Again, at our last GLAM meeting we had a speaker, Alicia, from Center for Global Impact.
Center for Global Impact, or CGI, is an organization that seeks to bring the Good News of Jesus to those in the grip of poverty and bondage. They do this practically by providing a pathway out of poverty through education, vocational training and business development. Primarily working in Cambodia, many of those they serve are victims of — or vulnerable to — human trafficking.
CGI hopes and prays for a future in which those they serve experience the freedom, dignity and fullness of life that comes when we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ.
Center for Global Impact empowers the poor, protects the vulnerable and shares the gospel.
Alicia went into great detail on how the organization was founded and what they were hoping to achieve. She explained how they came to focus on Cambodia and shared many success stories of their work.
CGI achieves it's mission through different projects that help empower and raise money for people in Cambodia.
One of these projects is the Imprint Program. The Imprint Project is an intensive 18-month life skills program that focuses on spiritual formation, general education and vocational seamstress training.
One of its most successful projects is byTavi. byTavi is a design label named after a woman who sought out CGI for help to better herself and her family. When Tavi came to CGI in 2008, she found herself in a desperate situation. Her husband recently taken by AIDS, she was the sole caregiver of her two young children and an elderly aunt. Being HIV positive, she was weak and had no resources to sufficiently care for herself, let alone her family. Aware of her culture’s common acceptance of trafficking children to make ends meet, she desperately sought a better solution.She approached CGI and requested a sewing machine and seamstress training. Three short years after she began sewing pillow covers, she had inspired over thirty other women in her community to join a sewing team, whose products were to be labeled byTavi.
Today, the byTavi Workshop serves as much more than a vocational training project. Beyond seamstress training, CGI desires each woman to realize and reach her full potential. With this in mind, they develop promising young leaders through retreats and additional responsibilities in the workshop. In fact, the byTavi Project is fully managed by a team of women previously employed as seamstresses.
CGI also has a culinary training program. The Culinary Training Center is an 18-month training program that teaches kitchen and restaurant management skills to at-risk girls. Located in Battambang, Cambodia, the CTC is complemented by two CGI-operated restaurants: The Green Mango Café and Bakery and the Red Chili Mexican Grill. In addition to a culinary education, students gain service experience and employment in these two restaurants. The Red Chili, in particular, is designed to impart upper-level leadership skills to CTC graduates.
The last project Alicia explained, was CGI Kids. CGI kids is really cool because it allows kids to come up with ideas of things they can do and money they can raise here to send over to help in Cambodia. Kids get to choose what they want to do to raise money, and how they want the money spent. So one child, donated his birthday. He had everyone bring money for his CGI project instead of presents and he decided he wanted it to be used as playground equipment at a school in Cambodia.
All of these projects help raise funds and awareness to CGI's goal in Cambodia.
There is also a store here in Greenwood at the CGI location that sells byTavi and Imprint items. Perfect for us women! Alicia had some of the items at our meeting. I bought this gorgeous byTavi scarf.
Alicia's presentation was very informative and eye opening. We can't wait to pair with Center for Global Impact in December, More to come on that volunteer opportunity.
If you'd like to find out more information about CGI, go to centerforglobalimpact.org
Thanks again Alicia for coming and sharing all about the Center for Global Impact!
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