Lessons I Learned

Everyone wants to “support girls”. Being a girl myself, I think that is great and all…. but let’s not forget the boys! In Cambodia, there are many sectors which only provide jobs to women: many garment factories only employ women for their line jobs, there are many silk weaving programs and NGO interventions targeting women’s skills training, and a few years ago I visited a crab canning factory in Kep which only employed women as well. Come to think of it, a lot of time the people who are employed to flatten the salt flats in Kep are also all women (with male supervisors pushing them on, but that’s another post…).

Yet there are very few employment options for young men. This leads to a culture in the cities where men sit on street corners (if I want to further a stereotype, or perhaps a generalization, I would add “playing cards”), waiting for someone to come by who wants to hire them for a motorbike ride. Many of these young men would like to find employment, but with such a young population and high unemployment rates, sitting on a ‘moto’ waiting all day for a customer is the best option they have found.

The Iron Workshop/The Craft House in Siem Reap is now doing men-only skills training in jobs like iron work, brick laying, plumbing, air-conditioning repair, etc. We partnered with them at PEPY to support their expansion and we’re hoping this organization focused on investing time in people will help more young men in Cambodia find gainful employment and empower them to continue to share their new skills with others.

So, next time I get an email saying “and we’d like to support education for girls”, I’ll remind them that boys need education to connect them to the skills they need to reach their goals too!