MRIF Cambodia successfully conducted two online training sessions to improve the business skills of 15 lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Phnom Penh.
Assessment
Before developing the lesson plan and providing training, MRIF Cambodia carried out an assessment with 29 LBT people. The purpose of the assessment was to:
- determine the needs of Young Diverse Women (YDW) and aspiring entrepreneurs
- develop a training lesson plan
The findings from the assessment were:
- most participants were new to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), leadership, social economic rights, and entrepreneurship
- participants were from Phnom Penh (20 people) and Battambang (09 people)
The expectations from participants were to:
- increase knowledge on entrepreneurship, develop business plans, leadership, business management, team work, and social economic rights
- be able to consult on business
- gain awareness on financial literacy and access to start up capital through micro-finance
- learn how to maintain and increase sales
- network
- start a business
Socio economic rights and entrepreneurship orientation
On 15 July 2021, MRIF Cambodia conducted an online training session on Socio Economic Rights and Entrepreneurship Orientation to 15 Young Diverse Women (YDW) who were living in Phnom Penh. The purpose of training was to improve their knowledge and skills on the 4 socio-economic aspects:
- good governance
- sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC)
- entrepreneurship concepts that would enable them to practice it in their daily life and business
- to lead and share their knowledge to youths.
Ny said:
“I am so happy to know my rights and to learn about what it means to be an entrepreneur, especially the creativeness of business”.
Financial literacy and access to start up capital through micro-finance
In the afternoon of 31 July 2021, MRIF Cambodia conducted a virtual training on the financial literacy and access to capital through micro-finance to 14 YDW in Phnom Penh. MRIF Cambodia shared what is financial literacy and invited a guest speaker from a bank to share their experience about access to micro-credit and loans in a safe way, minimising the risks of increasing debts.
Nary, one of the participants said:
“The training is very simple and easy to understand. I like this training; it helps me to improve my cashflow management and I know how to save. I understood what kind of loan is bad and what kind of loan helps me to grow my business”.