Vision
We envision a just society in which human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled for everybody equally, and where people live in harmony with our environment.
Mission
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia is a grassroots organization working to bring people together to overcome poverty, injustice and inequity in Cambodia. We build bridges across borders by:
- Raising global awareness of the pressing issues facing the most vulnerable people in Cambodia
- Facilitating people-to-people exchanges, solidarity actions, and volunteer programs
- Supporting local initiatives for social justice, inclusive development and the protection of human rights
- Teaching creative, non-violent methods of resolving conflict
Goals
The overall goal of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia is:
To transform the national development model into one that respects, protects and progressively fulfills the human rights of the Cambodian people.
Our interim goals for 2010-2012 are:
- Global awareness is raised and international solidarity is fostered around the pressing issues facing poor and marginalized Cambodian communities.
- Poor and marginalized communities are motivated, organized and effectively supported to overcome their common problems and reach their full potential.
- Cambodians are better informed and equipped to defend their rights and advocate for just development and good governance.
- The government, development partners and private sector improve respect for land, housing and natural resource rights.
Background
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia began as the Cambodia Country Program of the international organization Bridges Across Borders (BAB) in 2003. BAB was formed when our four co-founders and directors - Ana-Maria Vasquez, Bruce Lasky, Carol Mosely, and David Pred - came together out of a desire to foster cross-cultural understanding and solidarity between individuals and communities in the Global North and Global South. Bridges Across Borders Cambodia (BABC) became an independent organization on 31 March 2010. This was an important step toward our ultimate goal of becoming a sustainable, local organization managed entirely by Cambodians. BABC is a registered not-for-profit, non-governmental organization in the United States and Cambodia.
Since our founding, BABC has been effectively fighting poverty and deprivation in Cambodia. We have established child protection facilities, formal and non-formal education, leadership and harm reduction programs from which over 6000 children and youth have benefited. We have initiated and supported community-based development initiatives that have increased the food security and improved the health and wellbeing of over 3000 poor and vulnerable Cambodians.
In recent years, BABC has emerged as a leading advocate of land and housing rights in Cambodia. Through media and legal advocacy, coalition building, policy research and lobbying at the national and international level, we have helped to elevate the issue of forced evictions and land-grabbing in Cambodia and made international development agencies more accountable and responsive to this pervasive human rights problem.
BABC has also been engaged in extensive efforts to support human rights defenders and expand access to justice through the development and implementation of community legal education and empowerment programs. We have developed ground-breaking popular education curriculum on international human rights law, domestic law, and strategies that communities can employ to defend their rights in the face of forced displacement. We have trained grassroots facilitators from fifteen Cambodian provinces and municipalities and they are now actively using these materials to raise awareness and support threatened communities across the country.
In less than five years, Bridges Across Borders Cambodia has grown from a small project with two volunteer directors into a well-respected organization with 40 dedicated staff and an impressive track record of results.
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