The Village Support Group (VSG) is an organization working in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey province. The Village Support Group is one of DPA’s partner organizations which works on fishery resource management and agriculture in order to improve the sustainable livelihood of the poor and poorest families who depend on fishery resources and agriculture.

As a father of four daughters and one son, Mr. Deng Thy, aged 48, said “In the past, I never really understood the importance of participating in development work even though it could show me how to generate income for my family outside farming.”

Now, Mr. Deng Thy lives in Krasang Thmey village, Kuymaing commune, Monkul Borey district, Banteay Meanchey province. His family is very poor and he has no status in the village. However, with assistance from VSG, Mr. Deng Thy was elected as a leader of the Community Fishery Committee (CFi) in Kuymaing village.

“In this position, I have learned a lot about such subjects such as natural resource management, gender mainstreaming, advocacy strategies, small scale business development and management and agriculture.” said Mr. Thy.“Based on capacity building and material support from VSG, my family’s livelihood  has increased through home gardening, fishing and mat weaving. I also better understand the importance of participating in decision making in village development in order to respond to the needs of the villagers as well as in CFi management.”

Currently, the community fishery consists of 3,901 direct members of whom 2,344 are women and 4,663 indirect members of whom 1,982 are women. There community has accomplished many tasks, including setting up of six poles, creating three posters related to illegal fishing prohibition and burying 35 pipes of highway drainage.