Together, we can stand strong

The Phnom Penh Post
Wednesday, 06 January 2010 15:01 Chan Sovannara and Keo Kounil

In the Kingdom's universities, young Cambodians are taking advantage of their strength in numbers through associations and other student groups that work to make life on, and off, campus more enriching for students

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Students protest last year against admissions policies at the University of Health Sciences.

An effective way for students to make an impact in Cambodia is for them to join together to raise awareness and help solve the country’s problems. Within Cambodian universities, student associations have begun to take on this role, coming together to support their peers and working towards helping the Kingdom’s society as a whole.

Rouet Sokhon, the newly selected president of the student association of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, says that the student association or senate is a group of students who aim to help others deal with their academic issues, as well as encouraging them to express their opinions in class, as well as in wider society.

His association tries to strengthen students’ knowledge through research and Internet use – which is necessary for them when they apply for scholarships abroad – and also to become engaged members of Cambodian society.

“Our university’s students association is remarkable in its ability to motivate students in studying, conserving culture and acting in social works, which are seen as a part of helping Cambodia move forward,” says Rouet Sokhon.

The university’s student association has 15 board members charged with providing advice and assistance, as well as participating in many activities to help the students.

Any student at RUPP is welcome to visit and ask for consultations with the board members.

RUPP’s student association, with funding from the Red Cross, normally works to conduct fund raising events to ease the lives of disadvantaged Cambodians.

Recently, the association had a fundraising event at the Institute of Foreign Languages for orphans in Kampong Speu province.
However, Rouet Sokhon says that limited funding severely limits his association’s ability to begin more ambitious initiatives.

Academic Benefits
At other universities, student associations have the sole duty of boosting students’ potential in all activities in university and society, including raising funds, creating workshops and finding scholarships for students.

As president of the Student Senate at Pannasastra University, which has more than 90 members, Koung Sorita says her association has been going in the right direction, focusing on promoting the standard of education, enhancing Khmer cultural preservation and involving students in community service.

“To achieve this goal, our group has prepared workshops for students to get involved in developing the necessary skills to improve their studies, such as leadership skills, self-development and finding scholarships,” Koung Sorita says.

By regularly checking the development of students in her university, Koung Sorita says that they become more confident and begin to understand more about their studies, as well as life experiences after they have joined a student association.

“We have noticed that students seem to change their concepts and gain more courage, social skills and flexibility in studying, which the university alone cannot provide,” she adds.

Limited support
Another challenge with student associations, Koung Sorita says, is their lack of publicity. Sometimes students in the university don’t even know they exist. So far, Cambodia’s student associations have not covered a wide range of activities or successfully informed university populations about their core values and mission, she says.

As a junior studying finance and economics, 23-year-old Keo Somaly has never heard about her university’s student association.

“I have watched films about foreign universities and their student associations. I’ve studied all along, but never heard about this group,” she says.

In many foreign countries, student representatives are present when university officials make decisions. Universities in the US, for instance, often have student representatives on the board of directors for the school, which guarantees transparency in the decision making process, such as how to use student tuition money. This is not yet the case at any of Cambodia’s universities.

Eng Limheng, president of the student association at the Royal University of Law and Economics, says his student association, created six years ago and now numbering 130 members, has had a vision to remedy students issues. So far, activities include finding scholarships, and holding workshops and programmes, with a broader meeting held monthly.

However, Eng Limheng says that he is not aware of the topics other student associations focus on, exposing the lack of cooperation between student groups within the country.

Just as students are more powerful when they work together, student associations have the potential to hold more sway when they join forces.
“Most of the Cambodian student associations here discuss issues around education, but student associations in Cambodia, when compared to the other countries, are not too active yet due to a lack of financial support and a lack of student understanding,” said Eng Limheng.

As a former representative of the student senate at the University of Cambodia, created four years ago, Chheng Sovannka says that student associations in Cambodia generally talk about donations, workshops, debate contests and study tours. Nevertheless, he says, each and every university should pay attention to student associations by providing more assistance and financial support because that is the only way to gain more of a following. “The student senate is getting more and more support from students,” said Eng Limheng. “This shows that they are braver and ready to start socialising with each other.”

New pension body opens for business

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Japan Pension Service, an organization set up to succeed the scandal-plagued Social Insurance Agency, started full operations Monday with a pledge to restore public trust in the public pension system.

At an opening ceremony held at the entity's headquarters in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma said, "I want you to have pride in your duties and tell yourselves you're the ones who protect people in their retirement."

Takashi Kiriku, the new entity's first director general and a former executive director of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), also urged his employees "to work together to regain public trust in the pension system."

Japan Pension Service is a public corporation whose employees do not have the status of government employees. Most of the 10,800 staffers were transferred from the Social Insurance Agency. However, agency officials who had been disciplined for reasons including improperly checking pension records were not hired. In all, 525 agency officials were dismissed.

The names of 312 social insurance offices nationwide have been changed to pension service offices.

The entity has drawn up 10 pledges to improve customer service and restore public trust, including "Pick up the phone within three rings," and "Don't make visitors wait more than 30 minutes."

Handouts listing the pledges were distributed to everybody at the opening ceremony.
(Jan. 5, 2010)

Bio-Char Factory Opens in Cambodia

A Cambodian woman makes use of “charbriquettes” made from coconut husks. The fuel is a cleaner substitute for the wood and charcoal that are traditionally used. (Simon Marks)

January 4, 2010
By SIMON MARKS
New York Times

Cambodia opened its first biomass “charbriquette” factory in Phnom Penh last month, an enterprise that will produce fuel for stoves from waste biomass material.

The factory, a venture backed by Geres and For a Child’s Smile, two French organizations active in Cambodia’s development community, aims to reduce demand for wood and charcoal that 80 percent of Cambodians use every day to cook and boil water.

“Climate change and global warming are serious issues these days,” said Yohanes Iwan Baskoro, Cambodia country director for Geres. The factory, Mr. Baskoro said, “will save about 1,600 tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere” every year.

The number of households projected to use charcoal as an energy source here will rise to more than one million in 2015 from about 500,000 now, according to a 2008 study conducted jointly by Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, the United Nations Development Program and Geres.

The projected increase has raised concerns among environmentalists, who say that charcoal production entails the removal of vast quantities of woodland, often in naturally growing forests.

According to Geres, Phnom Penh consumes 90,000 tons of charcoal every year, a market believed to be worth about $25 million.

At the new factory, called the Sustainable Green Fuel Enterprise, waste biomass like coconut husks and shells will be burned for an hour in brick kilns, or until the material is carbonized. The heat from the burning process is then recaptured in a funnel and used to dry the waste biomass so that the burning process becomes more energy efficient.

The end-product, known as char, is crushed and mixed with water and cassava residue to form individual briquettes of fuel.

Mr Baskoro said that the biomass used to make the briquettes would otherwise decompose on the capital’s streets, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in the form of methane and carbon dioxide.

Moreover, there will be less dependence on producing charcoal from wood, most of which comes from naturally growing forests.

The briquettes, Mr. Baskoro said, “will preserve Cambodia’s natural forests by having a cleaner and safer alternative to wood and charcoal. He added that the briquettes produce less smoke and pose less of a threat to human health and the environment.

And while the briquettes will cost nearly three times that of charcoal sold on the streets of Phnom Penh, they will burn for nearly twice as long, according to Ly Mathheat, the executive director of the Sustainable Green Fuel Enterprise.