Grant Proposal for Sewing Classes The Need Human and Hope Association is seeking a grant for $2,025AUD to provide a scholarship for three women to study in our sewing program in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Why Support Us With 20% of Cambodians living below the poverty line, vocational training is crucial for uneducated villagers to break the poverty cycle. Our ten-month sewing program not only teaches women the basics of sewing right through to elaborate ceremony tops, they also learn about chemical-free farming and life skills as part of our holistic approach to development. The Project Human and Hope Association (HHA) is a grassroots organisation based in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We are registered as an NGO in Cambodia and also a charity in Australia under the name Human and Hope Association Incorporated (HHA Inc.). We are run entirely by locals, and our mission is empowering Cambodians to create sustainable futures, so we ensure we do not give out direct aid. Instead, we invest in education, vocational training and community support projects. Our sewing classes target the poorest in our community who are struggling to make ends meet. We recruit our students by spending weeks conducting assessments and determining the suitability of people to our program. Our students are all expected to commit to the program; in the past we have had issues with retention as often their husbands would force them to quit the program. We have successfully address this issue
by ensuring the students are aware that they must pay back 50% of the cost of the program if they leave the program. Our students study for three hours a day, five days a week. They take care of a garden at HHA and receive rice and vegetables as a stipend for studying so we can ensure their families are well-fed. On Friday s they study life skills and learn about topics such as domestic violence, marriage laws, anger management, job skills and hygiene. As some of our students are illiterate, we provide daily Khmer language classes for them. Over the course of ten months they learn the following sewing lessons: Beginner How to use a sewing machine How to use different stitches Pencil case School boy shirt School boy shorts School girl shirt School girl skirt Women s shirt Men s shirt Traditional skirt Men s trousers Advanced Cushion cover Shopping bag School girl skirt (long) Traditional man s shirt Tailored women s shirt Women s short skirt Woman s shirt Men s shirt Men s trousers Traditional ceremony top After studying in the program for three months our students have the opportunity to take out a microfinance loan with us. They purchase a machine to practice their lessons at home and begin fixing and making clothes for their neighbours. They begin repayments six months after first receiving the machine so we can ensure they are confident in their ability and are not pressured to pay back their loans straight away. Upon graduating, armed with a diverse set of skills, our students seek employment in sewing shops, run sewing businesses from their homes or are hired by us to make products for a fair wage. We continue to provide workshops and refresher lessons for them once a month for six months after they graduate. We are seeking a donation of $2,025AUD to provide three women with a scholarship in our sewing program. This scholarship is an investment that usually pays itself off in under a year, as the women who graduate earn between $2USD and $6USD a day.
Transparency We are committed to transparency at Human and Hope Association. We want you to trust that your money will go where we say it will. To put your mind at ease, we want to share the following with you: - HHA Cambodia s accounts are audited every three months by their qualified board treasurer - HHA Cambodia and HHA Inc s bank accounts are verified and checked every month by their Director and President - We display our monthly income and expenditures on our website - We provide an annual report for HHA Cambodia in January each year and for HHA Inc. in August each year - HHA Inc. has their accounts audited externally once a year and must comply with all regulations in Australia Additionally, we want to assure you that we don t only rely on donations. We generate some of our own income through our sewing business, farm, tuition for English classes and other means. We know that we must set a good example for our community so we work hard to show them that we don t only function on donations.
What You Will Get In Return To say thank you for your generous support of three women in our sewing program we will put your school name name on the sponsors page of our website. Additionally, your school will receive a personalised thank you from myself (the Director of HHA) and a handicraft pack sewn by our graduated students. Contact We would love for you to take the time to think this proposal over. Once you have, you can contact myself, Thai, at thai@humanandhopeassociation.org.
A Success Story When Saney was in her early 20's, she dreamed of being a seamstress. However, for someone living in poverty and only having enough food to eat twice a day, this dream was out of reach for her. Fast forward to when she was 28 years old, Saney's neighbour told her about a new sewing program at an NGO she had just graduated from. Eager to study, Saney asked her husband for permission. He said no. She asked again. He said no. She continued to persist until her husband eventually agreed for her to study in the sewing program at Human and Hope Association. After studying for just six weeks in the program, Saney asked to borrow a machine so she could start her own business. She was already earning $1.50USD a day as a beginner student. Given her excellent quality and productivity, we hired Saney to be a seamstress and help launch our sewing business. We enrolled her daughter in English classes at HHA, and given she also struggled with learning her native language at public school, we started teaching her Khmer language, too. Saney graduated from our sewing program in October 2014. She now has a successful business at her home, and has moved to a higher level in the poverty bracket. In the near future she will have moved out of it all together. Saney participates in our weekly workshops, continuing to expand her knowledge and social awareness. She says her husband respects her now and often comments that she can earn more money than him. Her future is much brighter. To learn more about Saney, please watch this short video.