Budgeting Cambodian Style

Kolab our translator with Genie, one of our co-leaders

One of the workshops we are doing daily at Daughters is Budgeting. How does one begin to teach girls who have had limited literacy because of lack of schooling. This is not an easy task as many of them have grown up in the brothels---not exactly a place that cultivates independent thinking. We have been using skits and visuals to share the budgeting concepts. Today was the second lesson on how to make a budget and one of our co-leader's Genie led a session on what a budget is. The girls were asked to choose from a variety of pictures that describe items that are 'needs' vs 'wants'. They had to determine how to prioritize their monthly funds in terms of what they needed versus what was just a want. It was neat to see them get all excited as we split them into teams and they began to commiserate together over how to plan and spend their money. They enjoyed the game so much that when the time was up they did not want to stop. Who would have thought that dealing with money matters could be so much fun!

For myself, my teammates Genie and Prem, the greatest delight is watching the girls just soak up the concepts they are learning and in the process have fun. It has been such a delight just seeing them laugh and work together. We trust that the games and skits we have created will help foster a spirit of unity amongst the girls and as well, that they will learn to make wise decisions when it comes to managing their money.

Some of the girls identifying items that they consider 'needs'