This year I learn a lot of different things in each exploration and in each project that we have here in Liger Learning Center. It also make me think why Cambodia have a lot of concerns? Before I don’t think there a lot of problems but while I learn more and more I see that I need to think how to change it so it will be better. It really hard to think how can we change because people have different perspective and sometime they don’t think kids ideas are better than them.
One important thing that Cambodia need to change is education. Education is really important because most of the time when I went on my trips I see many children not went to school. Mostly they go to work for money to support their family because as you know Cambodia is not a rich country. Also it hard to change other people’s perspective because how they think about education are different from us. Most of the families in Cambodia just think about money to support their family. They let kids do a work anywhere then when they get a salary they need to give most of money to their parents. Also some kids really want to learn more but they have no choice so they go to do a work like homeless people or work at factory.
My solutions are get more people to know how important education is. We can make a poster or kind of flyer to give to community people. In that poster we can write important facts and explain them why it important for kids to go to school. If there are school far away from their house and if I have money I would like to build one place for them to learn. It have teachers and it similar to the school. Then kids can learn there so they don’t need to go to school that far from their house and they can take that time to learn more. While we teach them we can make some project that they can go outside like go to community to interview people so they can have a lot of experiences and be brave. Also we can teach them more about other things such as sanitation because when they go outside they can see how people live everyday.
This year I went outside a lot especially in explorations classes. In Water Sanitation group we went to Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia. At there we went to floating area and learn about how they use the water there. Also we interviewed them about how do they use their toilet. Most people said that they not use a proper toilet they only have toilet that go straight to the river. Then when they need the water to take shower or for clean something they take the water from that river to use. so it make me think if they have a composting toilet it much better for their health. In another exploration I learn about water safety. In this exploration we focus a lot about drowning because there many kids had drowned but people don’t know that most kids death from drowning. Also we have on program that teach community kids how to protect their self from drowning. Our goal it to get them to know how to move in the water and can swim 3 – 5 meters so when they get drown they can protect themselves. Also in our class we have made water safety messages. When we go to one organization call Camkids we explain to most of the kids there so they know what can they do if they want to swim. After we explain them, we hope most of the kids their understand and can share what they learn from us to other people.
One of my exploration this year is about 3D Printing. In class we learn about create a new product from 3D Printing to solve the problem in Cambodia. My product was Book Standing. This product have a lot of benefit such as you can use it while you do housework, cooking the food play instruments etc. We also went to one government school to explain the students in one class about the 3D Printing and our team product and we do rotation when we do it. When I went there I learn a lot from them and also share my knowledge and experiences that I have in this class to them so they can pass the information to other how amazing 3D Printing are because it new for Cambodia and have only one in Phnom Penh.
It is important to know about safety and I want more people to know water safety. I want people to know about it especially kids because they can get drown anytime when to go into the water enough though they knew how to swim. So they should know how to protect themselves when they enter the water. For the parents should know to when they should allow their kids to enter the water. In this exploration we went to Camkids and explain kids there about our messages because we think that when they know how to protect themselves and can help reduce drowning in Cambodia.
This year I have five explorations and in each exploration I learn a lot of things not only in class also from trips. One of my favorite exploration is Water Safety. I like this exploration because I can teach students how to swim and it the time for me that I teach the students how to swim. Also I can give them what I know and what I have been learn in this class to them. As I know that not many kids know how to protect themselve in water so I shared them about my messages. My messages it about if you want to go swim you need to know the weather and water condition and other messages. It mean that I reduce drowning in Cambodia because when they know how to protect themselves they won’t get drown. Also it not only me that help change but other people in my group also help change because in a group we come up this idea and discuss with each other. In every explorations that I learned it new for me and it give differents experiences and knowledge.