RURAL YOUTH IS KEY TO UNLOCK SOCIAL NORMS FOR THE FUTURE
Mrs. AN Sarun born May 20, 1979 with a family farmer in Trabaek village, Svay Chrum commune, Svay Chrum district, Svay Rieng province. She got interested in farmers’ organization when CFAP Cambodia disseminated about establishment of commune farmers’ association in her commune in 2007 to encourage farmers to involve in rural development. Soon after the dissemination meeting finished, farmers agreed to establish a commune farmers’ association and asked CFAP Cambodia to support on establishment the association. CFAP Cambodia took a role to develop/design documents and governing structure to establish the association in the same year 2007 and she was elected as a deputy chairwoman of SVAY CHRUM Farmers’ Association since then. The agricultural cooperative previously known as Svay Chrum Commune Farmers’ Association which initiated and established by farmers in the rural community with support from the Cambodian Farmer Federation Association of Agricultural Producers (CFAP-Cambodia) on documentation and registration processes. In 2015 CFAP Cambodia had facilitated to reformulate the organizational statute and registered with the Provincial Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (PDAFF) of Svay Rieng province as Svay Chrum Agricultural Cooperative, then AN Sarun won the votes at the first founding General Assembly and became a chairwoman of the SVAY CHRUM Agricultural Cooperative. The agricultural cooperative set up vision, mission and strategic objective as follow:
Vision:
The SVAY CHRUM Agricultural Cooperative wishes to see farmer members and people in the rural community have Food Security, People can leave from poverty, hunger, illiteracy and discrimination. Farmer members and people in the rural community will receive profits and higher incomes from farming activities with sustainability in the future.
Mission:
• To strengthen the organization, forward sustainability in the future
• To strengthen and foster the rural communities in the framework of standing in social justice, equity and mutual autonomy in good collaboration with stakeholders and earn more incomes for family farmer members.
Strategic Objective:
• Farmer members and people in the rural communities will change and improve their standard of living better without hunger and food shortage in the future.
• Farmer members and people in the communities have solidarity and respect the rights of each other.
• Market for local produces must be guaranteed for farmers in the future
• Farmers get opportunity to exchange their experience and knowledge, thus they could learn from each other.
• At least 15% of farmer members increase annually
• At least 60 of farmer members get access to loan for agricultural productivity improvement.
• At least 60% of farmer members buy agri-inputs from the AC.
• At least there is one private sector have cooperated with the agricultural cooperative.
As an agricultural cooperative leader, she received lots of capacity building from CFAP Cambodia such as leadership, entrepreneurship, Business Plan CANVAS model, marketing, agri-credit management, climate change, soil testing knowledge, many other agricultural technical skills and reporting skills etc. Moreover, she was participating in many policy workshops at national and international levels with support from CFAP Cambodia as a part of capacity building for youth and another relevant institution such as the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
AN Sarun attends CFAP Cambodia when she was 28 years old, she was struggling so much to learn about farmers’ organization and cooperative while her mother did not want her to be a good housewife only. Every time she came to join a meeting at CFAP Cambodia she was riding a tricycle taxi motor-bike – Moto-Kaung-Bei of about 10KM away from her house with difficult road conditions at that time. Every time she goes back home at night time her mother was waiting at the house gate, expressed her worries and blame her of lateness to come back home. Her mother was always waiting for her of about 8 years because she was worried about her daughter security and also as a social norm which daughter or girl should not go out far from the family, have higher education than men, have higher capacity than men, neighboring people are speaking behind and women are not able to turn around the stove and so on – “social norm”.
Though heavy social norm falls on her and restriction her from attending the farmers’ organization activities to work for farmers and the farming community and as a leader of farmers’ organization, she was struggling to overcome the difficulties and social norm by explaining her mother, family members and her neighbors about the importance of participating in farmers’ organization like CFAP Cambodia because she can learn new knowledge and experiences she has never had before, so she can improve her capacity and experiences from work, she realizes that when she got knowledge and work experiences from CFAP Cambodia, one day she can achieve her dream as an active leader with capable knowledge to integrate in the big society and in the region in the future, so she can help more people within the community. She said men can do social and economic work, therefore women can do so.
With support strongly from CFAP Cambodia, therefore AN Sarun could have achieved her dream and she is implementing her dream as a leader of SVAY CHRUM Agricultural Cooperative and Board of director of the Cambodian Farmer Federation Association of Agricultural Producers from March 2018 till March 2020, then she was resigning from CFAP Cambodia while she was nominated as a candidate for election as the commune council for the 5th mandate, then finally she won the election and become a commune council member since 2022 till present. As a commune council member at Svay Chrum commune, she uses her knowledge and professionality gained from farmers’ organization to serve the interests of people at her own commune in good collaboration with her new colleagues, her commune chief, district officials, provincial officials, representatives of people and all stakeholder involve in the commune development.
Her struggles remark as good example for herself, her family, her neighbors, her community and the society to change the norm of the society peacefully to ensure women have equal right as men to contribute to social and economic development.
In the capacity of the commune council member, AN Sarun is active in community development include agricultural development, farming community and agricultural cooperatives though there are more workload for her in new responsible job she is still happy to serve the interests of people within the community.