Creating messages of hope for the tree planting ceremony

The Counseling and Psychological Services program for the girls at the AFESIP Kampong Cham Centre continues to make progress and provide invaluable psychological care and healing.  New Day funded Year 1 of this 3 year program in December 2010 and visited the centre in May 2011 along with our corporate co-funding partner, Norton Rose.  The program is run and staffed jointly by AFESIP and the Ragamuffin Project.  Recent outcomes are detailed below:

• Recruitment of an extremely qualified Cambodian head of psychology department;

• Weekly open studio groups and as needed individual counseling sessions provided from AFESIP psychologist and Ragamuffin therapists at Kampong Cham;

• 50 art therapy assessments conducted at Kampong Cham;

• 171 residents received psychosocial counseling sessions (over all the centers);

• Monthly psychology department planning and supervision meetings have begun;

• Modification of our partnership agreement with Ragamuffin;

• Development of a detailed work plan for the remainder of the year

• Good progress towards creating a comprehensive work plan for 2012;

• Coordination with several international experts on psychosocial care for trafficking and sexual exploitation survivors;

• Gathering resources and training on Cambodian-specific trauma assessment tools and treatment modalities;

• Participation in the 2nd annual Good Practices conference held in Phnom Penh;

• Preliminary negotiations with partners to provide yoga and meditation training for our staff and residents;

• Development and approval of a plan to reallocate funds from New Day Foundation for the meditation gardens to higher priority items at Kampong Cham shelter such as a playground and supplies/equipment for the counseling room.

You can read the full quarterly report from AFESIP here: August Report 2011

We wish all involved in this project the best of luck for the remainder of this year.