Phnom Penh – Since 2015, France Volontaires Cambodge organises the French Volunteers Day where French volunteers working in French and Cambodian NGOs can present their mission and meet each others. Held on 20 October 2018 at the French Institute, the event gathered around 400 participants and volunteers including Destination Justice’s two volunteers in Service Civique, Ms. Remicard Sereme and M. Ronan Kemp.
Remicard and Ronan started their volunteership in September. Remicard is a project officer for our Justice Matters Program focusing on the organisation of our Justice Matters Conference 2018 which will be held on 7 December 2018 at NUM. Ronan is a partnership developments and communication officer for Destination Justice’s social enterprise, the Justice Café.
The event was kicked off by welcome remarks from Her Excellency Ms. Eva Nguyen Binh, French Ambassador in Cambodia, and from Mr. Chhiv Try, Deputy Director General of Tourism, followed by a presentation of France Volontaires Country Representative, Ms. Voleak Sok who all emphasized on the role played by volunteers in the NGO sector, especially those working on environment related issues.
For Destination Justice, it was the occasion to present our current projects to hundreds of participants who scrolled around the stands of the 17 NGOs present that day, and were not yet familiar with the Justice Café. We therefore presented our recent milestones, the first edition of the Annotation Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and the report from our Rainbow Justice Program: Revealing the Rainbow, the Human Rights situation of Southeast Asia’s LGBTIQ Communities and their Defenders.
For Destination Justice’s volunteers, it was an interesting networking event. Indeed for Remicard, “it was really interesting to meet other NGOs and different French volunteers. It allowed me to present Destination Justice’s work and promote the Justice Matters Conference”. Additionally, Ronan was really surprised to meet new people, potential collaborators and he made new friends. He said he learnt a lot on what other NGOs are working on or on what they are going through. Finally, thanks to the Conference held in parallel of the event, he said he learnt a lot about the current cultural and political climate in Cambodia.