In 2011, Community First determined that by expanding our efforts to several neighboring villages, we would generate greater synergy between our programs increasing our efficiency and impacting the lives of more villagers. Our Five Year Plan is focused on two core objectives:

1. Work closely with the leadership of the villages and of Sen Sok commune to develop programs in all of the 16 villages that reinforce each other and raise the economic, healthcare and education levels for the entire commune.   Our work, which has been centered on one of the villages, Smach, is now being extended to all neighboring villages.  By the end of 2016, we will have programs in all of the villages. In June of this year, the implementation of the five year plan was officially inaugurated when Community First built its first well in Kok Yeang village in the vicinity of Smach in Sen Sok Commune.
2. Create Safe Haven, a school and treatment facility for severely handicapped children from the villages, children with Cerebral Palsy, Down’s Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy and Birth Deformities.  Located in Siem Reap, Safe Haven will provide education and treatment services for 40 residential students and 80 day students and train mothers for paying jobs as care takers.  At present there is no such facility in Cambodia.

With the generous support of our donors, Sen Sok Commune can look forward to the creation of additional employment opportunities, wells, gardens and fisheries, while the Safe Haven initiatives will enable Community First to build an ever-stronger foundation in the public healthcare area of community development.

To achieve all that has been planned over the next 5 years will require an investment of approximately $5 million. The plan also requires a significant investment in Community First’s organizational capacity – more manpower will be needed on the field, and an investment in program logistics and transportation will be essential. This investment will develop critical expertise as we look at the next 15 years and expanding into other villages, communes and provinces in Cambodia, to ensure that rural Cambodia is no longer forgotten and left behind. It will ultimately better the lives of an entire commune – of 16 villages and thousands of individuals – and provide a secure future for villagers today, their children and generations to come.