Creating New Career Pathways to Reduce Poverty, Illiteracy and Health Risks, while Transforming and Empowering Cambodian Women’s Lives.

Community health psychology provides a framework for local
citizens themselves to systematically affect change in health and social inequalities, particularly through
Participatory Action Research (PAR). The Cambodian NGO SiRCHESI launched a 24-month Hotel Apprenticeship Program (HAP) in 2006 to provide literacy, English, social skills, health education, hotel skills-training, work experience and a living wage to women formerly selling beer in restaurants; there they had faced workplace risks including
HIV/AIDS, alcohol overuse, violence and sexual coercion. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate changes
in health-related knowledge, behaviour, self-image and
empowerment, as HAP trainees were monitored and evaluated within their new career trajectories.