C4C and Banteay Srei join forces to address gender-based violence (GBV), which still endemic in Cambodia, and includes sexual harassment, domestic violence, intimate partner violence , acid attacks, trafficking and child prostitution. Banteay Srei (Citadel of Women) is a registered Cambodian NGO and has become a leading Cambodian NGO in the areas of women empowerment and ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the provinces Siem Reap and, Battambang. In February 2022 Culture 4 Change and Banteay Srei submitted a proposal together for the UN Trust Fund with the objective to make use of the ability of women. Women who can claim their rightful place and develop leadership and economic independence are the best remedy against GBV: directly in their own households, and indirectly as agents of change who act as role models for other women. The project intends to reach some 160.000 beneficiaries, building up from direct contact and support to people at risk to indirect effects of campaigns, advocacy, and close working relationships with duty bearers.
In May 2022, Banteay Srei en C4C will conduct a first explorative mission in the project sites. The lived experience of rural families – how they make sense of what is happening to them – will be an important focus and permits to co-create effective intervention based on everyday speech and language used by ordinary people while using local idioms of anger and violence as they are set clearly in the local Buddhist and Khmer cultural logic and traditional codes of conduct, rather than imposing English-language terms derived from European notions of violence.