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Changing Cambodia 2016-2017

Being a Liger student, I always think of being a change agent in my country. Liger provides us a high quality education and many projects that have a really big impact in Cambodia. To be a change agent, it doesn’t matter on how big you had changed, many small changes can make a big change, but if you already make a big change that is great. I have joint many projects in Liger, but there are three projects that have a really big impact in Cambodia. Those three projects are Marine Research, Iron Deficiency, and Waste Management.

 

The ocean is the main sources of supporting life on Earth. Cambodian is lacking in knowledge about marine ecosystems and how they are important for our lives. Few knows that the ocean provides food, transportation, and tourism sites, which enhance the living condition of humans. We can see the forest is getting destroyed, but we can’t see the ocean is getting destroyed because it’s hidden from our eyes. With the lack of education, this ecosystem is diminishing due to illegal trawling and electrofishing. I am one of the members of the Liger Marine Research Team (LMRT). Our goal is to survey the coral, seagrass and mangrove area along the Cambodian coastline, of the Kep Archipelago. In order to accomplish our goals, we will work very closely with MCC (Marine Conservation Cambodia), an organization that is trying to conserve Cambodian ocean from all the threats, for instance, illegal fishing. By doing this project, we can then use the information from our survey and turn it into a report so we can share this information with other Cambodian. By sharing this information about Cambodia ocean ecosystem with other people, they can then understand how important our ocean are. When fishermen have a better understanding of the ocean, and why they need it, they will help to protect our ocean. Not only protect the ocean, but they will stop using illegal fishing method such as trawling and electrofishing because it destroys all the marine ecosystems that touch it. Furthermore, having our team doing research about the marine ecosystem in our country might convince other people to do it as well. In conclusion, Cambodia ocean is damaged and threatened by illegal fishing and an uneducated population. We passionately want to know more about our ocean ecosystems by conducting marine surveys. We can then share our knowledge with fishermen, citizens, governments and protect our ocean.

 

Anemia is a condition in which a person has fewer red blood cells than a normal person and usually happens to women and children. Red blood cells contain iron which our body need for transferring oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. Generally, Cambodian is not well uneducated and is a poor country. Most of Cambodian don’t have enough money to buy all those healthy foods. Around 43% of women and 53% of children got iron deficiency anemia in Cambodia. We work closely with the Lucky Iron Fish company to do this project. Lucky Iron Fish produces an iron fish that use to cook with the food (must have water) to release a small amount of iron that store in the fish to your food and it releases a perfect amount of iron that your body need. With this fish, even though the family doesn’t have enough money to buy healthy food they can still use the fish to give the perfect amount of iron that their body need. This fish cost only 5$ but it can be used up to 5 years. Therefore, the family can save a lot of money. According to the Lucky Iron Fish, it states “After using the fish for one year the rate of iron deficiency in Cambodia decreased by 43%” This clearly shows that the fish is really helping to decrease the percentage of iron deficiency in Cambodia. We had done a workshop on three different places in Siem Reap about iron deficiency. In the workshop we had taught them about iron deficiency, healthy food, and the importance of Lucky Iron Fish including how to use it. Moreover, we don’t sell the fish to them, but we actually give the fish to them for free.By doing this workshop, I can help many people to be aware of iron deficiency and tell solution of the problem to them. But this is not the end, they will tell this to their family, friend, and the people that they care too. In conclusion, iron deficiency is one of the biggest health issues in Cambodia. Cambodia is a poor and uneducated country, people don’t have enough money to buy all those healthy food and some of them not even know what are the healthy for them.Our team had worked in the Lucky Iron Fish company to do a workshop in Siem Reap about iron deficiency and the solution to this health problem.

 

Our Environment is an essential part of our life. A clean environment is very necessary to live a peaceful and a healthy life. Now the world’s biggest problem is pollution. Pollution is caused from many things, but one of them come from trash. Now, most of the trash goes directly to the landfill and more than 97% of our food-waste ends up there. When organic waste dumped in landfill, it undergoes anaerobic decomposition (because of the lack of oxygen) and generates methane.When methane released into the atmosphere, it is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Instead, those 97% of organic waste should take to make compost. One of my project is to promote the compost business idea to the community of Chompus Kaek. As there is a lot of organic waste in this community, we don’t want them to throw away and affect our environment, but instead, we want them to make compost out of it and earn more money for their family. We think that this is a good business for them because they can easily access to the market where people throw a lot of organic waste away. Moreover, n this community there are a lot of farmers so that mean they’re going to have a market for this compost business. Our team had interviewed many people in this village, as the result people are willing to make compost in this community and many farmers also willing to buy it. We call this a Win Win Win business because the farmer can buy the compost which is cheaper than the fertilizer and also their crops will easily get the market because people willing to buy organic food than inorganic. Our environment will get better because there is less methane release from the landfill. Our compost maker also get extra money for their family as the waste from the market used to cost nothing. This clearly shows that this business is a good business to do. In conclusion, the world and Cambodia are facing with trash problem. All the trash is going directly to the landfill even though some of it shouldn’t go there. Organic waste is one of it, they release methane because it it undergoes anaerobic decomposition (because of the lack of oxygen). So our team comes up with a compost business. The farmer can buy with a cheaper price than chemical fertilizer. Our environment also gets less methane release, and the compost maker also can get extra money for their family. So, we call this as a Win Win Win business.  

