Localisation of OIC Leadership

OIC Cambodia welcomes local Cambodian woman to take over organisation’s leadership role

July 2017OIC Cambodia is pleased to announce that Ms Chenda Net has taken on the role of Executive Director—replacing Mr Weh Yeoh, who founded the organisation four years ago. Mr Yeoh will continue to be involved with the organisation from his native Australia.OIC Cambodia has always valued localisation as one of their seven organisational values and Yeoh maintained the belief that the goal of OIC was to eventually hand over its operations to a local leader.Ms Chenda Net was the perfect candidate. In addition to more than a decade of experience in the non-profit sector in Cambodia, Chenda has a Masters of Health and International Development from Flinders University in South Australia, a law degree from Cambodia and an advanced diploma in physiotherapy from Singapore which she obtained after attending the three-year program with Cambodia’s Ministry of Health.Chenda is extremely passionate about improving equitable and accessible health and disability services in Cambodia and was inspired by the work that OIC had done to establish professional speech therapy in Cambodia. “There is a lack of awareness on what speech therapy is and its need in Cambodia. OIC is a unique organisation helping to bridge the awareness gap and increase the provision of services,” said Chenda.“When I look at Chenda, I see someone who is more qualified to lead OIC Cambodia than I am,” said OIC Cambodia’s founder Weh Yeoh and outgoing Executive Director.With the support of staff, volunteers, board members and our supporters, OIC strongly believes that Chenda will lead the organisation toward achieving its goal of having the government employ 100 Cambodian speech therapists by 2030, at which point OIC will withdraw its operations.Related article: The hardest part of running an NGO: Knowing when to leave