“I want to be a teacher, but I do not have the chance due to lack of education. But now, I have the opportunity to be onboard with the factory training team, I am inspired by the program and will continue to improve knowledge, learn more from CARE, other factory training teams and management teams to provide awareness training on WWB to workers, especially, on the topics of healthcare and gender equality.”
Ms. Oun Chanthy was born and raised in Bakan district, Pursat province. Due to bad family conditions and being the eldest daughter, she had to drop out of school at grade 6 to take care of a disable father and five sisters.
When she’s married, her husband was very supportive in taking care of her two young children. However, in 2005, her husband pass away, and the family burden became hers alone. The situation driven her to think negatively and thought of ending her life, but through encouragement from her father and children, she managed to stand up and turn the difficult situation into her source of strengths. She migrated to Phnom Penh and became a garment worker. Since then, she never left the garment industry and work there for 17 years.
Chanthy is a garment worker and worker’ representative at Zhen Tai Garment factory. Through Worker Well-Being (WWB) program implemented by CARE Cambodia, she have gained new knowledge related to sexual reproductive health and rights, maternal health and newborn, financial literacy, sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS and gender equality. Strengthening leadership and women’s voice is also an important part of the Worker Well-Being program.
“Before attending the training, I do not have experience, not expressing my ideas, not empowerment, and not have confidence in sharing knowledge with my co-worker due to lack of information and education. After the awareness training with WWB program, I’ve gained new knowledge and experiences on sexual harassment, maternal health and newborn, sexual reproductive health and financial literacy. I’m so glad about this change from not having confidence as a woman to be able to speak with colleagues on health issue, especially on gender equality and empowerment within the factory.” — said Ms. Oun Chanthy
Chanthy’s passion to share knowledge and experiences with colleagues is admirable and was chosen to become a Factory Training Team in May 2022. After being a part of the team, she realized the significant and contributions of WWB to factory workers health and well-being.
“I like sharing my knowledge and training experiences with colleagues at workplace. Since I have the opportunity to learn, I do not want to keep those knowledge in mind because most of workers need more acknowledged on how to stay healthy and access to safety services. Knowing that, I should continue to share”.
These activities are part of the Sewing for a Brighter Future project, which is funded by the Levi Strauss Foundation