Cambodia Service Learning Trip (18)
Following the previous Cambodia Service Learning Trips, this 18th trip was held on 9-16 January 2020. 21 students, including 3 previous trip participants, from different disciplines and 2 staff visited 3 organizations during the trip: Wat Opot Children’s Community (Wat Opot), a local primary school in Takeo, and the Cambodian Children’s Fund (CCF). During the 8-day trip, participants had the precious opportunity to serve and interact with the Cambodian community, understand the history of the country and reflect on their purpose in life.
Before heading off to Cambodia, participants attended pre-trip workshops to gain a better understanding of the situation in Cambodia and the needs of the target groups. With the aim of empowering Cambodian children and youth, they designed interactive workshops to be carried out in Cambodia, based on the research results and the sharing by previous trip participants.
The team spent the first four days in the Wat Opot Children's Community and the primary school there. Before the start of activities, the founder of the Wat Opot, Mr. Wayne Matthysse, gave a tour for volunteers and shared about the background of Wat Opot which deepened the volunteers' understanding towards the how the children live there. After the tour, the team carried out what they had planned before departure. In the mornings, the team taught English primary school and animal vocabulary. Then in the afternoons, participants organized a series of interactive workshops with themes like dance and song, skipping rope, sustainability, and illusionary handicrafts. The team also introduced dodgebee to the children in Wat Opot! They all enjoyed the time we spent together. Before leaving Wat Opot, all the volunteers and children went to the zoo together. This time, the kids were the tour guides showing us around the zoo and introduced their favourite animals!
After our wonderful time in Wat Opot, we visited the Neeson Cripps Academy (NCA), an educational facility founded by the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF). Volunteers conducted interactive STEM teaching on the “Inclined Plane”, “Lever”, “Pulley” and “Wheel and Axle”. With support from the NCA staff, the team delivered the teachings well. Both the students and the participants had a lot of fun with the experiments. The workshops not only benefited the students from NCA but also inspired the teachers with our low-cost interactive experiments. Apart from conducting STEM workshops, the team had a chance at participating a STEM class of Grade 9. Our HKUST students were fascinated by the course design and the students' creativity. Additionally, the student leaders from NCA gave a tour around the neighbourhood near the school. During the tour, the team realized how the CCF supports the impoverished families and children in the neighborhood and got to know the study path of NCA students.
Apart from volunteering, the team had a cultural exploration tour in Phnom Penh before returning home. Participants visited the Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Russian Market to gain more understanding of Cambodian culture, history, and society. With the sharing provided by a tour guide, participants gained further insights into the history of the Khmer Rouge regime and how Cambodians are faring in recent years.
Although there were obstacles and unexpected issues throughout the trip, undoubtedly it was a meaningful and life-changing experience for all participants. After exploring the social situation in Cambodia, participants reflected on their own lives and thought about future actions to help the Cambodian community or even Hong Kong community. Meanwhile, participants developed their interpersonal skills through interacting with service recipients and implementing activity session plans with teammates. After completing the trip, volunteers spread their passion for service by sharing their experiences and learning with friends and other potential participants. Even though we only stayed in Cambodia for a short period of time, together we can create a positive influence to the service recipients with volunteers from previous and future trips.
Student Sharing
For me, being a "changemaker" means changing yourself before you influence people around you. Only when you demonstrate some changes can you convince your friends and family to follow. After the trip, I am more adaptable to changes and new environment. In Wat Opot, a countryside community which is different from Hong Kong, children living there dance, sing, bike, climb trees, run around and pick flowers for people they like. I am not as energetic as Wat Opot kids are, but I tried to expand my comfort zone by sitting on the not-that-clean ground and had close physical contact with those lovely kids.
Moreover, I learn how to stay calm and always have backup plans. Even though we were well-prepared, there was accident around - schedule delayed, the projector problem in CCF, etc. I did not have such experience in handling those incidents in Hong Kong but those are good chances for my personal growth. We always need to have backup plans and be flexible in handling sudden changes. On Day 1, due to the broke down of the coach we modified the schedule of day 1 and 2 immediately, so all activities were conducted smoothly and the effort of the team was not wasted. All in all, this Cambodia Service Learning Trip was a precious experience for me to observe and reflect, and hope I can contribute more to my community and other developing countries as well.
CHEUNG Wai Shan (Kate)
SBM Student, Year 2
Before the trip, my approach was result-oriented. Hence, I focused on the effectiveness of the teaching plans. My original thought was that those teaching plans might not be perfect, but at least they would be feasible when executed. However, during the trip, I realised this mindset would limit the impact we brought to children. What appeared to me was that people, regardless of their education backgrounds, religions, nationalities, could pay a visit to Cambodia and teach the children in Wat Opot, so what makes us, as a group of HKUST volunteers, special to visit there? Later on, I realised that what we planned to give them (teaching plans), was not the most important to them. More importantly, new insights and positive values are the changes we needed to bring out. What the children received, increasing the interest of learning, acquiring new knowledge and discovering the world through our sharing, and what volunteers received, simply living style, understanding of happiness and purity of children, were far more important.
FONG Kei Him (Timothy)
SBM Student, Year 4
We expected to inspire the children in Cambodia, but it turned out they inspired us a lot and we learnt a lesson from them. The Cambodian children were eager to learn, they wanted to grab every single opportunity to learn more. They were willing to spend their break time to learn more STEM knowledge and wanted to finish the worksheet. They treasured all the chances that they had. Their motivation for learning is knowledge as they know that studying is the only way for them to climb up the social ladder. It drives me to reflect on our learning motivation and the educational chances that we have in Hong Kong. We always grumbling that it is stressful to study in HKUST, but we seldom treasure it and seems we neglected why we are here to learn. We were learning as we were forced to get a bachelor's degree with a good grade to ensure the bright future. However, the kids in Wat Opot did not take everything for granted, they took care of the animals, did the household duties and learnt how to make handicrafts and lip balm to support and maintain the operation of organization and grab chances for study.
After the completion of the program, I would like to work in the educational field in the future since I feel satisfied when I inspire one another. I am glad to know that the students were inspired and learn more knowledge. Though there will be a lot to prepare, including the teaching plans, material preparation, and classroom management, everything worth when you saw their smiling faces. For me, education is “life on life”. I wish to influence lives for the good and rejoice in other people’s achievements by sharing. I want to provide inspiration and support to our youth socially disadvantaged students, thereby, enhancing their self-esteem, learning motivation and their learning attitude by human-oriented education.