Things haven't been so peaceful at the 'Peaceful Children's Homes'

As with any organization, our NGOs have their ups and downs. Mine is no exception! Everything at the Foundation and their Peaceful Children’s Homes was progressing very smoothly until early January. We were moving ahead very encouragingly on plans to renew the board, and bring in more qualified staff, set up a website and a more organized donation system, and develop several income generation opportunities. The Foundation had recently hired an excellent Cambodian Executive Director (ex Peace Corps coordinator) who had agreed to lead the organization on a part-time basis, mentoring the less experienced General Manager.

Then, we encountered our first crisis. Out of the blue, the Executive Director told us that he no longer wanted to carry on in the position, because the job was much bigger than he had anticipated (probably my fault for introducing all sorts of ‘opportunities’!).

Next crisis. The following day, the Chair of the Board, a Dutchman, who has led a lot of positive change in the organization, was involved in a car accident in which a motorbike rider was killed. The accident doesn’t seem to have been his fault, but his local Insurance agent totally antagonized the police, and he has ended up with both a Civil suit and a Criminal suit. Understandably, this has totally pre-occupied him. At one point he was at the Vietnamese border ready to leave the country (after 7 years, with a business established here). The E.D. and the general manager have been acting as intermediaries to try and sort out the mess – which has distracted them from Foundation activities.

The biggest tragedy of all was that the on-site manager of Home One had a stroke, and died 3 days later. His funeral is tomorrow. It is terrible for his family and the children at the home. It’s also very difficult for the Home, because the rest of the staff are cooks, carers and handymen - no one with any supervisory capability. Temporarily, the Home is being run by the senior children (in their late teens), who are in fact pretty well-organized.

Unbelievably, there is a further complication (or bright spot, depending on how you view it), in that the General Manager is getting married next weekend - - so he is somewhat distracted! (Judi and I have been invited, along with 900 other guests. Perhaps that will be another blog post!)

This is not exactly fertile ground for cementing in place everything that I have been working on, but I am optimistically trying to push on. There is some good news, too. In the last 4 days, we have brought on 2 new board directors and hired a competent accountant, and a new Home 2 Manager. I’m really happy that the Executive Director has been persuaded to withdraw his resignation. He is a really competent guy and critically needed as a mentor, even if he can’t manage every part of the Foundation.

As you can see, life is definitely interesting!

Judi's Note: What Colin doesn't say in this post, is that he's been working incredibly hard to help provide some structure to the Foundation and it all depended on the presence of the on-again, off-again, on-again E.D. So he's hugely relieved to be leaving knowing that the Foundation is in good hands. As for me, my work hasn't been nearly as 'challenging' but steady and interesting. In the meantime, I've been putting up a few more of my favourite photos on my photo blog. Just click here if you're interested.