What ELSE? – Capacity Building

By Daniela Papi – PEPY Executive Director 

This is the fifth post in a series about what ELSE PEPY does.  Click here for the first post.

4) Capacity Building – In addition to full-time staff and a stream of foreign volunteers, PEPY takes Cambodian interns on both to support our programs and to help build the capacity of those interested in learning new skills. PEPY currently has three young Cambodian interns who work in our Siem Reap office half day while they study the other half of the day. In Chanleas Dai, we have taken Cambodian interns to support our XO Computer program. Our hope is that, through these learning opportunities, our interns will go on to follow their dreams and be better equipped to excel in their chosen fields in the future. Of course, we would love it if their paths bring them back to PEPY. One of last year’s interns, Kimeang, will soon graduate from his IT program and join us as a full-time teacher! Exciting!

For our full-time staff, PEPY provides scholarships to employees to attend school or trainings. Any full-time employee can have their university degree or other classes paid for by PEPY and part-time staff are eligible to apply for partial funding as well. When another NGO working with XO computers said they wanted a computer teacher but didn’t have someone with computer skills in their village and we were in need of additional support for our computer classes, we took on young girl from their village to both learn and support our programs. Next year, she will return to her village to start an XO program of her own.

Our hope is that some day all PEPY programs will be managed and driven by dedicated local staff who believe in the mission of PEPY, and we think that the best way to reach that goal is by finding young motivated leaders and investing in them to help connect them with the skills they will need to make the changes they want to see in their own communities.