Exploration Name: Poverty
Exploration Dates: February 9- April 1
Essential Questions:
a) What are the main factors that cause Cambodians in poor and What will be the new vision to improve poverty situation in Cambodia.
Number of Students: 13
In Poverty class we did many things like researching about other countries that are below the poverty line. Poverty means poor, and poverty is divided into two parts. The first is relative poverty, which means having problems with income, for example they don’t have enough money. The second is absolute poverty, which means they don’t have what they need, for example, no house, no food and so on. Things that I learned are: families are poor because they don’t have a big goal. We went to Kampong Chhnang to learn what a money saving group looks like. We also went to a waterfall in Kampong Chhnang. In this Exploration we went to two ministries to learn about families that are poor in Cambodia.
Here is my reflection that I wrote when I went to Kampong Chhnan …
Interviewing the family in the community: On 11/3/15 we went to Kompong Chhnang province and visited one community. We went there to ask questions about their family. My group had four members: Sovannou, Lux, Samady and I, and we interviewed two families. I learned a lot from the man that we interviewed. He had a wife but his wife divorced him and his mother is dead. After his wife was gone his family didn’t have anything to do. Then he joined the money saving group and after that he became the director of the money saving group. Other than the money saving group, he has another job to make money and put it into the money saving group.
Visiting Stupa: On 11/3/15 at the afternoon when we finished our interview we went to the stupa. We went there to listen to the history of Derichan village. What I learned are: the Khmer King named this Derichan village because the villagers in that village killed a provincial chief that was controlled by the French. The villagers not only killed French people, they also killed Khmer translators. So that is why they put the name Derichan Village, but now they do not call it Derichan village anymore, they call it Krenglive village. We call Derichan village just for a year and then they changed it to Krenglive village. I was so happy to learn this history because I live near that village and I still didn’t know the history in this village. (Derichan village means brutal village)
Presentation from CPR: On 12, March, 15 at the afternoon we went to CPR. We went there to listen to their presentation and they told us a lot about people. The big goal of CPR is, they want Khmer people that have AIDS and the people that don’t have AIDS to work together. For example, to make money saving group. They work with a lot of places in Cambodia and they have a big fund that helps them. So that is why they have medicine for the people with AIDS.
Interview money saving group (CPR): 14, March, 15 was the last day of our trip. We went to the place that had the money saving group. We went to interview some people there and we taught them about health. I learned: one woman who joined the saving group said that before her family joined the saving group her family was very poor and didn’t have money left. But when she joined the saving group her family had a lot of money left and her family became better. One more is one share equals 5,000R, and before it was 3,000R. In that trip one thing that I liked was playing football with the kids and watching how money saving groups work.
