Changing the Future

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The Culinary Training Center (CTC) in Cambodia creates an opportunity for a very specific and strategic way to push back against poverty and trafficking. When vulnerable girls become equipped with marketable, lifelong skills like the ones taught at the Green Mango Cafe in Cambodia, life changes. The future changes.

CGI is fortunate to have Chef Ryana DeArmond in Cambodia to train students in the skill and art of cooking. And it doesn’t stop at cooking. Students learn about finances, customer service, shopping efficiently, and managing time and resources. These are skills they can take with them into the workforce for years to come, earning a living for themselves and their families without resorting to desperate measures.

And, as Chef Ryana notes in a recent update, the curriculum is working! The girls are learning quickly and the Green Mango Cafe is growing as a result.

“The second class of girls have advanced faster then we expected. On June 3, they began their internship in the restaurant, which enabled us to open for dinner! Over the next 9 months, the students will rotate through 6 stations (Server, Cashier, Drinks, Head Cook, Sous Chef, and Baker). They rotate through the stations to gain a well-rounded education and become more desirable employees for other restaurants in the future.”

We’re thankful for the way God is using the Culinary Training Program to change the futures of these women!

By Caroline Mosey/Ryana DeArmond

Be a Voice

Stephanie and Jessica Maass

Stephanie and Jessica Maass

After having the privilege to travel to Cambodia with my 14-year-old daughter, Jessie, and meet the wonderful girls that CGI serves, I was honored to take action on their behalf by hosting trunk shows.

By having a trunk show, I am able to love my neighbors in Cambodia and be a voice for them here in the U.S.  These young women are working hard to heal, to be restored, to learn new skills, to understand their value and who they are in Christ.  CGI is loving them, and empowering them through the ByTavi and Imprint Collections.  These ladies are precious, and the items they make are not only products to be sold, but symbols of healing and of change in their lives and culture.

It was incredibly easy to go online and order the ByTavi trunk show products to be shipped for the show.  The instructions and DVD were included with all the items and the free return shipping labels.  I actually chose to do several small sessions with friends, rather than try to coordinate a single night (which is difficult with busy schedules).  I was able to share about my trip, share about the girls and their stories, and provide an opportunity for my friends to be a part of it all.

These women’s stories matter.

People want to make a difference in others’ lives.  CGI has created a unique and easy way for women in the U.S. to directly impact the lives of women in Cambodia.  We have a great privilege and responsibility to be a voice for the women whose freedoms have been taken away.  I am thankful to have a way to raise awareness of the reality of human trafficking and to share their voices with my family and friends to be a part of the healing.

 By Stephanie Maass

Imprint Project

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New site of Imprint Project

In 2010, CGIDaughters was launched as a two-year residential program focused on professional seamstress and life skills training for women in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As CGIDaughters now becomes The Imprint Project, we rejoice over the transition between what was and what will be in the future.
As you can see, we are changing because there is now space for it.
For thirteen members of Common Ground Christian Church, there was room for a trip to
Cambodia in May. This trip was especially significant to Nicole Krajewski as her entire family journeyed with her for the first time since her initial visit to Phnom Penh in 2010. As the team engaged with the women of The Imprint Project through Bible lessons and offsite outings, Nicole focused on expanding the product line of The Imprint Project as well as byTavi’s Imprint Collection. Before leaving for this trip, Nicole asked, “What are the parallels between American culture and Cambodian culture?” With her husband and children by her side, perhaps one of the greatest similarities discovered is the desire to see your family thrive in this world.
With that in mind, The Imprint Project has and will continue to equip women with life-skills capable of meeting their physical needs as well as their spiritual ones through the love of Christ. To transform the life of one woman offers the opportunity to transform the life of her family in which they can all thrive. And to transform the life of her family offers the opportunity to transform the life of her community and beyond.
It all starts with one; one woman, one unique identity and fingerprint. And from that,
change begins to take root in Cambodia as there becomes space for it.
By Bethany Rivera

Ly Phalla & byTavi

Ly PhallaEarlier this month, Center for Global Impact’s President, Chris Alexander, was visiting the Green Mango Café & Bakery when the manager of the restaurant, Ly Phalla, received a phone call that her home had burned to the ground and had destroyed two other homes.

Ly Phalla, who was the house mom at the CGI Daughters home and now works at the Green Mango, is a very special woman to CGI. She is deeply entwined and important to many women and girls in our programs. Many hearts went out to her as we mourned for her loss and feared for how she would ever repay her neighbors. (Cambodian law states the cause of the fire must pay for the other victims.)Ly Phalla fire 1

A generous donor began a matching fund to raise support for Ly Phalla. Several churches gave above their normal donations. But what happened next was something that nobody expected but brought tears to our eyes. The byTavi women, the same women who are working their way out of extreme poverty, gave a collection of $46 dollars. Just as the New Testament widow gave her last two coins to the church (Mark 12:41-44), these women gave out of their hearts, all they could, to help another in need. God is truly working in the hearts of our Cambodian friends.

by Kristen Baynai