At the end of each academic year, we are asked to write a reflection on the following questions: How did I think about change? How did I raise awareness about necessary change? How did I try to promote and encourage change? How did I develop the possibility of change? How did I actually create change?
Another year has nearly ended and I am trying to catch up every steps the world moves. I’m not sure if I understand how the world works. I keep asking myself why we as the humans keep making problems, making violence, making wars. I remember telling myself that I’m going to be an inspiration for people, telling myself that everyone has the agency to change the world. Cambodia has many problems that needed to be solve but it seems like this country didn’t have a real solution toward it.
Health is one of the main issues in Cambodia because there’s a lack of professional hospital, medicine, and healthcare education. My team and I went to do workshop in Siem Reap about iron deficiency. Since Cambodians are having lack of nutrition (iron) in their body, we proposed a solution that is called Lucky Iron Fish with the collaboration from Lucky Iron Fish organization. We introduced the product to the community and told them the importance of using it. We then distributed about 400 iron fish to the communities. At last we created a documentary, mainly focus on this topic.
One hundred and ninety four countries are in the Paris Climate Agreement, while other countries such as United States of America, Syria and Nicaragua are not in the agreement at all. In school this year, I was in a team who learn about climate change, and marine life in Cambodia. I remembered a research showed that Southeast Asia could easily affected by climate change related to lightning. So my team and I went to Koh Rong which is an island located at the southwest of the country to do workshop about lightning prevention. We also helped to distribute over 100 water filters to the community with the collaboration from Song Saa foundation and Plan International. We did this because people at the rural area has less access to clean water. Moreover we helped the community to build fences and a garden which contain different types of plants such as cucumber, pumpkin, chili, and spinach. Those activities that we did help the community to have a better understanding on global warming, and let them prepare for the future climate change.
Another project that I was involved in was called Khmer Rouge Exploration. In this project, my team and I went to S-21 to learn more about Cambodian genocide. After coming back from the trip, I made a film documented about the voices of young Cambodians who have been left with a deep sense of sorrow from the horrific “Khmer Rouge” war. We are the next generation in Cambodia and we have a strong sense that our country and our people will be united for a better future.
I wasn’t really prepare the film well due to time constraints. But the film had been showed at Liger Sharation, through YouTube, other websites and at Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival 2017. The film even won the Best Picture category. This couldn’t happen without my teammates and learning facilitators. I’m glad that it got shared to a lot of people and hope that it will send positive message to them.
Filming at Government school was one of the Explorations I’m in. In this project, my team and I teaches the students at the public schools about how to make movie. We got to share our knowledge to the students, and inspire them to be creative. At the end, we got to show their movies to some of the audiences at the Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival 2017. As a Liger student, we all should share our knowledge to other people so that they could learn something that we learned and everyone will benefit it.
I was one of the speakers at the TEDxISPP. I spoke about why teen suicide is a problem, and propose many solutions to stop and raise the awareness of mental illness. It was one of my biggest experience to stand in front of a lot of people and speak for more than 10 minutes. All I wanted Cambodia to understand is that even though Cambodia is such a small country, and mental illness or suicide aren’t really a big problem as the United States, the government should consider about implementing different learning curriculum about mental and physical issues so it would help to slow down the rate of suicide or people who are living in depression or other mental problems.
This year I learned and participated in a lot of projects that helped to change Cambodia. Some of them had a big impact, and some aren’t really impacting toward the country at all. Even though I’m just one out of those sixteen million people in Cambodia, I think I play a role to change this country, and also the world. Being born in this country, I will do everything to help my nation and hope I can keep doing what I do every day. It feels good.
I guessed I had changed something for Cambodia this year. One of them is the Project Evaluation Exploration. So basically, Liger were working on implemented a Project based-learning (PBL) and STEM in PBL program into the two resources government schools which the ministry of education had selected. I got to be one of the five students to evaluate the project. Is it relevant, capability and good outcomes? I got to visit the high schools in Kratie and Phnom Penh. I observed, interviewed and collected data. After that, I analyzed it. Now, even though I am one of the Liger students but I shouldn’t just said that the project should put into the government schools. I need to stay in the middle and judge on the data that I had collected and that’s why we as the team were working with an independent consulting company called Sevea, so this pilot program will be completely objective. The result was really good which mean that the students and teachers are interested with the project. 100% of the teachers and students really wanted to repeat the project again. They spent zero money on resources.
