Organization information

Add: 163/A9 Huynh Thuc Khang, P. Binh Khanh, T.P. Long Xuyen An Giang

Tel: 07. 63853888

E: Tien.Tong@pacificlinks.org
W: http://mekongcommunity.org/

Key contact person(s): Tien Tong

 

General information of the project and program which have ESD related activities:

Name: “Mekong Women for Community Development Program (MWCD)”

 

Goals and objectives:

Mekong Women for Community Development (MWCD) seeks to empower women in the Mekong Delta through leadership development and engagement in grassroots community development projects. With an emphasis on capacity building, MWCD provides leadership training that equips women with skills, resources, and other tools to design and implement their own local projects that promote the growth of healthy communities and the investment in young girls and women.

 

Donor(s) US Department of State and the Bureau of East Asian Pacific Affairs (EAP)

ESD programs/ projects/activities

Name: “Mekong Women for Community Development Program (MWCD)”

Objectives:

Mekong Women for Community Development (MWCD) seeks to empower women in the Mekong Delta through leadership development and engagement in grassroots community development projects. With an emphasis on capacity building, MWCD provides leadership training that equips women with skills, resources, and other tools to design and implement their own local projects that promote the growth of healthy communities and the investment in young girls and women.

 

Describe educational and learning methods/tools applied:

Phase 1: ToT (Training for Trainers) 40 women selected from three provinces in the Mekong Delta participate in leadership trainings on community development including needs identification and assessment, resource mobilization, proposal writing, and team building.

Phase II: The 40 women from Phase 1 in turn become Lead Trainers and replicate trainings for groups of 5 women each from their own local communes and villages. Following the trainings, each group writes a project proposal addressing a pressing issue identified through a community needs assessment

The MWCD program endorses:

  • Education that promotes critical thinking and problem solving skills: Community women in rural areas, who often have little to no academic education, have established their own project groups for community development, written out their own proposals and plans to carry out projects, and carried out their plans to help many needy members in their communities.
  • Education that encourages and stresses participatory decision-making responsibility: The women’s groups consist of approximately 7 members, each with assigned titles and tasks. They work together to prepare reports, presentations, community activities, etc.
  • Education that is locally relevant and culturally appropriate: All projects take place within the local communities and all are culturally appropriate, especially groups such as the clay stove-pot vocational training group, for example, have been established with the objective to provide community members with skills to make stable incomes while preserving the clay stove-pot custom of the culture.

Stakeholders:

Pacific Links Foundation; MWCD donors, including US Department of State and the Bureau of East Asian Pacific Affairs (EAP); the Women’s Unions of Kien Giang, An Giang, and Can Tho; other organizations and groups that have expressed interest and devoted support for the women’s groups, including SODIS and Horizon Capital Group.

Status: ongoing

Location: An Giang, Kien Giang, Can Tho

 

Sustainable development themes:

Citizen participation and good governance, Poverty reduction, Sustainable urbanization, Sustainable production/consumption.

Target groups:

Local people

Outputs and final outcomes of the ESD activities.

The MWCD community women’s groups have helped to pull families out of poverty, providing opportunities for many families to build sustainable income, regain health, and have allowed women considering to seek employment abroad to stay locally by providing them with other employment options and spreading awareness of the growing issue of human trafficking. Please visit the MWCD website at: www.mekongwomen.org for success stories, more information about the women’s groups, and about MWCD.

 

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