On Youth in Cambodia

Now onto a little more serious topic....

Through an event I attended last Wednesday that discussed reconciliation work in Cambodia, I learned a little bit about youth peace activism here.  Due to the massacre of a third of the population under the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975-79, almost 35% of the country's current population is under the age of 15, according to this report.  This is problematic in the country that is still struggling to recover economically, especially in the rural villages.  Unable to find opportunities to pursue their education or utilize their talents, youth population is often discouraged and disempowered.  According to the survey conducted by the Youth For Peace (YFP) organization, whose work I learned about, the youth expressed they needed opportunities for spiritual education.  Based on that, YFP began their work in empowering youth to become peace-builders and an agent for reconciliation in the country.

The mission of YFP is to create a culture of peace in the country that has suffered a tremendous amount of trauma that has largely been left unaddressed.  They aim to engage the youth to implement programs that both provides an opportunity for the young generation to learn about the atrocities, and also for the older generations to speak out about their experience, reconcile with the past, and memorialize their grief.  The ultimate goal of YFP is to create the Peace Institute of Cambodia, which conducts "research and documentation work on issues of peace, reconciliation, truth-telling, and memorialization."  Here are some of the ongoing programs led by YFP:

Youth for Justice and Reconciliation aims to promote awareness about the Khmer Rouge atrocities among the younger generation.  As the current educational curriculum does not mandate formal education of the Khmer Rouge regime, children are left to learn about it from their families.  Even then, because of the gravity of the atrocities committed, some young people have a hard time believing their parents and grandparents.  I asked OSJI's administrative assistant who is a 23-year-old Khmer woman, why young people have difficulties in believing and she said that it is hard to believe human beings are able to commit such awful things against other human beings.  They also think that older generations are trying to scare them so they would listen to their parents.  Anyway this outreach project not only provides opportunities for young people to have inter-generational dialogues and visit local mass killing sites and memorials, but also provides skills in facilitation, proposal and report writing and communication skills.  How fascinating!  Another important thing is that this projects tries to engage equal ratio of male and female students.

Youth Empowerment Project provides youth from rural areas the vocational skills to become "role modes and work for their community."  Through giving tools and skills to help them gain employment, confidence, and money to go to school, they hope to turn youth into "agents of social change" in their communities.

Young Leaders for Peace Project.  This is a really cool one too.  Through this project, the organization engage youth to discuss the broader Cambodian culture and provide a forum for them to talk about human rights.  Including in that is issues like domestic violence, environment and health, all of which are enormous issues Cambodia has to continue working on.  Promoting awareness and establishing a culture of dialogue in these areas would surely contribute to changing attitudes and behaviors around human rights, which can be helpful when they assume leadership roles in the country in the future.  I am so excited that many organizations like YFP are working to cultivate an environment where youth population can find ways to think and talk about how they can change the country.

There are more neat NGOs out here in Cambodia, and I hope to introduce them too!