Wait, wait. I think I am out of the topic, let’s get back in and explain how it helps to change Cambodia. First of all, it helps to change the teachers and students’ perspective on education that there are many different ways of teaching and the teaching styles can affect to the students so much. If the teachers are happy to teach the students, and the projects are interesting, both of these will encouraged the students to learn harder. I also presented the final data analyzes to the ministry of education. This can help them to realize how important and effective the Project based-learning is. If they are happy with the project, they could spread this program to every government schools in Cambodia. They might talk to someone who expert at PBL besides Liger to go to continue teaching about it to the teachers. Or if someone who is interested with this kind of learning method, they could help to implement this into the other government schools. Why do I said this, because while on the last Sharation day, there’s a man who was asking me and Chheou about this and he said he is interested in putting this into the government schools too. Imagine if PBL and STEM in PBL are successfully in the government schools around Cambodia, it will help students and teachers to learn more about real world problems, and finding solutions to solve them. I hope that the ministry will do something with this. I hope this project will success, so this generation through next generations will get better education instead of sitting in the class, listen to the teachers and taking notes. Now I’m not meaning that learning in government school is not good, I’m just saying that there always a better way to do something.
2.Google Science Fair
Pencils I got from science fair….
The second thing that I had changed for Cambodia, well I guessed for the world also is the Google Science Fair (GSF) competition. I’m not completely changed it but just started it. GSF was a global online competition open for anyone who are the age from 13-18 to make something better with science and engineering. I worked on a project called Organic Insecticide. First, I thought it’s going to be really fun and easy. Well, it’s completely opposite from what my expectations are. I went through many challenges and finally came up with a really really simple strategy. I don’t need to talk about my result but I submitted it into the competition. If I don’t win, there’s still advantages. It gets to read by scientists. If- I said “if”, if they liked my idea, they could continue to work on it and if it succeeded, the idea will spread around the world. And this means that it can helps to solve Cambodia or world’s problem. Farmers will get better vegetables or plants that they could sell in a good price. Customers will get better food to eat. People’s health will not effected by those chemical sprays. The economy will become better and sustainable. I can talk good things about my project in many different ways but there’s a catch. It will destroy the insects, if insects gone, I can describe the impacts, but let’s not talk about it because I know I will write an infinity thoughts in here. So scientists or I need to be careful with that, let’s don’t kill them, let’s just scare them away. Though, there’s a .01% chance that my project will be accomplished, this means that there’s a 99% chance that this project didn’t change anything at all. Well, at least I submitted the project and it gets to read by scientists. I at least already changed 1% for Cambodia or the world.
The time that I wrote this sentences were about two months until the announcement made for winners of the GSF. When the day came, I checked it. I was right, my project didn’t get passed. But this does not pulled me down. It’s the opposite. It encouraged me to continue study about science and make a better project next year so I can join 2017 GSF and the next GSFs until I’m 18. I’m not losing, I’m just learning. Though, I was really happy because I got stickers and posters from the competition, I was very proud of it. I also made a commercial for GSF to encourage Liger students to join the competition. I really want them to join, it is a really life-change opportunity. I also told a man to join GSF when I met him at the maker fair contest, his product was so amazing and he would win the competition, and that product will help to change the world also. I keep telling people about GSF, so more people will share their ideas and there will be more solutions for the next big world problems.
But, I was so happy when I got the posters, and pencils that they sent us from America! It was my pleasure to have it. Here is the video that my team made:
3. Crime In Cambodia
Let’s talk about the third changes. CRIME IN CAMBODIA. I almost forget about this Exploration. I had visited and learned at Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC). What I changed in this Exploration for Cambodia was that we had created a blog that show all what we did in class and information about fisheries. So if anyone who wanted to learn about marine life, they can go and visit the blog. The second thing that I changed in the Exploration was that my team had created a documentary about fisheries in Cambodia. This documentary had shown to many different people like when Sharation day, it showed to a lot of students’ parents, ministry, people around Phnom Penh and people from different countries. I did shared the documentary in my blog and diy.org.
4. Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival
Related to the change above, my fourth change for Cambodia was joining the film festival. The documentary was showed in the black box theatre at ISPP and won the best documentary. And there’s about 100 people watching it. Not even that, I think the documentary also showed in MyTV, which is one of the biggest channels in Cambodia.
Finally, this documentary that I and my friends created had distributed to many people around Cambodia and the world. I had brought a message to every people that, marine life are very important and we all should help to protect it. The good thing about this, is that people will started to get interested with MCC and they would help to preserve the marine life which nearly extinct. When fisherman had educated, they will also help to protect it and they will continue fishing through their next generations with a sustainable fisheries.
