February 28, 2004

After months of delay, the Mekong River Boat project is again moving forward. Because of an inability to form a coalition government following the national Cambodian elections last July, everything came to a stand still in Federal Government Offices. No new contracts or government agreements could move forward because there was officially no government and there is not until this day.

Tired of waiting and getting put off we approached the Office of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Health and engaged one of their officers to assist us. Under his direction we are visiting all of the Provincial, Governors, Chiefs and Ministry of Health Officials, making presentations of the proposed Clinical Boat and asking for their reactions.

The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive from all of those we have visited thus far and they are petitioning the civil servants (Non-political officials) of the Federal Government to grant us the necessary approval. Although this is a tedious task, trying to visit more then 100 offices in two large provinces (states) it is acquainting us with hundreds of officials which will solidify our work in the future.

So we are again back on track and moving forward with more momentum and grass roots support then we had even hoped for and we are definitely “learning the territory.”

William E. "Bill" McDonough, Director
Partners In Progress
Phnom Penh, Cambodia