BREW CREW - Boys Respecting Empowered Women

Today's blogpost comes directly from Peace Corps Volunteer Rich Durnan's personal website http://richdurnanphoto.com/

Visit his website to learn more about his PC service in Cambodia.

On September 27^th, 28^th, and 29^th, several of the English Teacher Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) from Takeo and Kampot provinces, and their Cambodian teacher counterparts, invited 50 high school aged boys for a three-day Camp BREW (Boys Respecting Empowered Women). It’s a camp focusing on topics related to health, career planning, gender issues, and community engagement. These are topics generally misunderstood or overlooked in the public schools. Camp BREW allows attendees to be exposed to and discuss these topics in a safe environment, while they gain knowledge and skills in areas needed to succeed after graduation. It also allows a rare opportunity for Cambodian students from different provinces to meet and exchange ideas on how to better their communities. There is a similar all girls event put on by PCVs called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World).

Sokhom Kourn translates for me during my alcohol use lessons

I was invited to teach a health related section at the camp. One of my secondary projects here is working with several other health volunteers to create a series of curriculum toolkits containing lessons on health topics. This was a great opportunity for me to pilot several of these lessons.

I presented on substance abuse, in particular alcohol use, a topic I consider very important here in Cambodia, and completely overlooked in the schools. 54% of Cambodians report having used alcohol in the last 30 days and men are 10 times more likely than women to heavily use alcohol. Cambodia currently has no minimum drinking age, and although they do have a blood alcohol limit for driving, it is not enforced. Alcohol is uncontrolled and can be obtained any place and by any one regardless of age. The only barrier to obtaining alcohol in Cambodia is money. There is tremendous peer pressure to drink alcohol, especially amongst men, which usually manifests in the form of binge drinking. A common phrase in Cambodia is “Drink to get drunk, and if you are not getting drunk, then why drink?”

With the help of a wonderful teacher Sokhom Kourn as my translator, my presentation began with a quick basic anatomy and physiology lesson explaining how alcohol is processed and its effects on the body.

Then, I led a discussion on the consequences of intoxication. We explored the ways that alcohol can affect many aspects of our lives such as financially, our health through harm to our health through disease as well as through accidents and increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases, and socially through our relationships including increased domestic violence.

I had the students play a spoon game. In this game, they close their eyes and spin 10 or 20 times to get dizzy. Then I ask them to walk a straight line balancing an egg on a spoon. The idea is to illustrate how alcohol alters our consciousness and coordination preventing us from doing tasks we normally can do effortlessly. The boys loved this, and they easily made the connection on their own to driving drunk. Road accidents are the number one killer in Cambodia, and alcohol accounts for more than half of traffic fatalities.

My presentation concluded with having the boys write a list of all the things they think they are good at. Anything could be on their list. Then I divided the boys into smaller groups, and had them create lists of things that they could do better together as a group. After the groups presented their lists, I guided them to see that as individuals, they have many strengths, and as a group, they have even greater strength to accomplish things in their lives. The intent was to foster greater confidence and self esteem, two qualities important to combating peer pressure. We finished with a discussion of peer pressure and its role in the abuse of alcohol.


Other topics covered in sessions over the course of the camp were study skills, reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence prevention and prostitution, what it means to be a man, playing sports, and how to plan for your future.

The camp culminated in a field trip to the southern Cambodian beach town Kep.


Here we purchased 30 Kilograms of fresh blue crabs and had them cooked up for us along with fresh fish squid, and shrimp for a seafood smorgasbord. Many of the students had never seen the ocean let alone eaten this kind of food. They were all thrilled.


So were the teachers.

After lunch, we played soccer on the beach and swam in the ocean.


… and of course took a nap.

The Spotlight is on...Boran Krouch!

