My experience at the Cambodia Science and Engineering Festival by Nesa

Nesa Khoun is our Child development coordinator and librarian, she is also a Science teacher at JWOC.

Did you know that almost everything around us is the result of Science? People live with science everyday but they just never notice about what science is. Through this I have had a great chance to go to Phnom Penh to join the Festival about Science and Engineering. It was great because this was the first time for Cambodia to hold this big event and there were around thousand people joining. It was held for three days from the 12th to the 14th of March 2015.  I was so lucky that I was also one of those people who was not only watching but also showing about the kind of science material to everyone. And now I would love to share some feelings and describe about who I have met and what I did.

            The place where the event held was in Royal University Phnom Penh. It was a big and famous university and not so far from the hotel where we stayed. It was suppose to take just 15 minutes to arrive there but because the traffic was so busy it took a bit longer. When I talked about this, it reminded me about the first morning of the event. Because we thought that we just spent around fifteen minutes to go to the event so we left the hotel at 8:30am as the event would start at 9am. Unfortunately, the traffic was so bad. The roads were so crowded and busy. Do you know what we did? We decided to walk to the festival. I loved it so much; this was the first highlight of the day. It was great as we arrived there not too late.

            At the event there were many people. I was so glad because when we arrived and were preparing the experiments at the booth many people came and asked about what we were doing. There were 5 of us who worked in shifts on the booth. We were divided into two groups and we rotated every hour and a half. This was a great idea because we could have time to walk around to get to know people and see what they were doing. I thought all the other projects were so interesting. Some of the other booths were demonstrating about air pollution and others showed about how to make electricity from lemons, how to make the rocket fly, how to make a bouncy ball and so on. One booth in particular caught my interest. They were from VSO. They made science books by combining experiments from grade 7 to grade 9 and moreover there was a great teacher at the booth to show about science experiment. He showed us about an illusion with candles and the difference between strong acids and weak acids.

At our booth we had three projects to show. First, it was about the Lego Kits activity, second about how to see the difference between animal cells and plant cells through the microscope and third about the density of water. What we did was great because there were many people interested in Lego kits and the microscope. Most of them have never seen it before. I was glad because we showed them new things and let them to try the new things that they have never known.

What is more, to make participants more interested they had invited high ranking officers to come and open the festival. And to create some fun they had some competition games and invited a famous singer to sing in the event. Her name is Laura Mam. There was a show of breaking dance as well. I really like it. Both dancers danced so well with the action of the robot.  

            Finally, I would love to say that this was a great opportunity for me to learn something new. It is also called Science as Science is the way of learning something new around us and it is very important for each life. Furthermore, it helps me more in teaching science at JWOC by giving me new and good ideas in teaching science. 

Looking ahead - Malin's goals for 2015

Hello! My name is Malin, I’m a 1st year scholarship student at JWOC. I have 3 sisters and I live with two of them. My grandma and my mom they live in Chikreng village to the east of Siem Reap.

I am looking forward to achieving my goals in 2015. For my goal in 2015 I want to work in an organization as a field staff member. I want to work there because I want to know how people in our rural society live so I can learn about what I can do to help them, first I want to understand them so I am able to connect with them better. I really want to work there because I love traveling to the country side of Cambodia, I find the people in the countryside really kind and welcoming and now people living in the city have different lifestyles to the rural population. I want to change my life, I want to experience new situations and environments and working in the field with rural communities is a perfect opportunity for this. I want to study their culture and I also want to share the knowledge with them that I have learned here at JWOC.

At Present, I’m studying at Build Bright University and work as a English teacher at New York International school, full time, but if I am able to find a job working with another organization I will cut my teaching hours down to part time. Teaching is just a small part of my dream; also I want to know one more language after Khmer and English. I told myself in 2015 I would have to learn one more language beside English. Also I am really excited to study harder and harder so I can be a good and proud employee in the Asian community. I want to help Cambodia strive to be a helpful member of the larger Asian community to do this I must try my hardest to be a good citizen.

I will always try my hardest to improve my studying so my dreams can come true, I believe that education is the key; it can lead me to do the right thing and be confident in my decisions. It will give me more opportunities to work. I hope that my fellow students can also study hard and help Cambodia grow.

Sarah tells us all about JWOC's Summer Camp

Hi! My name is Sarah. I’ve been volunteering with JWOC for the past two weeks at their Summer Camp. The Summer Camp runs for 2 weeks while Khmer Schools are on holidays and is free and available to all.

Day one, I joined up with my new workmates, six high school interns from various schools in Siem Reap who have been selected to help supervise and run the Summer Camp. I can’t wait to work with them for the next 3 weeks. I was met with six huge smiles and instantly found six new friends Srey Ly, Srey Mouv, Thoeur, Sopheak, Yar and Socheata! We got to it straight away; Sarah Crowley (yes that’s right we have two Sarah’s now at JWOC) JWOC’s  Education and Volunteer Manager went through the Child Protection Training and gave us an overview of last year’s programs.

The planning begins! As a group we brainstormed craft activities, games, performances and put a plan together ready for camp. It’s interesting that a lot of the games we play in Australia are also popular in Cambodia such as duck, duck, goose and Simon Says.