5. Film Making at Government School
Let’s just say this a fifth change for Cambodia that I make, not made because this project will continue to next year. We invited students to come to our school and teach them about film making. They got to learn new things! They will know how to make a movie, such as writing a screenplay, directing a movie, produce, acting, filming and edit. They will know how to work in team better than before. We did this, so they can join the 2017 Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival (PPYFF). I had just given an opportunity to students. So, they can share their movies to their friends and family once they are finished. This will help filming in Cambodia to improve because this kind of stuff didn’t happened a lot in this country. If they are interesting with filming, they might continue doing it and share it around.
6. Sharing Center
Other things that I did on my holiday as my sixth change are the sharing- I don’t know how to call that. But what it means is that, I had brought a local library and putted it in my village, so if anyone wants to read books, they can borrow. I saw kids came to borrow the book to read, so that’s a great thing. Also I putted a poster about deforestation, so I guessed someone could look at it and thinking about it. Another thing that I was really happy about is that I had given an animal guide book to my old government school. This change is kind of success because my brother told me that his teacher read the book to the students and asking questions about what the students had learned about the animals. I hope that the students there will continue read the book and gain more knowledge and help to preserve the wildlife.
7. Ind.Dis : Factories
My seventh change is about my independent discovery expertise. I had made a blog about Cambodia past factories. I got all the information from interviewed and researched. I guessed I might be the first one who made the blog about it. So, I kind of brought back some of the past factories that had gone during Khmer Rouge. Read more about my project!
8. Humans of Cambodia
My eight change is connected to this too. I had became a part of a project called Human of Cambodia. Which I interviewed and write a story for that people, it similar to a website called Human of New York.
9. Garbage Collecting
I just know what I can write for my ninth change. It was my ASE time, Frisbee. It was Jan’s idea though. He told us to collect the rubbish on the field that we were playing. I helped. Not only helped to clean the environment but I became one of the students who shows to the kids around that place to clean their environment too. Connected to that point, I also tried hard not to use a lot of plastics when I’m at home or at Liger. I used my reusable bag, bowl- anything that isn’t plastic to pack things that I bought. Talking about the bowl, I used it to store the porridge, instead of plastic. It seems a bit crazy to the people in the village, but whatever, I still did it over and over again. Most of the time when I bought something, I give the plastic bag back to the seller and tell them that I didn’t need it. I’m not saying that I am a good Liger student that didn’t used or throw any plastic. To be honest, I sometimes used plastic and when I’m at home, I also do throw plastic away because there’s no rubbish bin to put, which is a bad thing.
10. Maker-faire
Anyway, my tenth change is about sharing my creative idea to other people. I’m talking about the maker fair contest that I had joined. I got to the semi-final. I present about my product on the stage in front of about 150 people. Oh, related to that, I also shared a new art thing that I had discovered through internet to the people at the STEM fair.
11. Science Story
The science story! How could I forget this important change I made! And this is my eleventh change for Cambodia. I made a book about pH and Water Cycle with Sovannou and had shared it to the kids that are living outside the Liger campus. They just learned something from me, I mean not from me but learn about science concepts.
12. Ministry Day
Oh and this # twelve change is kind of important too. I had presented about recruitment to the ministry people, to explain about PBL to them. This is the first time that I did to the ministry and this can help them to get interested with Liger, if they liked what Liger are doing, they might wanted to do like us too. And that’s why PBL and STEM in PBL projects had implemented into the government schools as I was talking about above.
13. STEAM
Joining the Hunsen Mission was my thirteenth change. Soliday and I got to share our STEAM painting which has a lot of meaning in it. The changes above are what I can remembered. I hope the changes I made this year will help to improve a part of Cambodia.
I’m ready for the next four years and willing to enjoy my journey.
● Think about change (what things did I notice need to be changed in my country; what solutions did I think about, even if I couldn’t DO the solution?)
In Cambodia there are a lot of problem because this country is poor. The things that I want to change in Cambodia is to improve more law. Every country have different law and law is really important for people. In Cambodia have law but the people not respect it. Example the traffic lights place. People who drive the motor, car and bike or walk need to stop and see the traffic light whenever they want to cross or pass the road. As I see whenever I went to Phnom Penh, sometimes I saw people just go even though the traffic light told them to not go.
My solution is to help the people there understanding how important is to respect the law. Go to the community and convince them to keep respecting the law. Make them connect with the society such as giving the shirt. When they wear the shirt of law respecting pictures on it, it’s show that person also one of Cambodian respect the law even though that person not but it can remind others around that person to respect the law.
