They have met the Venerable Vandong Thorn, the Executive Director of BSDA-Buddhism and Society Development Association located at No. 05 National Street 07, Nokorbachey Pagoda, Ampil Leu Village, Ampil Commune, Kampong Siem District, Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia.

During the first meeting in the offices of BSDA, Professor Dr. Rabenau and his brother in law got a first general picture of the activities of BSDA, both in and outside the offices.

He subsequently had asked the venerable Vandong Thorn, in which way he could donate and help BSDA. The venerable Vandong just smiled and then replied, that is up you - with whatever will give you a happy feeling. Professor Rabenau promised to support BSDA as much as he could, together with his brother in law.

Later on, colleagues of the ven. Vandong guided them around on a visit to Kampong Cham. The following month, the ven. Vandong got an e-mail from Holger, repeating the once made promise after his return to Frankfurt am Main, Germany and confirming the final arrangement of the private donations.

The ven. Vandong Thorn meanwhile had prepared a project proposal on the Intergraded Community Development “Mushroom project” and submitted it directly to Prof. Dr. Rabenau, with a budget for one year within the time frame period, with total grants needed amounting to USD $ 7,200.00

All the grants for this project have been subsequently given by

- Mr. Michael and Mrs. Marion Schäfer, Germany
- Ms. Marhild Kortenbusch, Germany
- Mrs. Anneliese Rabenau, Germany
- Mr. Holger F. Rabenau, Germany
- Mr. Ludger Wenzel and Mrs. Birgit Hahn-Wenzel, Germany
- Mrs. Wendy and Mr. Arno Möser, Germany
- Ms. Iris Lemanczyk, Germany
- Mrs. Nicole de Jong, Germany
- Mrs. Maren and Mr. Walter Pritzkow, Germany
- Ms. Christine Hans, Germany
- Mr. Peter Altmann, Germany

We were very happy to see that also other donators like
- Mrs.Chen Jia Li and Mrs. YY Hsu, Taipei, Taiwan
have joined the private group of supporters.

The report covers the events over a 6 months period, since the partnership with the Private donators for the Intergraded Community Development “Mushroom Project” from Germany was established in August 2007 and continues until 31 January 2008. It gives an overview of the activities carried out.

The following sections are divided into:

2. OVERVIEW OF PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION
2.1 Progress of the program implementation in Kampong Cham
2.1.1 Component 1 - Community’s leader voting project
2.1.2 Component 2- Health education about HIV/AIDS and drug abuse
2.1.3 Component 3 - Capacity building towards a cooperative mushroom growing project
2.1.4 Component 4 - Marketing research project
2.1.5 Component 5 - Family Income/ Savings book project
3. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
3.1 Implementation of activities against the agreed time-schedule
Table 3.1: Implementation of activities against agreed time-schedule
3.2 Lesson learned and conclusions

At first, it was were very difficult to get adequate information and to work with this community, because we didn’t have a contact person who could responded to everything concerning that group of people.

So the first component of this project, the election of a new village leader, has been completed, following a repeated request of the villagers, asking BSDA to mediate such new elections.

After the voting process, a leader was found and elected. A meeting was called for all the community members to recognize the responsibility of the leader.

It's responsibilities are:
· to communicate between the community and the local authority
· to act as an advocate for the human rights of the community members
· to contact local NGOs for assistance
· to work together with BSDA in order to monitor the project
- to act as an advocate for the human rights of the community members.

Currently BSDA staff members have built a relationship with the community by providing learning opportunities at the village. These opportunities involve a combination of non formal teaching, teaching of a foreign language, life skills and morality to the children and adults.

The discussions about HIV/ AIDS and drug abuse take place during formal education sessions, such as foreign language training and traditional dancing training as well as during informal visits to the community by BSDA staff.

There are 170 people involved in this project. Some representatives from these families join in with regular meetings to discuss HIV/AIDS and drugs issues. There are a total of 22 children ( 15 female ) who participate in the dance training.

