Smile Village (SV) is a residential community project developed by Solutions To End Poverty (STEP) together with Pour un Sourire D’Enfant. The project aims to provide for home and livelihood improvements for Cambodians who were affected by evictions in the slums or were at risks of homelessness and failing in a more severe vulnerability with all the consequences related especially for the children education and wellbeing. The organisations’ goal is for families housed in SV to eventually step out of poverty and live sustainably out of SV.
After several meetings with Aileen, the chairman of STEP and founder of SV, The SI Wing is very fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to go on an Overseas Service Learning trip to SV.
Featuring... Our SV Recce team!
Picture on the left was taken with the SV Sewing Enterprise. Picture on the right is our SV recce team!
The recce team comprising Triston, Hui Ying, Shi Yun and Donovan, headed down to Smile Village, Phnom Penh, Cambodia during the December winter break. The team stayed in SV for a couple of days to understand more about the current situation there and to conduct assets and community mapping to find out the real needs of the community. After the recce trip, the team got back to Singapore, to share with the SV team about what they have learnt about SV while they were on the ground!
Introducing... Our SV team!
From left to right,
First row: Teresa, Liza, Tiffany (PD), Hui Ying (PD)
Second row: Evelyn, Lei Zuo, Donovan (SI), Caleb, Jonathan, Benedict (PD)
Third row: Qin Kai, Shao Wen, Shi Yun (SI), Triston
*Missing: Melody, Randy, Eugene
SV team recruitment started in November last year and now, we have our full team! The team has been split into 3 different groups that focus on 3 different areas: Enterprise, General/Digital Literacy, and Arts & Culture. These 3 areas are identified to be important for the SV community upon gathering insights from the recce trip.
We are now in the planning process and things are looking good!
Do look out for more updates from us! :D
Signing off,
Shi Yun