Boran Krouch (with the blue Kromah - traditional Khmer scarf)

Introduction:
Boran Krouch, born October 20, 1982, currently teaches English and History at Hun Sen Skun High School in Kampong Cham. He is married with two children, a toddler girl and an infant boy. PCV Megan Coward first met Boran about 1 week after arriving in Cheung Prey district at Hun Sen Skun High School. He speaks English beautifully and is always wearing a smile and a positive attitude. In the beginning, he assisted her a lot with translating urgent messages and untangling stressful misinterpretations. She suggested Boran be spotlighted in the WID/GAD blog because he is an impeccable leader and an excellent role model for students at her school. He is an advocate for students who wish to further their education and a strong supporter of leadership opportunities for all students. This past school year, they co-taught English classes, and collaborated to plan learning activities for English projects such as the Spelling Bee and Writing Olympics. He also assisted with activities related to student leadership for Camps BUILD and GLOW, and art club activities for Create Cambodia and Art Olympics. For this upcoming school year, Boran will be leading Teacher Training and Student Leadership projects in Hun Sen Skun High School, while also allowing Megan to co-teach English with him and he will assist her with the implementation and planning of other school projects.


What activities related to Gender Development are you involved in?
I am the facilitator of the history club, in which I encourage both female and male students to work together both inside and outside of the class. It is important that they are confident in working together because they will need these skills in future jobs and society. I also assisted Megan with learning activities related to Camp GLOW, Camp BUILD, and International Women’s Day. I wasn’t actually able to attend Camp GLOW and Camp BUILD, though I was still excited to work with these programs because it is very important for both females and males to learn about leadership and how to be leaders together.


How did you get to where you are today?
I got where I am today by working hard. I come from a poor family, and my father died when I was young, but I still set many goals in my life. In high school, one of my many goals was to go to university and work for an organization or business, but at the time I didn’t have the money to study at a business university. I then decided I wanted to take the teaching exam to become a teacher in Cambodia. I have continued to set goals and work hard toward achieving them. I first became a primary school teacher and worked with students in this level for 4 years. While teaching in primary school, I worked to pass the exam for teaching secondary school and also attended university to learn English so that I could become a better teacher for the students of Cambodia. I currently teach History and English for Hun Sen Skun High School in Cheung Prey district. While teaching in Cambodia is not a high paid position, I still love to teach!


What do you think is the most important issue facing Cambodians today?
There are many issues that Cambodians are faced with today, though I think the most important issue is leadership. Leadership skills are an important asset to have when planning for their futures. Being a good leader is not only about helping your family, but also about leading your community and society. When planning for Camp GLOW and Camp BUILD, I was often asked by students “what is leadership?” because they had not yet learned about it. Learning about leadership is very important for goal setting and planning for the future.


What kind of advice to you want to give the youth of Cambodia?
I would like to tell them to be confident and have clear goals. Clear goals are important for making sure that they achieve a future that they want. I often ask students during class breaks or during instruction what they want to do after high school in an effort to prepare them to begin planning their future goals. It is also important for students to be confident, because in the future they will need to display confidence to set themselves apart from others applying for the same job. For example, if they have confidence and trust in themselves, they will not need to cheat on exams.


What is your favorite thing about your country?
I love that I am a Cambodian and have an opportunity to help my students to acquire new knowledge. Cambodia needs good citizens, which can be achieved through observing good role models and education.


In my free time, I enjoy reading books and playing with my children.



Spotlight interview provided by English Teacher PCV Megan Coward

The Spotlight is on...MOEURN Chantrea

MOEURN CHANTREA on a field trip to Angkor Wat with Camp GLOW in Siem Reap. Chantrea attended Camp GLOW as part of the Royal University of Phnom Penh's Career Services Advising team.

Today's interview is straight from MOEURN Chantrea. His voice is preserved (unedited) in this article. See for yourself how extraordinary he is!

Hi sister!

Sorry for reply you late. Hopefully we can meet soon. I am waiting to help as possible. Thanks so much for coming to help Cambodian youth and Cambodia society.

These are my answers but, I do not know sure it make sense for your questions. Let me know if you have some problem.

1. Please introduce yourself. For example: Name/Profession/Age/Province, future goals, etc.
My name is MOEURN Chantrea. I am male with twenty three years old right now. I am studying at two universities at Phnom Penh include the Royal University of Phnom Penh and University of Cambodia. I was born in Angkor Chey village, Sralop commune, Tboung Khmom district, Kampong Cham province. I want to be the politician in Cambodian because I think that I can work together with national assembly to drafting law to protect people interest and the best one is that improving people lifestyle by given them free and fair in front of the law. Cambodian people need professional law maker to support whole society and well collaboration with foreign partner.


