WR Cambodia: Leadership Development

Over the past year, a group of key leaders within World Relief Cambodia have been learning practical concepts to help them become better leaders and project managers. They've covered topics, such as critical decision making and strategic planning, with the help of Jay Clark from the Kerusso Foundation. For their final project, teams presented new project proposals to a panel of "judges" (Tim Amstutz, Country Director; Joke Van Opstal, Hope Program Director; and Jay Clark). I got to sit in the back of the room as the teams shared their plans using PowerPoint presentations. It was fun to see staff members, whom I've gotten to know over the past several months, practicing their English skills as they demonstrated the new leadership skills they've developed over the past year.

One of the goals of World Relief is that international programs would become completely self-sustaining--which includes having a completely national staff team. WR Cambodia is well on its way to this goal--right now there are only five expatriates in the office and over 100 Cambodian staff and volunteers throughout the country. Projects like Leadership Development provide staff with skills that they pass down to other staff, which eventually will strengthen the whole of the organization.