In the first term of the Khmer Sight Foundation (KSF) project we trying to create the values and ideas improve the experiences that the patients would receive during the mission and especially during the screening. So we’ve been brainstorming the ideas that we want to do to help the KSF. After generating many ideas in the seminar hour we have a formal meeting with the KSF’s board to make the ideas possible. The outcome of the meeting were three different videos to educate the patients how to protect their eyes, about diabetes and eye disease, and last but not least is the video that teach the new volunteers how to do the screening. We’ve finished one of the video now and soon all. And we hope that every Khmer people will protect their eyes well and most importantly changing the stigma of wearing the sunglasses.
Healthcare Exploration: Healthcare System
In the first term of the exploration, we are focus generally in the healthcare system in Cambodia. In this exploration we’ve been to many of the health-related organizations and public and private hospital to gather their perspectives on the current Cambodian’s healthcare system. In this first round we try to gather as much as possible of the general informations about the healthcare system in Cambodia. The outcome of that is that we will chose our individual route that we are interesting in after hearing the perspectives from those doctors. So for the next round I want to focus more into science within health sector. Where I want to learn and research more about the medicine, the scientific one and the traditional one, moreover I want to know where do we get the ingredients to make medicine. Beside that I want to work with health-related organization volunteering to educate other people about health.
Specifically, on the 28th of September, the Healthcare Exploration went to an open-house at the University of Health Sciences (UHS). We registered in three different departments: Public Health, Dentistry, and Pharmacy. Specifically, in dentistry, we’d been toured to different labs, and meet their 7th-year students who were practicing dental care.
In the Public Health department, we were given an overview of what is public health, since it is a new major offered in 2013. Then, we heard the story of success from their first graduate and a student who is reaching the end of her bachelor study and were led into the information room. There, booths were set for participants to interact, ask questions to the students who study there, and read the research paper done by the professor and founder of the degree. Then, lastly, open house ended with them giving a tour of their library and study spaces.
University of Pharmacy is part of the UHS, and the pharmaceutical course has the most hand-on learning experience than any other medical department. There are three different types of classes, theoretical, laboratorical learning that practices theories learned, and researching. There are labs such as: DNA extraction from pathogens, plants identification, substance extraction, household-use products production such as hand soaps and soap bars. Some places require us to wear lab coats due to the risk of biohazard and contracting diseases. However, the most interesting part of this opening event is, learning that the university values the Khmer traditional medicine; instead of brushing it off due to its lack of scientific proof, one of the main lessons is focusing on understanding the science behind the traditional treatment, and uses the discovery to improve the modern medicines.
Fun Fact: Unlike the other universities in Cambodia, this university administer their tests digitally; where each student would have to answer a set 60 randomized questions within an hour.
New Hope for Cambodia Children
This is the fourth exploration of the school year, 2017-2018. This exploration is about human health and our topic is about HIV/AIDS. In class, we learned how HIV transmit, mainly it comes to unprotected sex and sharing the same needle.
On the 2nd of March, we went to an orphanage located in Kampong Speu province named New Hope for Cambodia Children (NHCC). This organization assists people who needed help most, which are the abandoned HIV infected children around Cambodia. NHCC help those children by providing care, provide regular medicine, and most importantly they provide free education for those children. The founder of NHCC believes that HIV infected children also have rights to access the education like the other deserved. With all the fund they raised, NHCC saved more than 400 children lives from their first emergence in 2006 until now. To be unusual, NHCC raised their children to be the leader. They believe HIV infected people can do what normal people can. Not only assist those children while they are on the campus but also helping those people when they go to colleges.
While I was there, I didn’t believe what I saw. Who said HIV infected people are weak, can’t do anything, or laying in bed? They seem to be healthy and strong like the other people who not invected with the virus, they play football, basketball, even study English. When was there and now I still admire their work, their 100%+ effort to help Cambodian children.
Dinosaur Investigation 2nd Field Method
On the 8th of February 2018, my team and I, traveled to Battambang with two Thai paleontologists to analyze the footprint that we have found at the site on our first trip there. After taking all the experiences from our trip, we had changed the procedure of casting and how to do a more efficient field method. Although, the imprints on the rock that we thought it was dinosaur footprints on our first trip now with the help of both of the Thai paleontologists we had analyzed they were not footprint they are flute cast. Meaning it was a cast that got affected by the river flows that pushing it through those stones which affect the stones to turn it that way.
It is a pleasure, to have the two Thai paleontologists, Romain and Tida, to help us through with the three days with the total of 12 hours workshop session and a field trip. Even though the result of our project wasn’t what we all were really expected, we still feel optimistic and keep moving forward with this project and will try to raise awareness on Dinosaurs in Cambodia through mainly “Education.”
Journey Of Change Bike Tour
During the second term in the school year of 2017-2018, I accompanied in Journeys of Change bike tour business. Primary our mission is to create a tour for visitors to the Phnom Penh area that shares everyday Cambodian life and explains the changes that have occurred and are occurring in our country, while being environmentally conscious, support the local economies that we tour through, train Liger students in responsible tourism, provide cross-cultural opportunities for visitors and Liger students, create job opportunities for Liger students to have funds for higher education and/or starting their own business in the future.
We study it in exploration, which we have the chance to go to Battambang province to study about bike tour from another bike business, Soksabike. So far we have been guided two trips for the press that visited Liger Leadership Academy and our students and staffs. With a little time of researching the information, we have picked ten stops that we want to interact the tourists with Cambodian lifestyles. Join Us! Cambodian Insights: Past and Future Bike Tour. Keep on updating!
