay District (RSDOB), a total of 437 People with Disabilities from 20 villages of 4 communes were selected to participate. They were referred to receive a disability classification in order to obtain an identity card for People with Disabilities that allows them to access free health care services in Kampong Cham province. 375 of them were eligible to receive the identity card for People with Disabilities.  

Through a series of activities and advocacy approaches, 16 self-help groups managed to gather their common issues and needs, in order to be addressed by local and public services at the sub-national level. On the ENPower learning trajectory, RSDOB organised and conducted the “Diary Entry Training” for the self-help group members, with 7 members selected as “Diary Keepers” with facilitation support from This Life Cambodia (TLC) and the Voice coordination team. 4 communes councils have accepted and included the common needs raised by the self-help groups in the 16 villages in their commune investment plan. Around 30% of the needs raised were included in the commune development plan’s priority list to be implemented in 2020. 

Aside from directly supporting the 16 self-help groups to raise their voices, RSDOB also succeeded in strengthening relationships with local and provincial authorities to see the real need of people with disabilities and take quick action to address these needs based on the law. RSDOB has coordinated and supported 65 people with disabilities to get health treatment free of charge from the referral and provincial hospital. It also entered dialogues with the provincial vocational training department to organise 2 training sessions on agriculture skills to 100 self-help group members, promoting their economic empowerment. 

The 16 self-help groups have expressed their confidence and delight, because they were recognised, respected and heard on their demands for identity cards by the local authorities and provincial governor. The needs and issues of people with disabilities have been heard and addressed especially during the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. RSDOB worked with the local authorities to identify the most economically vulnerable people with disabilities to receive an identity card to enable them to receive emergency assistance from the government under a cash transfer programme.