People habit: This is show how people not respect to each other. One of the example is when they were getting crash with each other. The real example that I heard from the RE said, one time there motor and car crash together. But the motor and the people not getting hurt, so the car just drive aways. But then the motor people stop the car and block the way to not let the car go away. The motor people just call the car driver to come out. When the motor people blocked the way to not let the car go, it was effect to the other people that around there driving to do their business or to go somewhere. It make traffic gems. Soon the police come to solve the problem, so everyone can go.
Conflict in family and the people around you. At my village there are a lot of conflict between the people in the family. When they have conflict, it can affect to the people around them. Example at my village, one man got drunk every time and so when he arrived home he always blame his wife, his children. It was so loud and my house can hear what he’s talking. At the night sometimes my family and another family can not sleep because of the man voice. His wife try to tell him not to drink the beer, but still he not listen. Meanwhile, for the conflict between one family to another family is similar to the conflict in the family too. One example was there are one house. That house divided into two different houses and so there are two family lived in. The family at the top always throw the waste down to the down stair house and so the man there tell the man at the top house to not throw any waste in front of his house. But the man in the top house not listen and just walk away. The man on the down stair house just ignore him. Soon the man on the top of the house still continue to throw every thing that they don’t need down to the man live in the down stair house. Sometimes the man on the top of the house flow the bath water into the man lived down stair house. So the man get really angry and he tell the man at the top to go to the police with him. And they still now having a conflict, it is not yet ended.
Environment around Cambodia. Plastic! Plastic! People in Cambodia only say that there are a lot of plastic in Cambodia. I know they were so smart that they know that. But they do nothing. People just keep throw the rubbish away, such as plastic nevertheless they knew that the plastic can be the problem for the environment. There no way that they stop using plastic because they know plastic is really easy for them to pack. I saw a ton of plastic at the Cba Ompove Bridge. Also the Cba Ompove Market too. But no one care.
– Create an mobile app to help them
– Be a model, collecting the rubbish and share the information about plastic problem
Education in Cambodia. At the government school, people just go to learn and teachers just teaching. Teacher was teaching the lesson and students just write fallow the teachers without listening and asking questions. Students at government school not brave enough to ask the questions when they don’t understand. Some of the student taking seriously at the school but some not. There’s not a lot of people in Cambodia are smart, that why Cambodia is poor. People’s education is really important because it can lead the people into the better future.
– Changing the teaching plan at government school
– Encourage teachers to feel happy to teach the students
Is Cambodia communist, or democracy. I do know that Cambodia is democracy but I still wonder why some people in Cambodia don’t get enough independent. One example of the place in Phnom Penh, people there had been evicted by the government to move their house and to go aways from the place. The government was taking that land to build the big building. But what about the other people, where they can go? Who can help them? They didn’t have any place to lived, or they need to find the job to feed their life.
– Take their feeling to put in your heart
Poor get poorer and Rich get richer. The people that rich will hire the other people to do the work for them such as household work, instruction worker and more. People that get hire need to work really hard to find the money. If the instruction worker build one building for their boss, the boss get the building and the boss will give the money but they were all just got a little bit. For the boss can take the building and attract the visitor to get the money.
– Learn when was young and try to have a good job at the future
– Respecting each other, give enough salary to the worker
Where’s all the money go? My wondering was where all the money that from the taxes go? I know it will be for the building road, hospital, school and etc. But in Cambodia have about 1.5 million people, each taxes it should be a lot but it still not enough. Is the money go into the corruption people’s pocket?
The flow of foreign(especially Korean) affect the youth in Cambodia. Cambodia’s youth started to know a lot about Korea such as song. When they had watch the song, they had been saw Korean’s style and so they think that is really handsome or pretty so they just copy.
The hospital- When people got sick they go to the hospital. The doctor in Cambodia’s hospital some are really need the money. They think money is more important that human. If sick people don’t have money the doctor will not cure. Hospital is belongs to the country, to the people who built it. It’s for everyone but for the doctor when they take the money like that it mean they take for their personal.
Smoking effect to the health. Most people in Cambodia smoke a lot nevertheless they knew the cigarette is really dangerous for the health. One family if one person smoke, it is can effect to all the people in the family such as the women who has pregnant.
Death fetal came from drowning. Mostly the children from 1-4 years old in Cambodia was die because of drown. It is the highest fetal in Cambodia but no one know about it because they get less collection data from drowning fetal.
