SLS-8d2c Community Impact Study - Cambodia - The Third Phase - Launching a local NGO

Based on the carefully built foundation and a better understanding of the needs of the community, the third phase was started at the end of 2015, when our team encouraged the local leaders to establish their own non-profit organization. Having a registered organization, they could launch fundraising campaigns, receive groups from other countries and co-operate with the government. With support and coaching from the university, the core mission and vision were defined, and a financial model was created to generate income for the NGO to support their existing programmes. Finally, an NGO called "Young People Do" (YPD) was established in 2015. Over time, they expanded the scope of their services to other areas, such as health care. YPD obtained an association license from the government in 2016. To date, YPD has worked with teams from Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, US, and Australia, offering a wide range of services and serving over ten geographical areas in two provinces, Phnom Penh and Kampong Speu.

During the process of setting up the NGO, both parties shared views on different social issues and developed a mutual understanding. The local leaders learned how to formally assess community needs, understand specifications and requirements of engineering projects and the resources involved, from both NGO & local village, in supporting these types of projects. In the meantime, the research team developed our intercultural competence, which enabled us to understand the dynamics between villagers, communicate with local people, and collect their feedback. All these contributed to improving and expanding the projects. 

In 2016, the homestay program and the community learning center were replicated at a village in Koh Dach Island, located about 21 km east of Phnom Penh. 

The same year, a new solar project was started, during which students from PolyU installed public charging stations for a group of nearby households to provide them with electricity. Families could charge their batteries from the station, and our students assembled the solar panels and wired up homes with basic electrical appliances such as lighting and mobile phone charging. These projects were extended to three villages located in Kampong Speu province to the west of Phnom Penh in 2017.  

Young People Do has become a small-but-mighty, much-trusted partner in many projects.