During the sessions on HIV/AIDS and drugs education, topics are dealt with such as, the dangers of drug-substance abuse, how HIV/AIDS can be contracted, how to prevent HIV/AIDS.

In order to prepare for the mushroom growing project, land was acquired next to the village and a growing shed with a wood construction, with internal hanging racks to support the growing compound, was built. The construction of the first well was completed in September 2007.

This was followed by the education of the villagers in the community, in order to provide the capacity and the know-how for the growing of the mushrooms, which took place during September 2007.

After a pilot project, which involved 10 people, more community members were trained and given technical advice on the subject. A total of 33 people in two workshops received the respective training. After completion of this training, contracts were signed as a commitment to continue the project and ensure sustainability. Participants were provided with the growing compound and spawn for the first planting.

It has been mutually noticed, the project was going well and the mushroom production and marketing was proving to be successful.

The community produces a crop of mushrooms once a week. The original seed stock lasts for 5 months and will be replaced in February 2008.

Every other month, an expert evaluation reveals to the villagers important facts concerning their mushroom production and the increase of general awareness. The villagers need to find out what the opinions are.

A questionnaire was developed and given to hotels, restaurants, cookery companies and market-stall holders in Kampong Cham town. The results showed, that there was sufficient interest to make the project viable.

The harvest of the type of mushroom being produced would have to be increased, as the type being grown at present is needed in larger marketing quantities. The result has been that the mushroom sales have continued well, but at a low rate of income, due to large availability on the market.

The mushroom production is jointly carried out in one production-site, that was built at the new land of the village, but the mushroom-bags have been divided to each family.

One family was distributed 347 bags, that will result in a mushroom productions of 10 kilos per week. Each
week, 60 kilos of mushrooms are produced for the
whole community. They are sold for 2,500 Riel (US $ 0.63) per kilo.

At present, the money earned from the sale of the mushrooms is being used to pay back a loan taken to purchase the land. The money for this purchase of the land was provided by the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), as part of the Community Development Fund (CDF). The repayment of this loan is expected to take approximately 2 years.

3.1 Implementation of activities against agreed time-schedule

A total of 33 activities were planned for implementation during the quarter according to the agreed time-schedule laid out in BSDA’s proposal to the Private donators from Germany. Of these activities, 19 have been fully completed or partially achieved, 3 have been abandoned as they have proved to be no longer necessary: The use of Stickers, the feasibility study for a village market-stall and the investigation of transportation possibilities. The status of all activities planned for the quarter is summarized in Table 3.1 below.

Please find the complete table here: table3-1.pdf (PDF-File)

According to the experience gathered in the past 6 months, we have learned and understood more along with the implementation of this project.

1. The situation is very bad for the mobile communities, like the target community that we are working with right now. The Government continues to removes their villages, every time the land that they have lived in has become expensive. They are moved away to stay in other places and with the small space of land that is given to them in exchange, they are forced to live under most difficult conditions.

2. It is very difficult to work in this community, because almost all of villagers have a low level of education. So we need more time to bring them together into an effective working unit.

3. After the drug abuse, HIV/AIDS awareness and morality education was done in the entire community, the violence, alcohol abuse and discrimination was reduced.

4. At the beginning, before project was started, it was necessary to arrange for some rice or other presents in order to make them join the meetings. We had to tell them "we have some present for you, please come to join the meeting". But right now, there are 80% of them always coming to join a meeting and without providing gifts anymore.

5. Actually 90% of the children are sent to school by the parents within the project agreement between the community and BSDA.

6. All the mushroom productions have been bought directly by the market-traders, which means that the community doesn’t need their own stall at the market.
7. 80% families who get income from mushroom productions have agreed to save the money on a saving book. The excess funds are used to pay back the loan money that they borrow from outside.

By: BSDA Office
BSDA - Buddhism and Society Development Association, Kampong Cham, Cambodia
www.bsda-cambodia.org