Wars in the history of Cambodia has strongly destroyed this country. In 1991, Cambodia has started its first election after 20 years and the country slowly recovered itself from the tragedy. As the next generation of Cambodia, I strongly believe that there are so much, I can do as a change agent for my country. Another school year has ended, there are countless of activities and projects that I’ve done that contributed changes to this nation.
Khmer Rouge regime is known to be the most adversity time in Cambodia’s history. Many intelligent and high-class citizen were killed, children were forced to work rather than attending school, many people starved, and experienced forced labor. The war has separated many families, people from their loved one and taken away many lives. This scandalized history had left a deep wound in a lot of Cambodian’s hearts. That is why nowadays, a lot of elders in Cambodia insisted in talking and sharing about this horrifying history. Every time, the topic comes up in conversation they felt a sentimental experienced in their life. After learning about this history, I felt there are needed to spread words to Cambodian’s next generation in order to prevent the history repetition. During the Liger Sharation, our group’s presentation tackled the daily lives of our elders before and after the regime. Moreover, we emphasized the influence of the regime towards the entire country until today. I believe that the presentation will inspire the youngster to learn about their country’s history and the elders to open up and share their experience.
There are a lot of people living in the rural and isolated part of Cambodia such as the island. Kong Rong, the island that is two hours on a boat away from Sihanoukville Port is known to be one of the best places for tourists. However, on the other side of the island, there are many uneducated people including children. During our field trip, we learned that most families can’t afford their children to study further than grade 9 because it’s the only available grades on the island. Annually, Song Saa Foundation has brought in volunteers and experts to check the villager’s health mainly their teeth. Despite the communication problem, the organization help to cure much major health problem for those island people. This year I was a part of an exploration called Preventative Health. The other members and I did research and prepare an educational play to mainly teach the community about topics of the importance of eating the variety of food, teeth, and diabetes. We’ve reach out to most children in school because as we believe that they will be able to understand the content and share it with their parents and relative. Although it was a small action from our school, it was effective.
A lot of students in Cambodia government school didn’t have the access to technology such as Camera or Computer. Filmmaking filed in Cambodia is rapidly growing, there are needed for Cambodia young filmmaker. The exploration called Filming with Government Students allows 10 government students to work closely with the eight Liger’s students to learn about how to make the film. In the course of seven weeks, they are learning about how to write a screenplay, storyboarding, using Camera and a little bit about acting. My teammates and I work closely with the students to ensure that they’re learning the contents and having fun with the new experience. With the help from Liger’s students, by the end of the project, they finalized with two short stories that were sent to the competition Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival (PPYFF). I am very proud of my team members, for providing such a rare experience to the government students and giving them the best curriculum as we possibly could, that inspire them to have a different perspective on filmmaking filed or might lead them to be apart of filming industry.
This country continuously growing, there are numerous changes and development in the past few years. Nonetheless, this country isn’t perfect there are so much that could be done. I believe that changes start from yourself, and it doesn’t matter how old you are. This was such a brilliant school year, I’ve done so much as well as the other students. Yet, there are more to come next year, and I’m looking forward to it.
