Earlier this month, I took personal time off to join the youth group traveling to Preah Vihear for the exposure and lesson learnt from the community who devote thier lives to protect the Chaom Pen Community Forestry. We started our day (Nov 2) by carrying study materials to distribute to primary school children in Choan Pen Primary School, located in the same village that we stayed. The kids are quite happy to see the materials and after an informal thank you note, we hurriedly left to take our trip into the Community Forestry. 

It was touching when we learned that it was the first time that such donation was given for the first time to the Kuoy students in this school. They feel that as they were located in such remote location, that no one could ever think of them and/or their needs. They were so thankful for our contribute. We hope this small drop contribute to their eagerness to read and study more!



The trip to the Community Forestry take 90 minutes. We were on three Kor Yun that is suitable for traveling through bumpy muddy off-road type. Our Kor Yun got stuck in the muddy place several times and it went into almost capsize state once. There was a change of a driver in the 2/3 of the trip but Afterall, this was an adventure trip. We arrived nearly 10am and being to have our late breakfast before we happily walked through the forest to see an open swam, some 3Km from the main part of the protected area. 

Picture taken at an ordained tree after I had a small accident with my ankle twisted. There were several trees being ordained as we drove through the forested area. This tree is the most amazing one in the zone that the local community representatives would like to show us on our way out of the forest.

The ordained trees signified its importance and that they are to be protected because they are protecting the people; after ordained, the tree becomes spiritual and will be guarded by angel and therefore any illed-attempt to cut the tree will be kind of punished later on. Or so the community believes; however, the illegal loggers does not seem to share this moral message.



A total of 13 youths and senior youth :-) taking picture before departing to the community forestry. Some of these youth were complaining that the village does not have internet coverage area while others were talking about what food they missed back in the city. While almost all of them are from the villages some months/years ago, it seems that they adapted quickly to the lives style in the city where they study and/or volunteer. 


When we get out of the forest, our team went straight into the youth debate session at the Cambodia Climate Change Summit in Siem Reap. This picture was taken after the debate was over and our youth, 2nd from right, was contributing to the topic discussion: Cleen, Green and Sustainable. It was great to witness the fast changes in the confidence level of our youth in public speaking skills. However, few of them seems to find it really difficult to articulate their opinion in Khmer. So they chose to speak English throughout. 


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