Opening Doors: Reflections on the NOW-Us! Program in Cambodia
A few years later, I reflect on how the NOW-Us! Awards program in Cambodia helped grassroots initiatives amplify voices that often go unheard to build a more inclusive and equitable society.
- Pichmony Thay
“To be honest, I never expected us to go this big.” It’s what Amraroth, who leads the organization SAORI in Cambodia’s Kampong Chhnang province, shared with me a few months after the NOW-Us! Awards program concluded. “I work in many different jobs to fund this organization because I want to help other people with disabilities like me. I never expected to get any acknowledgement or anything. But because of this fund from Voice, we managed to do so many things. It validates SAORI’s hard work over these years.”
As the project manager for the NOW-Us program in Cambodia funded by Voice, which ran from 2021 to 2023, it’s stories like these that give me so much pride and hope. The mission of NOW-Us was, at its core, simple: offer opportunity to groups who are too often shut out from opportunity. Along the way, the program forged unforgettable relationships, learning, and impact.
Uplifting inspiring initiatives
NOW-Us focused on supporting initiatives that promote diversity, inclusion, and empowerment of five rightsholder groups: women facing exploitation, abuse, and/or violence; people with disabilities; LGBTQI+ people; Indigenous Peoples, and vulnerable elderly and youth. Ten initiatives joined the program across two cohorts in Cambodia (explore them here!).
Actually, one of the biggest hurdles of the program was finding the right applicants. Many in these communities aren’t used to competing for funds or don’t think they stand a chance. They often undersell their capabilities or find the whole process inaccessible to them.
But that’s exactly why this program was so important. If we had just opened a program to anyone, it’s likely that larger, well-established organizations would have dominated the applicant pool and been selected. It showed me how important it is to explicitly open doors, and then put in the effort to help underrepresented groups walk through those doors.
The power of tailored, holistic support in the social impact journey
The program was special because we were able to holistically support the teams, from the early stages of refining and pitching their idea through to actual implementation. We offered key skill-building in entrepreneurship, project management, leadership, financial planning, and more. Our skilled staff and additional mentors (including mentors with specific experience working on DEI and with these rightsholder groups) provided ongoing guidance. And finally, importantly, each team received small grants to implement their projects.
I was blown away by the teams’ impact through the program — and the new heights they’ve reached since.
Take Saori Organization that I mentioned above, for example. With the fund from NOW-Us, they conducted a door-to-door survey to collect data on people with disabilities, which was then used to secure government stipends for those individuals who were previously overlooked. Since then, they’ve created peer support groups and supported handicrafts production to help people with disabilities gain income.
Another example: SafeSpaceBTB. When they applied to NOW-Us, they were just a group of youth, with no funding, office, or other structure. Thanks to the grant, they were able to pay some staff for the first time, open their office in Battambang province, and run activities. With this launchpad, they’ve since been able to secure new partnerships and funding to sustain themselves as a fully operational organization. They’ve become one of the leading voices for LGBTQ equality and inclusion in Battambang province.
Ongoing learning and reflection
One of my greatest takeaways from the NOW-Us journey was the importance of relationship-building. We didn’t just provide financial support; we mentored these groups and helped them navigate challenges, whether that was in the form of emotional support, lending them equipment and space, or just being a listening ear. This tailored, personal approach made a big difference in their projects’ success.
If you talk to the NOW-Us alumni, they might say that they learned a lot from my colleagues and me. But I think that we learned even more from them: how to use more inclusive language, how to challenge harmful social norms in multiple ways, what intersectionality really means. These learnings have shaped our programs at Impact Hub Phnom Penh since: prioritizing Khmer-language programming over English-language, providing sign language interpretation at events when we’re able, moving to a new office space with an elevator, spending more time doing hands-on immersive mentoring rather than just one-way trainings, and so much more.
Building a more inclusive Cambodia
As you can see, the impact journey has continued beyond the end of the NOW-Us program. And I hope it continues even further still. I would love to see more programs like NOW-Us that amplify rightsholder groups, and not just to support social non-profit initiatives but also to accelerate startups or small businesses run by underrepresented entrepreneurs. I would love to see informal or emerging grassroots groups have improved access to funding and other resources, rather than feel excluded by opportunities that (intentionally or unintentionally) don’t reach them.
My long-term dream? That inclusion, accessibility, and equity are consciously embedded across Cambodian society. In the past few years, I have started to see change. More people are talking about inclusion in civil society and the private sector (even if action is still slow – but it’s a first step!); and leaders like our NOW-US alumni are actively breaking down the stigma and barriers faced by certain groups.
I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to implement such an important project, and for Voice for all of the support along the way. As we go onwards, I’ll continue shouting out the motto: “Nothing About Us WIthout Us!”
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