Mondulkiri villagers learn new skills to deal with domestic violence

Cambodian indigenous woman Chan Phavy, left, speaks to a trainer during a community conversations course in Mondulkiri province.

If adoption of the law on domestic violent gives a legal tool for dealing with perpetrators, getting people to talk more openly about the problem may also be helpful for preventing it from happening in the first place.

 

That was the information Chan Phavy, a 26-year-old indigenous Phnong woman, received from a course on domestic violence held recently in Mondulkiri province in northeastern Cambodia.

She was one of 20 participants trained to become village facilitators. The UNDP-initiated course in Community Conversations is designed to build participants’ skills to engage their community members in discussion about domestic violence, a problem now experienced by many families of indigenous people.

“We know a lot about incidents of domestic violence in our village, but we just don’t know how to prevent them,” Chan Phavy said.

Cambodia passed the law on prevention of domestic violence five years ago. The legislation was hailed as an important instrument for addressing the issue, which remains prevalent in Cambodia today. According to the Cambodian Demographic and Health Survey in 2005, some 22 percent of Cambodian women had experienced physical, sexual or emotional abuse from their spouse.

“Domestic violence has often been regarded as a minor, normal issue. Not anymore.  It needs greater attention from all of us, and we must work together to tackle it,” Ms. Chreuy Chanry, head of Mondulkiri provincial Department of Women’s Affairs, said at the launch of the training.

 Mop Chhenh, another Phnong indigenous woman, said alcohol-related violence was a frequent occurrence in hear village. She said men, after becoming drunk, often broke into fist-fights. Others used verbal and physical abuse against their wives after falsely accusing them of having affairs. In some cases, the men trashed household items such as pots and dishes in outrage – behavior she said only piled up more economic hardship on their poor families.

“I just wish that one day we are able to eradicate this type of act once and for all,” said the 24-year-old woman, who hoped to become a village facilitator.

The training is part of a UNDP’s work to create an integrated formal and informal justice system in Cambodia that will be more responsive and accessible to the poor, particularly women and indigenous people. The project has received funding from the Spanish government and is being jointly implemented by UNDP, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice.

Villagers and local officials in neighboring Rattanakiri province, to the north of Mondulkiri, have also received a similar training. They were taught about facilitation skills and relationship building that are useful for their interaction with their community members.  

Previously, the method had been used in 77 villages of Kampong Speu, Kampong Chhnang and Siem Reap provinces, and early indications have shown that the results have been quite encouraging. Women and men were involved in open discussions about domestic violence and its repercussions – a process that brought some embarrassment for men and also served as a deterrent for them not to repeat violence against their female partners. Because of better awareness, domestic violence incidents have declined. Although UNDP has already ended its involvement in those three provinces, some villagers try to keep the dialogue process going. Feeling the benefit from the early experiment, they set up donation box at Buddhist pagoda to collect contribution to organize discussion on domestic violence.