IRD-Cambodia welcomed a visit by a delegation from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the Cambodia McGovern-Dole (MGD) Food for Education (FFE) Program on August 13, 2016 at IRD’s office in Phnom Penh.
The USDA delegation was warmly welcomed to Cambodia and included Phil Karsting, FAS Administrator; Bobby Richey, Deputy Administrator for Foreign Service Operations; Mark Dries, Agricultural Counselor, Federal Agricultural Service (FAS) Hanoi; Gerald H. Smith, Senior Agricultural Attaché, FAS Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC); and Thanh Vo, Agricultural Marketing Specialist, FAS HCMC. Mr. Son Siveth, the IRD-Cambodia Country representative presented the most updated project MGD FFE achievements since the beginning of the project in September 2012. The presentation also detailed various project operations since the beginning of IRD’s presence in Cambodia in 2004.
The delegation was interested in the presentation and appreciated the MGD FFE achievements. During the presentation, they questioned certain project outputs/outcomes on uses of food commodities (school meals and take-home ration distributions) and echo-impact to communities (to their parents) from students who received training in good health (hygiene & sanitation) and nutrition (three food groups that are available at home). Mr. Son Siveth emphasized that the project intervention made its best effort to positively change the students’ lives and their communities as a whole. The impacts include students teaching their parents what they learned in school about hygiene & sanitation, proven by regular hand-washing practices among children and parents in target communities; parents with access to local resources serving their children breakfast and/or packing fruits for their children to eat during school breaks; communities coming to the realization that education has advantages for their children’s future, indicated by a high enrollment rate; and communities coming to the realization that regular de-worming practices are essential for children’s health, indicated by students being administered de-worming medication regularly, twice a year.
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School Kits for Children in Cambodia
Cambodia – Clean Water and Sanitation with LDSC
