A Year in Review: Precious Women
Precious Women has been making strides as an effective and influential Christian organization that empowers women who have encountered exploitation in Cambodia.
Some 2018 highlights include staff development training, forming relationships with strategic partners and spiritual formation. It is encouraging to witness how as the organization grows, they are building strong individuals to better strengthen other individuals. One comment made in particular struck a chord – we want to “teach how to avoid transferring personal trauma, [and] instead transform it to empower and provide encouragement for spiritual growth in each other and within the workplace”.
Listen to the story of Sopheak, the Operations Director: Sopheak was promoted to be the Operations Director for Precious Women in January 2018. At the cusp of her career, Sopheak struggled with understanding her responsibilities and establishing confidence within herself for leading staff events and organizational programs. After training and great encouragement were provided to Sopheak, she began blossoming in the workplace. Sopheak is a key component to the fluidity of Precious Women. She has displayed and proven her potential to the staff and to visiting organizations as well. Overall, Sopheak is a passionate leader that has taken her training to elicit positive change around her.
Under optimal conditions, one will flourish in their environment. And the nurturing space of Precious Women is providing such opportunities. Those who come through the doors, and those waiting to receive them are special. The staff view each other as family, and are ready to support one another. The support system in place is wonderful, and all involved are beautiful.
A Christmas Message:
As 2018 came to an end, there was an opportunity to share about Christmas. This put Precious Women in a unique situation to share the deeper meaning of the holiday. Buddhism is the dominant religion In Cambodia, but it does not stop them from bringing Christ into the season. They hosted a Christmas outreach event that over 200 attendees participated in. Friends were made, encouragement was shared, the birth of Jesus was introduced, and interest was expressed in participating in PW’s program. To conclude with their encouraging words: “We are really appreciative to all friendships, partnerships, love and support for us at Precious women for the past year 2018 and we are looking forward to the coming year 2019, to achieve more, to bring more lives to Jesus, to rescue more and to restore more lives in to Hope and Value!”
Pictured above is the enactment of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.
Fair Trade Christmas:
We sold all the products that Precious Women created for us to sell at Tenth's annual Fair Trade Christmas. Items included necklaces and Christmas ornaments made of recycled paper - a tedious process - that provided many healing hours together in creating their products over support and skill building.
Tenth Church is committed to walk alongside Precious Women as they build capacity to reach more exploited women with greater effectiveness and sustainability.
To learn more about what Tenth is doing in Cambodia, check out tenth.ca/cambodia.