The next step is advertising; the intern team made flyers and headed to local villages and current classes at JWOC to promote Summer Camp. The children give the interns the feedback that they would like, lots of singing, dancing and painting – Roger that!!

During the week of planning we ran through the games to make sure we all knew how to play, wrapped up our pass the parcel and tried out some of the art projects. I discovered that my drawing skills peak at stick figures and butterflies, luckily the interns on the other hand are extremely creative. Socheata was busy writing a song to sing with the children, while Sopheak came up with educational games about road safety. 

Summer Camp starts!

Everyone was excited, the interns asked “Sarah will we have enough students?” I replied “Yes of course” and crossed my fingers that we would. We completed the activity plan for each session stating the resources we need, location, group sizes and contingency plans, bring it on! We were ready for anything.

Summer Camp started at 10am and we had 30 children (YAY!). Yar went through the Summer Camp rules then straightaway we were finger painting.  Many of the children attended JWOC’s art classes on Sunday and are really creative, their drawing and colour blending skills are fantastic. By the end of the first week we have had a banana eating competition, have read numerous stories (ghost stories are the favorite), played musical chairs, made collages, learnt the chicken dance and painted faces just to name a few. The children are having a ball and are excited each day to take home the craft goodies they have created. Some of the children even take it upon themselves to improve my very average Khmer by pointing at objects and saying bicycle - “kong” , chicken “mourn”etc .

We still have one more week of Summer Camp ahead; I’ve recruited my friend Prue from Australia to join the fun too. We still have three legged races, a talent show, balloon games and yoga to go. I don’t know who will be sadder when Summer Camp ends …. me or the children!

Let's Begin - Giving the Gift of Education

It's that time of year again! At JWOC and across the world, students are going back to school - and for some it will be their very first day. As our current crop of Kindergarten students move on up, a new group of children will anxiously walk into our classrooms for the very first time. For this precious age group, we offer bilingual classes in English and Khmer, using games, music, and art to develop their blossoming drawing, math, and behavioral skills.


In addition to welcoming 30 new Kindergarten students, we are also starting two new Computer classes, two new Let’s Begin Classes and two new Starter Classes! With over 700 students visiting the JWOC Community Center every week, it is exciting to watch our Free Classes Program continue to expand and serve as an important hub to our local community. By providing critical computer and English skills, we aim to prepare our students to be able to enter the ever-growing Siem Reap job market.

We just launched our Back to School campaign to help support our expanding Free Classes Program. You’ve seen how fast we’re growing! To support JWOC’s Free Classes Program, just visit our homepage and take a look at the many ways you can help – big or small, the impact is huge.

JWOC's Back to School Appeal 2014

Dear Supporter,

Back to School! This familiar phrase is all around us, marking the end of summer vacation and the start of another school year.

As many of Cambodia's children are also going back to school right now, we are reminded that not all are so fortunate. The state school system in Cambodia is plagued by a lack of investment, poor facilities, limited resources and under-trained teachers. This can lead to limited educational opportunities, no matter how eager the children are to learn. In addition, there are many adults who have been unable to complete their education because of the need to work or support their families.

Last year JWOC provided English, Computer and Art lessons to over 700 students through our Free Classes Program in an aim to provide disadvantaged students educational opportunities to help them build better futures. Help us to continue our efforts this coming academic year by helping support JWOC Free Classes.

Give the gift of education and support the students who attend JWOC's Free Classes. A single donation can provide one more member of our community with a brighter future.

 

Thank you for making a difference in our community, and continuing to be a part of the JWOC family.

Kind regards,

Alex Plummer 

Journeys Within Our Community

My first impressions as Free Classes Program Manager

Hi my name is Khoeurn and I am the current Free Classes Manager at JWOC. I want to tell you about my experience getting the job and what it means to me.

As life can be changed in minutes, we humans need to be ready for new things. I have got a job which is very interesting and challenging, the Free Classes Project Manager. There are several impressive things about this position.

I remember when I had applied for the job, I had butterflies in my stomach on the interview day. After applying for this position, I was confirmed to be interviewed. There were many good quest ions I have never been asked and I was looking forward to receiving some news from the office. At the end, I was given the job as a Free Classes Project Manager. I was really happy, since graduating with JWOC it has been such an incredible journey.

 

All the staff here are helpful. They help me a lot. I feel very warm in working and communicating with JWOC. I have learned hundreds of new things from day to day. Moreover, in my team, all the members are friendly, hard-working and strong. We work, help and achieve the same goal. We are running classes together.

All the classes at JWOC are lovely. There are different activities that children can practice to sharpen their skills or talents. The classes are running for everyone who needs help. I appreciate the children classes very much. There a lot of children coming every day. I hope that these children will be ones who develop a small country, my country, Cambodia, in South-East Asia.

Finally, I do love the management team.  They are strong, smart and creative. I am a new member in this team and I want to be strong, smart, creative and conceptual also. I will try my best to lead my team to be strong and valuable. I want to be part of developing and changing my community for the future.

Thank you for reading and good luck for you!