 

In conclusion, this year I have joined many projects that involve in changing Cambodia. There are three projects that have a really big impact in Cambodia. Those three projects are Marine Research, Iron Deficiency, and Waste Management. In marine research project our team will conduct marine surveys. With those surveys we can then share our knowledge with fishermen, citizens, and governments. In Iron Deficiency project our team went to do a workshop in Siem Reap to teach people about healthy food and the food that contained iron. We also give them a product which use to cook with the food so it can release iron to the food. This helps them to prevent iron deficiency as they don’t have enough money to buy all those healthy foods and food that contain iron. In Waste Management project we help to reduce waste in the community by telling them about the compost business so they can collect all the organic waste in this community and turn it to compost beside throw it away to the landfill and causes methane to release. They also can use the compost to sell and earn extra money for their family. Those three projects are my top projects that have a really big impact in Cambodia.   

 

 

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PSAT Practice Test

On October 14th, 2017, I and the other 49 Liger senior students attended the first Liger PSAT test. I was quite worry about the test because I know it’s going to be hard but however, it just for practice. I get to see how the test was like so it’s going to benefit me because I can get prepare and make my own strategy to complete the test with quality. After I complete the PSAT test I also get feedback from the test of what I should practice more to maximize my score. For the real SAT test In the next one and a half years, I think I can get ready to do well one my test.

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Liger Marine Research Team (LMRT)

I’ve been chosen with the other seven students to be the Liger Marine Research Team (LMRT). We are really passionate in studying marine research and protecting our ocean. In order to do the marine research, we need to know how to dive properly, we had worked really hard during our summer break to study the dive course. However, in order to do research, we need to have the budget to go to our search site, buying equipment, and such more. We had submitted a three year grant to a foundation, requested a budget of $15,610 and they have accepted our grant. We were really excited for the grant and hoping we use this money well to protect our marine ecosystems, educate our people, and follow our passion. For our marine research project, we will focus on three different types of survey, fish, invertebrate, and substrate. On the 28th of September, 2017 we went to Koh Seh, where our research location is, and we stayed there for about 5 days. We’ve there to do our open water diving course, and learning new skills of scuba diving. It was a bit difficult for the first time because we are new to this, however, our effort pay off. We are now certified as an open water diver. We will visit the island every month for one weekend. In the next three years of our research, we hope that we can educate people about the importance of the ocean and help to protect it.

 

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Dissect Owl Pellets

In my biology essential class I had learned a lot from my teacher. By the way, my teacher decides to do one cool thing that we never do it before and it was dissect the owl pellets. We had learned that owl swallow their prey and it only dissolves the meat and left bone and hair or feather so when it combine together and big enough the owl will eject it out and we call it owl pellets. In owl pellets there are bone and hair from their prey so what we dissect the pellets and see what we find it there. I really enjoy dissecting the owl pellets.

So here is the link for the video of baby owl ejects pellet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waLiTmLr1nM

  • We combine the bone together and make the shape of the animal.

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The Pygmalion Poem

As you know that in literacy we’ve been learning a lot about advanced writing. Our teacher taught us how to write an essay, write a response using evidence and using quote sandwich. She had picked a play for us to read, and it called Pygmalion, My Fair Lady. So after we finish the play our teacher told us to do anything that talking about the play. Some people were making games, some were making animation and some were making a poster. So I decide to do something that difference then them and it was poetry. So I decide to write a poetry that talking about how the main character (Eliza) characteristics change. One of my challenge to write this poem is the rhyme words because I want to write my poem in Khmer style and Khmer poem style is require lots and lots of rhyme words, so I need to find a lot of rhyme word that match with the sentence. So here I my beautiful Khmer style poem.

Living on earth we need rights
You have to fight for your choice
Find freedom should not avoid
Express your voice to the world.

Eliza was a poor girl
Who’s just like pearl not yet shine
Who needs others to be kind
So she feels fine moving on.

She needs support and comfort
Like baby bird that’s missing
It’s own Mama that could bring
Them love and things for their lives.

Now Eliza is different
She’s determined for her life
Eliza solves her own strife
Living free life with merriment.

She’s brave to talk to others
And she never talks poorly
Cause she’d been taught as a lady
To live freely and independent.

