FI At Peer2Peer
#everydayheroes from our management and program teams were out in force in Manila, Philippines recently for an extensive series of workshops organized by Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the banner ‘ADB Peer2Peer Learning Event’.
The Team & The Project
The Friends-International (FI) ‘Fantastic Four’ in attendance were (from left, above) Sebastien Le Mouellec, FI Deputy Director and Saving Lives Coordinator based in the FI Thailand (Peuan Peuan) HQ in Bangkok, Map Somaya (Didi), Program Director of Mith Samlanh (MS), Maneth Tho, Program Director of Kaliyan Mith Siem Reap (KMSR), both based in Cambodia, and Kanchan Kapoor, International Finance Coordinator and FI Deputy Director, based in Paris, France.
They represented the Cambodian and Thai implementers of an ADB project responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also included NGO’s and CSO’s from other Asian countries such as Mongolia, Armenia, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR and the Cook Islands.
Together Implementing
MS were selected to lead interventions in 18 communities across Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Poipet in Cambodia, and Aranyaprathet and Bangkok in Thailand.
Although MS were the ‘public face’ of the project, and received certificates in recognition of that, the work was very much a strong collective effort- alongside other implementing programs KMSR and Peuan Peuan, and with the technical support of FI.
FI Reflections
Speaking about the event, attendee Sebastien commented “A big thanks to ADB for having organized the Peer2Peer week: it was great at so many levels… above all, I was amazed to see all the work achieved by all the CSOs. I met great people, (and) learned more about new contexts, countries and issues.”
Kanchan also praised the event – “ADB organized the event very well. I particularly appreciated the open sharing of our challenges, ADB giving us a voice and platform to feedback on those challenges, with ideas on what we and ADB could do differently next time.”
You can find a video outlining the impact of the project here
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