Women with Visual Impairment Dream of Utilizing Chicken Raising Skills To Improve Agriculture

Ms. SIN Topheakdey, 33 years old, is a participant with visual impairment who has 10 years of chicken raising experience in her family. Despite her disability, she has become a skillful poulterer and plans to utilize this experience to establish a sustainable business, which will provide a better family life in the future. With the determination to improve financial status for herself and family, Pheakdey decided to participate in the “Coastal Incubator Program for Women Entrepreneurs with Disabilities” in Boeung Sala Khang Tbong commune, Kampong Trach district, Kampot province, which recently concluded in May.

“The reason I participated in this program is because I want to have the right knowledge and skills, which I can utilize to earn income without having to rely too much on my parents or family members in the future.”

Pheakdey values knowledge and insisted her brother to accommodate thetransportation from her house no matter how far it is or how busy he is in order to learn more about business. Her chicken raising operates as a family-owned business, with no regard to sustainability, which is the reason she plans to restructure into a small commercialized business following the workshop completion. The significant strength of Pheakdey is her ability to remember almost every lesson, which the mentor and facilitator instructed from the 1st until the 5th workshop. She has a complete idea of developing this chicken raising business, starting from identifying the strengths and weaknesses, as well as existing resources or the needs for future development. Business value proposition was one of the lessons which she enjoyed the most as she could learn how to advertise her product and maintain goodrelationships with customers.

“I think every lesson is valuable. The facilitator and mentor educated me on marketing, recording income, expenses and setting SMART goals for business, resources needed to start a business, and if we take a risk, what type of consequences we may face.”

Pheakdey has started applying the lessons in her daily life, such as allocating income and expenses, learning to make decisions on certain activities or connecting with potential partners that will create a positive impact on her business goals. She acknowledges that achieving things?takes time, so she needs to plan each action step in detail, even if she requires more time than other entrepreneurs. Pheakdey is the definition of “Do-er” because she has prepared a good business plan and expects to kick off in the following 6 months based on her chicken raising experience and the business capacities, which she polished during the program. Her first step is to prepare the capital in order to build a larger chicken coop to provide a better shield and she needs some extra equipment to deal with?changes in weather. To ensure that this newly-commercialized small scale chicken raising business runs smoothly, she also needs additional skills in numerical calculations and marketing. In herentrepreneurial journey, Pheakdey would always motivate herself to strive for a more prosperous future and increase family income.

“I would like to encourage other people with disabilities to work, study hard and conduct a thorough business. Do not be negligent, because this is our skill and opportunity. Therefore, you should strive to grasp as much knowledge in order to run a business, increase family income and especially?reshape the concept of disability through entrepreneurship. We have to be strong even if we are women or persons with disabilities.”

“Coastal Incubator Program for Women Entrepreneurs with Disabilities” is initiated and co-implemented by Agile Development Group and Aide Et Action Cambodia (AEA) co-funded by European Union in Cambodia under the project of “TheConsortium for Sustainable Alternatives and Voice for Equitable Development (CO-SAVED)” in the purpose of improving the socio-economic development of Cambodians living in coastal communities who rely on fishing as their primary source of income. This program is implemented from January to July 2023 to help women entrepreneurs with disabilities (WEDs) to build businesses from the ground up and/or businesses owned by WEDs that are still in their idea stage.