Statement of Executive Director

Since RCEDO was established in July 1998, we have worked with the poorest and vulnerable families of rural communities in Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Siem Reap and Battambang province to support them to overcome the challenges which are affecting their lives and maintaining them in poverty. We worked on livelihood improvement, community empowerment and local good governance through providing people with the tools and skills required to improve their efforts of living, the lives of their family and their community.  Root causes of poverty are multiple, complex and extremely difficult to overcome for the poorest.  External factors such as lack of reliable services, and infrastructures, low education, skills and knowledge, Climate Change in our world, lack of financial resources, as well as poor representation or voice in public debates etc. are all contributing to poor people staying poor and poor.  RCEDO is actively dealing these challenges. Moreover, our work is strongly supported by our donors, local partners and the government, who are actively assisting with building our capacity, therefore increasing the impact of our work on the lives of the poorest communities.

In our collaboration with all key stakeholders such as government departments, local authorities, Local & International NGOs and Private Companies is essential to achieving our short and long term goals. Furthermore, our goal is not only to improve the community’s current situation but also to ensure that the improvements achieved are sustainable livelihood and peace and democracy.

We have monitored many progress and improvements in the lives of those families we assisted. Most have achieved better food security, health care and increased their income generation through learning new agricultural technique, business activities and increased access to safe water and hygiene practices; community base structures have strengthened, increased community participation and dialogue for social accountability and democracy.

As we continue learning from our projects, we are looking forward to have more achievements for our people.

Yours Faithfully,

Mr. Serey Wathana SAM

Ex-Director of RCEDO