Some children can’t live with their parents. Not all children in Cambodia lived with their parents. Like me, I live with my grandparents because when I was young my parents got divorce. I don’t want the parents to do like that. I want them to stay together and protect the child.
People commit suicide. Some teenager in Cambodia think really short. I mostly saw this news in newspaper. It was terrible. Some people took the dangerous medicine in their body, some jump from the bridge to the water to kill themselves. Some reasons of teenager in Cambodia did was because of family, love and maybe because the people around them.
Some people in Cambodia killing each other. They got conflicted, angry with each other and than……fighting so some got hurt and when to the hospital and the people that fought other will go to jail. Is that a really nice thing?
● Raise awareness about necessary change (did I talk to others and share my ideas about what needs to be changed; possible solutions? did I talk about that with people? with friends? family?)
I had been talked to my grandma to use the plastic again. And sometimes she does and sometimes not. When she come from the market to buy the food, she always keep the plastic to pack other things. For my aunt I saw her used a lot of plastic to pack the food to go to work. But now she’s not use a lot of plastic instead she chose other thing to pack the food.
I, my grandma and the member in my family had told my grandpa to stop smoke. So he do what we told, but for about one month my grandpa started to smoke again. But he not smoke like before. He started to reduce his smoking. I hope my grandpa stop it. Same as drinking the wine. My grandpa like to drink a lot the past five years. And so the member in the family including me told him to stop, so now he’s not drink like before. He was only drink the wine when ceremonies or some parties.
● Try to promote and encourage change (did I do my best to teach others/show others/be an example and model of change? did I try to educate others about change? ex: sharations, trips, networking)
Encourage people to come to join my teaching lesson at Kompong Chhnang.
Invite people to come to the sharation day in Liger.
Selling new product and create a website to convince people to buy my product which is phone/tablet stand.
How to help yourself when you drown?
Create an app that help people to reduce using plastic.
Distribute Cambodia cultures
Determination in Liger- Joining a running race, bike race, swimming across the river. I think this all encourage students in Liger(girls) to be more strong like me. Don’t be scared and got anxious when you do something. Never Give Up.
Networking is to share what would you do when you are the big business men/women. It is really important when you started to learn about it from young, practice and do it.
Try to share people about 3D printing.
Do translation(translate the animals’ books and economies’ books).
● Develop the possibility of change (before change can happen, other things must come first; did you try to “get the ball rolling” or take “baby steps” that come before making a big change?)
When on trip to teach people about first aid.I was went to Kompong Chhnang to teach the people there about first aid. I had learned from the nurse about how to cure people health.
Sharation. I was sharing my ideas and what I was learned in Liger school. I share the experiences, lessons and ideas to other people that come to the sharation in Liger. I shared them about the trip that I went with my classmate.
Invented new product to help others. My group make one product called phone/tablet stand. This product help people to be easy when they used their advice. They can put the phone on the stander and they don’t need to hold it.
Teaching children how to help themselves and others when drowning. This topics I still working on it with my exploration group. We will teach the children(5-14) about basic swim, how would they swim when they are in the water. We also will make the poster to put at the government school for the students there to see. The posters show people to be aware from the water. They should not go near the water without adult, be aware of the animals in the water and etc.
Create a lesson plan
Register for the students
Start to teach
Drawing and making poster for the school at provinces and Phnom Penh(Government school, maybe international school). We will translate it into Khmer and English.
Joining Technovation Challenge 2015
Go on trip to learn more and then create a blog or website to share and also share it when sharation.
such as Culture shock. Create and share it to the people around the world to know about Cambodia, culture and how people live in Cambodia and etc.
Joining the RACE such as football, running, bike and swim. Cheer for others to join with me even though they think they can not do it. Always tell them that you will not know if you not try it.
Networking: Pretending to be one of the business man and share my idea, the business to others business man(students)
Creating a video about 3D printing and share on Youtube to let people see about it. Also share about it at the government school.
Translating in the document about animals and economies.
● Actually create change in Cambodia this year
People know how to cure themselves when they got fever or ankle sprain. I think I change them because first time they don’t know what to do when they got ankle sprain or fever. Some of them was know what to do with fever but it not right. I think it can help people a lot when their children or someone getting hurt they can help and don’t need to bring someone to the hospital if it not so dangerous.
Children knew how to swim and help others when they get drown.
People know how to be safe when there are pond or water near them.
Make people know more about Liger by creating a newspaper.
People get easier when they use their phone or device with my group product.
Others know more about Cambodia cultures
People know more about 3D printing in Cambodia so they can invent new thing with it.