2. What activities related to Gender Development are you involved in?
A. The activities that I enjoy the most to improve Gender Development and I always involve like, thinking positive to women, give values to her, do not look down on her, work group with girl, sharing experience with girl, give her opportunity to participate to workshop or social work, encourage her to be brave, do not violate to woman right, help my sister and mother housework, avoid domestic violent in community by telling villagers, report to police when I saw the domestic violence, love brother and sister the same, well collaboration in study and work with girl.

For instance, I am working with the Human Rights Organization for Transparency and Peace. My colleague also have women and I am well discussion with her so solve what we are concern and need her help. I do not want to think that she is weak and does not have ability to do. The second experience is working with Career Advisory Service. Working this project I always let my women team have the same chance as man even though I am team leader. Women have opportunity to speak what they want because students in workshop also have girl student. The third experience in my house. When I came back school to home, I like helping my mother and sister. I never think that housework is for only women. The last one is in my class. Improving understanding and well classmate I always discuss and share my knowledge to class. For example, in university, students need to do presentation after they have research. All team member have the same chance to present and sometime I choose girl to be team leader because she have well education and strong confident. If they do not have more convenience, I encourage them and want them try because we can learn from experience.


3. How did you get to where you are today?
To be the present act, I need to do some interesting points. First, the beginning point is that choosing university and majoring attend at university. During in grade 12, I need to make sure that which major I have to choose and university is specialize on that major. I tried to ask my teacher and university students to give more information. Then I need to know my ability and activity which I like the most because it could let me easy to catch at university class. As result, I choose the Royal University of Phnom Penh in Khmer Literature major.

Second, the medium point is finding part time job for volunteer. Two years went by, I have work with the Career Advisory Service project to help student at high school to know how to choose major, university, live in Phnom Penh, and pass scholarship in university. We do not need to wait great time to have experience without asking someone or after graduate because it let us waste time and low experience to get job later. After I have volunteer at the Human Rights Organization for Transparency and Peace in translator position. I hope that to get more experiences for improve my knowledge in study and social work.

Finally, the highest point is reading book. Reading book always let me understand more clearly and have more convenience. I have to spend my time to read book everyday even though some book does not relate to my major. I got lots points from it and always use in work and class. In conclusion, student needs to be hard working and well collaboration with other because it boosts us has more knowledge with great point. We also have to read news to know what was happening and had happened up to now.


3. What do you think is the most important issue facing Cambodians today?
The most thing Cambodian youth facing most is unemployment rate increase. Most of youth in Cambodia do not have job yet even though they have graduate. The reason let me know that they did not think the three main points attend university. They do not know clear which major, university and themselves. So, they study at university did not get well score and knowledge. As result, they do not have strong ability to work and experience so, how can another institution need them. I hope when we improve this case, unemployment will be reduced. I do not want to put pressure to government on education because we need to respond together.


4. What kinds of advice to you want to give the youth of Cambodia?
I have some information to give you and it does not mean that I am perfect person. I am just the same you but, I have more experiences than you and I hope we can share together.

- Try to study hard

- Care health

- Avoiding from drug

- Thinking about three main point to attend to university like interest, ability and opportunity.

- Well collaboration in class and social work

- Open mind and waiting feedback to correct to wrong one.

- Self-study and need to think that we the new generation which have to lead Cambodia later.


6. What is your favorite thing about your country?
The most things I like in Cambodia are Angkor Wat and ancient temple because I need to protect them with great proud of that. They always boost me try to study and more glad.


7. Anything else? Weird hobbies or talents?
No more lets me most interesting. What I am concerning when Cambodian youth have well responsible in social development because sometime they do not want to hear the word politic. We live in politic society so, why do not we can know and talking on that. Thanks. I am so sorry for my bad grammar and structure. I am waiting for your feedback.

- Chantrea


Spotlight interview organized by WID/GAD committee associate, Meghan Henshall