Chance to support first ever Professional Counselling and Training Project in Cambodia
Have you ever wanted to make a life-changing difference? One that will heal hearts, change mindsets and transform lives?
Please join me in supporting a sustainable, accredited and professional counselling educational program in Cambodia.
The goal is to train 25 counsellors over the next 2 years to stop the cycle of trauma.
Heal hearts. Change mindsets. Transform lives.
For all world changers, this is the first university course of its type in Cambodia!
If you believe in the saying “it is better to teach a person to fish” this will not only be teaching one person but giving them the skills to heal the trauma of many.
A student that wants to learn; a teacher that wants to teach
Chaya* is one of hundreds of brave women in Cambodia who want to help heal their country as it rebuilds from the atrocities that occurred in the 1970s. To do so she needs education and skills but she is from a poor village.
Chaya knows first-hand the great need for professional counselling in Cambodia, but services in this developing country are minimal and dependent on NGO’s (non- government organizations).
BRINGING HOPE
Thank goodness for Hope*. She is a softly-spoken, wise woman – one of the most selfless that you will ever meet. She is uniquely placed. Not only does she have a Masters in Counselling from a UK university, she has 6 years+ experience helping young girls who have been victims of the sex trade in Cambodia. She has given up her job and her life in the UK because she believes that counselling can free hearts and minds from past trauma making a dramatic difference to future prospects.
A hope and a future
“A Counselling Centre by Cambodians for Cambodians”
After one YEAR of meetings, workshops, business plans, curriculum development and recruiting of Cambodian psychologists trained overseas; there is an opportunity for this course to begin at a private university in the capital city in October!
Yes, a counselling centre for excellence to train 25 counsellors over the next year!
This 2 year part-time accredited diploma ‘health’ counselling course, will be offered for the first time in the country. There will be only 25 spaces offered initially. This cohort number is the minimum required for covering course costs and ensuring high quality evidence-based education. The students will each access a minimum of twenty hours’ personal therapy and be supported by a professional supervisor on a monthly basis when on their experiential placements in year two.
The counselling team consists of 7 sessional teachers (6 are Khmer) and four counselling psychologists offering personal therapy or supervision; who are mindful of maintaining role boundaries. We also have had offers of overseas on-line workshops from highly respected university professors. These workshops will promote discussion in class. A psychologist interpreter will support expatriate facilitators.
“The course has a relational narrative approach, which appears to be the ‘best fit’ for the nation’s needs and culture. This focus will be on education that balances heart and mind; enhancing relationships and gently dissolving the painful trauma prison wall of silence”.
Broad reaching impact
The help that counselling can provide to the Cambodian people is also being recognised outside of the psychology field. Law professors from the university are running a module about law and ethics in counselling. The Centre has also been approached by the a local hospital to teach equip the medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and midwifery students communication and basic counselling skills.
Donation Information
Option 1 – Sponsor a student
If the mindset of your organisation is to provide education and training instead of handouts, please come alongside this cause.
To run, the course desperately needs 20 businesses, schools or foundations to each sponsor one student to complete the course.
(The cost will be $1,950 AUD per year, $3,900 for the 2 years, which is remarkable value for a university course!).
There are willing lecturers, trained in the UK and here, willing to share their time and skill for free.
There are willing students but the lack of opportunity for a decent education means they are too poor to attend without a scholarship.
I am told that Sponsorship of the students can be arranged through the Sophan Kith Education Fund using the attached form.
The commitment is $1500 USD per student per year. ($1,925 AUD). To give the student the opportunity to complete the course, a 2 year commitment of $3,000 USD ($3,950 AUD) is requested.
Option 2 – Buy a $15 bus ticket for a student in Cambodia! –
There are willing students, most from poor villages, who have compassionate hearts and clever minds, but who are too poor to afford the travel from their village to the capital city to undertake the course.
So why not buy them a ‘ticket’!
- $15 AUD will buy a willing student a bus ticket to travel the long distance from their village to the course.
- 2 tickets ($30 AUD) will get them to the course and back for one week of study.
- 5 tickets ($75 AUD) will provide a student a place to rest their head and study for one week’s sessions of the course.
- 6 tickets ($90 AUD) will enable a student to undertake the return trip AND give them a very basic bed as they study away from their families.
Of course, doubling the above amounts, will give twice as many students the same chance.
[Standby for fundraising link for this, or if you can suggest one with low fundraising fees, please contact me]
Where funds will go
Each student costs US$1,500 per year (so US$3,000 for the full two-year course). In addition, expenses are incurred in order to attend the university. These include:
Travel to Pnom Penh every second week – US$18-$20 for a round trip fare
Accommodation for at minimum 4 nights – US$15 per night.
I am not involved in running this project and receive no benefit from funds received. I post this to raise awareness as I believe passionately in hope through education.