Roots and Wings - Leading the Way with New Jobs
One of the highlights of Tenth Church’s recent Cambodia Justice Journey was a visit with DOVE, one of our long-term partners in Kampong Chhnang. Located a 2 hour drive north of Phnom Penh, DOVE stands for Developing Our Village Economy.
DOVE addresses 2 important needs in Cambodia: leadership development and job creation. DOVE develops young Christian leaders through a mentoring program called Onyx and creates jobs through creating business enterprises. Onyx is very effective in equipping young people in biblical servant leadership which helps ground them spiritually in who they are, emotionally in healing, and physically with skills to enable these young leaders to step out into the marketplace or church ministries.
Something special has developed over the past 9 months since we last visited DOVE when we led a small business training day. DOVE acted on their vision to set up a business, and through dedicated work and inspiration, have mobilized a bottled water company with their own filtration systems. Their company is based at the DOVE office where they employ local families to bottle the water and deliver it to their growing market of customers throughout the area. They have a vision of supplying water all across Cambodia, and they demonstrated to us the quality comparison between their water, Shalom Anna, and their major competitors, with their PH level being the perfect number.
Our team was inspired by Minea So, the DOVE Director, and Chakreya Choun, who serves on the Board and teaches DOVE curriculum. Their high energy and passion for both Christ and their community truly showcases the beauty and hope that the hard work of DOVE is delivering through their ministry in Kampong Chhnang.
The bottom line is that we need programs like DOVE that provide roots for Cambodian young people so that they can overcome life’s obstacles and grow wings to transform their own families, communities, and nation.
We thank God who is empowering DOVE with a heart for enabling marginalized communities of Cambodia to have eyes for the future.
A team will be providing some business counsel to the DOVE water business during the next Justice Journey to Cambodia.
Learn more about DOVE.
Sarah Hall and Patrick Elaschuk