Chab Dai’s Journey 1999 - 2007
In February 2012, Chab Dai’s leadership team took part in a series of interviews discussing the origins and development of the organisation and its various projects.
As Chab Dai celebrates its 15-year anniversary, we look back on these interview transcripts in appreciation of our beginnings and fruitful journey, starting by exploring the very early foundations of Chab Dai with Executive Director & Founder, Helen Sworn.
1999 – 2001
THE FIRST FEET ON THE GROUND
The context of Chab Dai’s origins is fascinating and extensive, dating back to 1999, when there were a just “a few faith based organisations and some other UN lead agencies who first saw the emergence of human trafficking”. Human trafficking was indeed an issue that was just coming to light, and few organisations had tangible knowledge on the phenomenon. “The early responders were those already on the ground who were doing related work but not direct work”, something that illustrates how interconnectedness with other social issues is a core element of trafficking. Helen was one of these early responders, first coming across the phenomenon while working on a baseline research with a team in Poipet, on the Thai/Cambodia border, with children who had been deported from Thailand.
AN UNEXPECTED BEGINNING
In 2001, Glenn Miles of Tearfund spearheaded the first conference on the Christian response to sexual abuse and trafficking, which was a catalyst for faith based organisations coming together to share and discuss these issues. Helen and Glenn had no intention of starting an organisation, “we had no plans to set up anything, we just wanted to talk about it”, but the conference would become one of the most initial steps in Chab Dai’s journey.
Helen and Glenn quickly became a much needed information point for those looking to do anti-trafficking work in Cambodia. “We started getting a reputation as an informal information clearing house for these organisations coming in – they found us through Tearfund and through word of mouth - some saw us as informal point for Cambodia but it was never official. We told them how it was, no sugar coating. We presented the complexities and roadblocks, then stepped back and asked them if they were still interested. Sometimes people would leave us and never wanted to come back, but some who had the money and the heart stayed”.
A COALITION FORMS
After talking to a number of small organisations, Helen and Glenn saw the need for funding as, due to their size, they were completely overlooked by government and institutional donors despite their crucial work. “Their problem was that there was too much admin to fund small organisations unless someone else was willing to do it for them, which was the catalyst for our decision to submit a joint proposal”. Glenn and Helen discussed this with the group of organisations, and decided they wanted to see the group work together in some kind of network or coalition. “We wanted to do some kind of joint advocacy, research, and to help these organisations build capacity, so we added a training component”. Thus, the core foundations of Chab Dai began to form.
2001 – 2004
CHALLENGES AND SETBACKS
No successful movement or organisation is without its challenges and setbacks. These setbacks were indeed plentiful in the early stages of Chab Dai’s formation, and stalled the founding group of small organisations’ joint proposal for over six months.
After a number of roadblocks and disappointments, our founder Helen Sworn had a dream about continuing with the coalition, and approached the group of small organisations again. “We couldn’t directly fund any of the small organisations, but what we said we’d do was focus on training, resources, advocacy and development of a coalition. It was difficult telling the small organisations we couldn’t fund them, but they still expressed interest in what we were planning to do”.
THE FIRST MEMBER MEETING
Encouraged by the dedication of these organisations to this inkling of a coalition, Helen and Glenn went ahead with developing and formalizing this new and exciting body. “In November 2004 I called up all the organisations for a meeting and shared the vision with them as well as the ‘joining hands’ concept. There were about 25 people there from 10 or 11 organisations”. This would be the first Chab Dai Member Meeting of many, and set the agenda for what Chab Dai would go on to achieve in the future. During the meeting the organisations discussed sharing of resources, strengths of each organisation and how gaps could be filled, the key challenges and roadblocks to organisations in Cambodia, prevention, standards in aftercare and capacity building. At the end of the day, the group was in agreement on the details of the joint proposal, and came up with the name Chab Dai to represent their united stand against exploitation.
MOVING FORWARD, STRONGER TOGETHER
Thus, Chab Dai and its members began the journey in working together against trafficking and exploitation, stronger and more effective together than alone. This commitment to seeing a vision of collaboration materialize into a tangible organisation that facilitates and creates change is what makes Chab Dai unique, and is not only what determined it’s formation, but is also what has driven the last 10 years and what will bring it into the future.
2005 – 2007
THE BEGINNING
Chab Dai took its first steps as an organisation in 2005, when the coalition’s first staff came on board. Helen recounted Chab Dai’s first hires, including Chab Dai’s current National Director Ros Yeng: “I had sent out a number of ads for someone to apply for the position of national coordinator, because from the beginning I had a five-year plan to hand over leadership – I wanted to get hold of that person to take over at the beginning. I couldn’t find anyone, then a contact at another NGO said to me that they had so many applicants for one of their job postings that I should look at some of them, and pulled up Yeng’s CV. So I looked through, and rang him up to ask him to come for an interview. The interview went well - he’d worked with street gangs, he’d been a monk and a pastor, and there was so much potential in him.” In 2007 Helen met Tania DoCarmo, Chab Dai’s current Board Secretary and Research Advisor, and shortly after Financial Director Muylen also came on board.
The priorities of Chab Dai’s members began to emerge, alongside gaps in service provision and some of the more formal aspects of the coalition. “We agreed on having Child Protection Policies, then we started talking about some of the gaps and needs: this is when the Vietnamese issues started coming up. It was a few months later that we developed the member form, before that it was very informal.”
The catalyst for Chab Dai’s first research project on the exploitation of Vietnamese girls came before the coalition was even formed, when Helen heard from various sources how bad the issue was in Vietnamese communities and how high the proportions of Vietnamese girls were in brothel raids. After further identifying the need to explore this issue further with the Chab Dai members, “We found someone with a real heart to do the research (Kila Reimer), and that was that.”
The core ‘Learning Community’ activities of Chab Dai also got off to an early start, including “different trainings on working with traumatised children, working with families, drug addiction training, and then we started the forums.” The Vietnamese forum was first, as it arose in response to the emerging Vietnamese research (At What Price, Honour?), then the pilot prevention forums with pastors in Battambang and Siem Reap, which Yeng conducted.
A FOUNDATION WAS LAID
These initial pursuits formed the basis of Chab Dai’s future undertakings. Research continues to be a key priority for Chab Dai, with the 10-year Butterfly Longitudinal (Re)-integration research entering its 6th year of documenting the voices and reintegration experiences of a cohort of survivors of sex trafficking. Chab Dai’s Learning Community also continues to be an essential component of Chab Dai’s work, both in Cambodia and globally, with the formation of the Global Learning Community project.
Blog by Hannah Sworn