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Literacry – Pgymalion

For the past few weeks, in literacy, we’ve been learning a lot about advanced writing. Our teacher taught us how to write an essay, write a response using evidence and using quote sandwich. She had picked a play for us to read, and it called Pygmalion, My Fair Lady. She would tell to read a section and then she would ask questions by using the text-dependent questions, we would write a summarize/main idea using quote sandwich. Right now, we’ve already finish the play and we’ve write an argument essay about the characters.
This class include a lot of hard work then last year. Mainly, we focus on improving our writing skills. For this past few weeks, what I see for my improvement is that when I write a response, I always cite the evidence and explain my evidence really well. What I need to work on is my grammar and to that I need to practice writing more and more.

3
Some Example

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Kampot Writer and Reader Festival

On 3, November, 2016 around 15 students, including me from our school were invited to join the Kampot Writer and Reader Festival that located in Kampot Province. We also decide to share about our Wildlife and Cambodia economy book. On the first day of the festival we were invited to join the opening ceremony of the festival. There are some shows that present for the ceremony such as Khmer dance and singing. There’s also a lot higher class people such as the minister from different ministry in Cambodia, the ambassador of America, UK, Australia, Switzerland. We really enjoin the ceremony.On the next day, which is the biggest and the last day of the festival. Since that day I had present about our book and a lot of people really interested in our book. I also join other workshop too, such as change the theme of the story, Street art, Khmer rouge and a lot more. I really enjoy that day because it really fun and I meet a lot amazing people. I hope I can join the festival again next year.

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Economic

Economic is one of my expertise class. I really enjoy learning about economic because I can understand money and how it work, how bank and central bank work, and how to save money, but the main thing is that I will ready for my future. So how we manage our money? The way to save your money is expanse less than the income also you need to write your budget plane so you can manage it. We had talked about needs and wants and it really help me because I can save more money by understand about two of them. To learn more on how to manage your money is by makeup your salary that you think it match with you in the future and minus all of your expense also you need to write what you buy so you can manage you money better in the next time.

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Beach Cleanup

Plastic is one the world’s biggest problem.there are about 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide and more than one million bags are used every minute. For me I think we need to clean the plastic now because if they get into the micro plastic it will be super hard to clean them. On the 17th of September, 28 of the Liger students and around 10 foreigner from different country join us to do beach cleanup at Kep. This event happen all around the world but Cambodia never participate. So we spend half of the morning and half of the afternoon picking up rubbish at different two locations at the coast of Kep beach. We collect a total of 85 trash bags for the two locations.I really join doing this because it really wants to help and care of the environment . I was proud of myself because my group is the first ever Cambodian to participate. I was exciting that MCC (Marine Conservation Cambodia) staff come and join us too and they were all foreigner. But the most exciting part for me is that not just us and the MCC staff come to join the beach clean up, but we also get help from the the people in the community and the seller at the beach too.

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Iron Deficiency

Anemia is one of the world health issue. You got anemia because of a condition in which there is a deficiency of red cells or of hemoglobin in the blood. Anemia are caused by three problem Iron deficiency, genetic (thalassemia), and parasite. In the world there’s about 20% of the population got anemia and in Cambodia there’s more than 50%, So anemia is one of the biggest health issue in Cambodia. In one of my exploration which is Iron deficiency we learned about Anemia that caused by iron deficiency. Iron deficiency mostly happened to the children and pregnant women. So you get iron deficiency because your get less iron in you body. So generally, men and non-menstruating women should receive about 10 mg of iron daily, menstruating or nursing women 15 mg, and pregnant women 30 mg daily. So what what kind of food that have a lot of iron? So meat, dark leafy greens, dark chocolate, liver have a lot of Iron. So if you eat it your body will get more iron. But what about the family that they don’t have ability to buy all of those food such as Cambodia. We have the solution for them it a lucky Iron Fish. Lucky Iron Fish is just a piece of Iron that design as a fish. The Lucky Iron Fish is made from natural ferrous iron, which is easily absorbed by the body and is safe.It help to solve this problem because if you use this fish to cook with you food (Must have water) for 10 minute with 1 liter of water your body can absorbed about 7 mg of iron. Because your body absorbed a small amount of iron so it will not effect to your body. The price of it just 8$ for Cambodian and 25$ for foreigner (but they get two, one for them and the other one will donate to Cambodia) but you can use it for 5 years, So this is why it’s the solution. We have work with the lucky Iron fish company to distribute the fish to difference family in Siem Reap. The fish that we had give to them is the fish that we get from donated by foreigner because of they were buy the fish and one donate to Cambodia, so we take that fish to give to villager at Siem Reap. So we have did workshop with the villager in three different village, some of them have used the fish before and some of them were new, this shows that the lucky iron fish in interesting to them. So we had give 400 fish to different family, so that mean we help 400 family to get rid out of iron deficiency and this is one of my changing Cambodia. We also take a risk to go to War museum and Akira landmine museum because this museum is connect to Khmer Rouge where I will learn about it in this year. We also go to different temple in Siem Reap to learn about the history. We really have a great time at there.