By Isabel Campbell-Gross | Development Team
Our 38 scholarship students have seen enormous growth these past three months. With half of their scholarship year now complete, students have been involved in some fantastic events and programs that have challenged them to take active roles in their communities and to critically engage with important issues. With a mid-year review marking the end of March, students participated in some important self-reflection, envisioning their goals for the future and assessing how the scholarship can help them to realize these ambitions. We are so grateful for your generous support, as it is an investment in our bright scholars’ promising futures.
In January, our students participated in a workshop facilitated by Bophana Center, an audio-visual archival center, as part of the center’s Acts of Memory Exhibition in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh. Students used interview skills acquired in the workshop to talk about the Khmer Rouge with their families and wrote reports about their discussions. Their involvement helped in the important work of preserving the memory of those affected by the Khmer Rouge and challenged students to examine and engage with their connection to Cambodia’s history.
Closing out the month, in collaboration with KHARE (Khmer Helping All to Respect the Environment), a community organization working to promote environmental responsibility, students participated in the clean up of a local park near the Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) offices. Joined by Cambodian-American singer Laura Mam, our students’ enthusiasm helped to galvanize the community effort, leading to a drastically improved public space and a successful event.
February was an exciting month for one of our impressive students, Nou Samnang, a Chapei Dong Weng (two-stringed long necked guitar) artist and member of the Community of Living Chapei troupe. Samnang appeared on ‘Happy World’ on Bayon TV, a local Cambodian station, where he was interviewed about Chapei and his life as a artist, followed by a short performance.
On February 14th, our students’ preparation finally paid off when they performed their dance piece, “Break the Chain,” at the One Billion Rising Event, in collaboration with GADC (Gender and Development for Cambodia). Students helped to raise awareness about gender rights at the huge event and promoted the campaign through social media. It was amazing to see the students’ strong commitment to gender equality and their integration of the arts into a successful social awareness campaign.
This month also marked the beginning of an exciting new inter-cultural exchange between students at McAuliffe Charter School in Framingham, Massachusetts and our scholarship students. Students from Framingham filmed themselves asking our students questions relating to power, wealth and hierarchy and our students prepared answers and replied back in video. The video exchange gave the peers the opportunity to learn from each other and allowed our scholarship students to practice and improve upon their English skills.
March was a busy month for our students, in which we saw some exciting artistic and educational accomplishments. El Huyno, a student in his second year studying painting at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), has made enormous progress in his English through his scholarship-sponsored study at the Australian Center for Education. His command of English has advanced so much that he was finally confident enough to attend his first workshop at RUFA conducted in English. El Huyno also won the prestigious first prize for his painting concerning the topic of woman empowerment, presented by the Sustainable Global Fuel Enterprise. He was awarded a Canon camera for his work and his achievement was announced in the Phnom Penh Post, a leading Cambodian newspaper.
Our scholarship students were also given the amazing opportunity to join a youth mock parliament event, where they observed and participated in a parliamentary voting system. They discussed opinions on current laws and what they would like to see changed in the law, which pushed them to think about innovative ways to tackle gender and development issues.
As we approach Cambodian New Year, we have witnessed our scholarship students take great strides in their educational and artistic development and we would like to thank all of our supporters for making this possible. With your help, we can continue to inspire and help students reach their full potential and evolve into the next generation of influencers and leaders.
Orkun Chrern! (Thank you very much)
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