Dinosaur Investigation
In the first exploration in the course of 2017-2018, I studied Dinosaur Investigation. First of all, we knew that there a footprint site in Battambang province from the Department of Geology in Ministry of Mine and Energy, Cambodia. This is the new topic for me and for my team. As it is a new topic for us, it quite difficult for us to do field methodology including casting and identifying the footprints. Our team spent a day walking around the area to do field method for possible footprints such as taking notes, measuring the length and the size of the footprints, identifying rock type and recording geographic coordinates and elevation. We then used clay and plaster of Paris to make casts of the footprints for more investigation in class. Besides doing the casts, we interviewed some people around the area whether they believe in dinosaurs and it turned out that they didn’t believe that dinosaurs existed. We had recorded about 15 difference footprints on the site by dividing the whole big site into four smaller sites call A, B, C, and D.
After this inconvenient day, we finally cast from the prints that we think it is dinosaur’s footprints. After having all the casting, our next immense goal is to validate our footprints by writing our own report. Therefore, we created a report that contains all of the information such as, the site and the landmark and the footprint itself, in order for us to send this report to other experts. So, we then worked with five paleontologists around the globe to validate and help us on the footprints that we have discovered.
Through working with other paleontologists from around the world we managed to validate our footprints and it turned out that some of our footprints are actually the real dinosaur footprints. So now we need to work on preservation and distribute all the information to Cambodia and all around the world.
Preventative Health Exploration
First of all, I really happy to be in this exploration! These were the best experiences for me. I had learned a lot of things from this exploration. On trip, the people at the islands and Song Saa foundation was so friendly to us and I really exited to go there and learn with them again. My favorite experience were snorkeled to see the coral reef at Song Saa’s private reef, scuba diving closer to the coral reef, hiked to the waterfall, snorkeled to find seahorse in seagrasses meadow, saw a lot of jellyfish and starfish and to see the bioluminescent for my first time.
Most of those experience are my first time, and I really proud of myself to be in this exploration and get to learn about those things. I had learned a lot about the three main ecosystem in marine which is seagrasses meadow, coral reef and mangrove when I was there. I really exited to share my knowledge that I got from this exploration with other people on the island and to see people at there, they are really healthy. In class I really exited about the play that our group had organized to share with the people on the island, also I had learned a lot from the play.
The things that I had learned from the play are how to floss. This is my first time to learn how to floss and it also my new experience, the reason that we need to floss because it can clear out the bacteria that stuck to your teeth and between your teeth and gum. Also, how to keep you healthy. To keep you healthy you need to eat balanced diet and exercise, which at Liger I mostly did that. Next one is, what is balanced diet, balanced diet is that when you eat a lot of vegetables and carbohydrate but didn’t eat a lot of sugar and fat.
So I really, really happy to be in this exploration and I want to say thank you to Karen for letting me be in this exploration. It was the best experience for me, when I studied in this exploration.
Visited the Killing Field Reflection
The comparison of the actual place and my idea, in my views, there will be a lot of old building from the Khmer Rouge regime, but they all are destroyed. Also, I think that there was only one killing field around Cambodia, but it actually has a lot of killing fields.
My significant feeling when I went to the killing field was really upset with the ideology of genocide that Pol Pot has.
The things that I have learned/known is that after the killer kills a group of people, then the killer got murdered by another killer. Also, I learn that the Khmer Rouge army knew how to make the poison to put on the dead body and make sure that the people that they killed were actually dead. The last thing that I have learned is that before they use Choeung Ek as the killing field, it was a place for the Chinese to bury their family dead body.
The two questions that I still have are 1. Where the head of the headless dead body that was killed there? And 2. I wonder why in the late 1978s the Khmer Rouge is divided into two teams and why they kill each other?
This trip makes me felt that I need to learn more about the history of Cambodia and be more be careful with the future of Cambodia as I am one of the Cambodian.
Cambodia Infrastructure
For the last exploration, I studied Cambodia Infrastructure. Infrastructure is all the physical structure that societies, cities, and countries need in order to develop, function and increase economic growth. Infrastructure helps countries to work efficiently, attract investment and businesses, and make citizen life easier promoting the country’s economy to grow which can create more jobs to the citizens as well. Therefore, everyone in the country will benefit from infrastructure. As Liger is a change agent school, our goal is to change Cambodia. So in this exploration, we want to change the look of Cambodia within the infrastructure, including health, transportation, utilities, and agriculture. We want to build new systems, for Cambodia to work well and efficiently like other developed countries. So in order, Cambodia to be more successful we need better road systems, better technology, and better every other thing. Specifically, in this exploration, we work on Minecraft, the game to build future Phnom Penh that has better roads, better technology, and better transportation systems include the subway. We build many things that we think that it would help Cambodia especially Phnom Penh, is one of the best city in the world. We also know that if Cambodia has better infrastructure, therefore many international businesses will come into Cambodia and start their business there because the companies will produce their products efficiently, take less time transport and it all benefit them. So in this exploration, we help to see future changes for Cambodia, in order to improve Cambodia to be better and better.
LigerPride Yearbook
This is the first time that we created our school yearbook so we decide to create one exploration doing about yearbook. In this class have six original students and two facilitators. In the first week we kind of bring up some ideas about the layout of the book and the title of the book. We had borrowed some yearbook from other school to see what their layout look like. Second week we start to write some activities and curricular in Liger such as Essentials, Expertise, Explorations, After School Extensions and Extracurricular on weekend. When we finished the writing we send it to our facilitators and they will edit and add some comment for us. Then we start to design the layout of our yearbook. We were working on the cover and some curricular in InDesign. When the exploration had ended we not yet finished the whole book so we decided to continue this project on other time. So the second time we did this now we have 11 students working on it. We had fished almost all the layout of the book and we going to print it soon and each of the Liger students we get one of our book. Our goal of this yearbook is to make our students remember what they have done in the past and look how they different when they were young and at the future.