Category: 2019-2020

Within your daily routine of turning your light at home on/off, or turning the fan on up on your ceiling, you might always think they are simple/easy habits to do. Have you ever thought of how challenging it is for people with disabilities to practice with this simple stuff? The lives of people with disabilities might be harder and/or much different from what you actually have thought of. Within some circumstances, they couldn’t do those things at home at all and all depend on someone to assist. As a young change agent, I really want to be involved in helping for the better and positivity of their lives. 

Agile Collaboration was an exploration which I and the other 5 of my friends involved in making for the betterment of people with disability’s lives with the implementation of Smart Home System. With the collaboration with Agile organization, we believe that the Smart Home System could genuinely bring conveniences including time-saving and security purposes to their houses. 

To achieve the above mission, our team went to a variety of organizations and companies to meet with experts and audiences to interview and discuss as a step toward making our goals become reality. We went to 17 Triggers in which they are working with design thinking, researching, as well as Human-Centered Design. We’ve explored and learned about a variety of projects that 17 Triggers have done in which it can benefit our team when we implement the system. 

Additionally, we took another trip to PPCIL (Phnom Penh Center For Independence Living) to do our first-ever observation and interview people with disabilities. It was an incredibly stupendous experience for our team to communicate with them as well as getting to know the struggles they are facing daily. 

During the process of implementation, our team used methods that are called Human-Centered Design. Those methods are an approach to problem-solving, commonly used in management frameworks and design in order to develop solutions by involving the human perspective of the problem-solving process. As a team, we discussed and chose some of the methods to practice in our process. Some of the methods are Analogous Inspiration, Expert Interview, Interview, and Define Your Audience. 

Along with the process, our team did a lot of research and found a lot of interesting products that related to turning on/off the light, door lock, gate opening, and more. Meanwhile, our team had also created a mosquito prototype to help lift their mosquito. Finally, we will be implementing all of these products in the houses of people with disabilities.   

With the enormous amount of vegetables produced by Cambodians daily,  Cambodia still needs more tons of vegetables to supply the population. According to KhmerTimes, 540 tons of vegetables are needed in Cambodia to meet the demand, however, Cambodia can only make 400 tons for the country. Based on this statistical fact, it demonstrates that tons of vegetables are being imported. 

This was the root of why Household Garden Exploration created. Our ambition was to inspire some rural Cambodians to have their own fresh, organic vegetable gardens at home, instead of buying invalidated vegetables from the market. In addition, those vegetables that aren’t being ensured, are mostly produced with chemical fertilizer and pesticide in which the process could severely affect the health of the daily consumers as well as the producers. With this being said, a variety of organizations and projects are helping with the mission of encouraging farmers and households to grow more organic products to their needs.           

To achieve the above ambition, our team in this exploration went to different trips such as farms and research stations, conducted interviews to be able to observe and aware more on the current situation of vegetable plantation, type of vegetables that suitable for household garden, the process of creating organic fertilizer and pesticide, as well as the process of making compost. 

One of the best experiences, we visited Saange District, which is one of the heartland areas of vegetable farming that stretch hugely across the district’s land. Our ultimate goal was to understand the farmer’s lives and their farming practices. After the interviews, it shows that all of the farmers use chemical fertilizers because the process isn’t time-consuming and much more convenient. This result made our team a bit discourage, however, I hope that farmer’s mindsets will aware of the unbeneficial of prioritizing the chemical fertilizer. 

By the end of the exploration, as an experiment, we created a garden at Liger Campus where we grew different types of vegetables. With the little amount of time we had, we couldn’t clearly identify our goal, yet we had a much better understanding of vegetable farming in Cambodia. I positively hope we will be able to continue the project to better the lives of Cambodians.

“Foldscope Cambodia aims to empower socio-economically disadvantaged students by providing more accessibility to the microscopic world so that they realize and are aware of their potential to create sustainable impacts in the community.” 

Imagine, you’re a young student who lives in a rural area of a province. In a matter of time, you would want to drink water that is from different sources around your zone. However, the problem is that the cup of water you drank is filled and crowded with billions of hazardous monsters and bacteria you could not notice with your bare eyes. This eventually leads to sickness and other menacing problems. 

On the other hand, have you ever wondered what might the onion cells that your teacher was talking about in your biology class look like? Isn’t it monotonous to learn about many organisms and cells but you don’t have the opportunity to discover with a microscope? Thinking about this particular concept, it could lead thousands of students to be uninterested when it comes to learning about biology, or science as a whole. 

As a matter of fact, those cells in onions or cruel monsters in your cup of water can only be seen by an expensive microscope that many rural areas and schools could not afford to invest in for the students?

Because of the problems as stated above, this was why Jim and Manu who are from Standford University have invented the most amazing tool you have ever seen. A mini microscope called Foldscope that’s almost 1,000 cheaper than an actual microscope. Within their astounding invention, this is the hope for millions of students out there who are underprivileged and disadvantaged for their learning opportunities. 

Foldscope is made entirely out of folded paper, is exceedingly affordable, portable, and durable. On the other hand, this Foldscope has the ability to see objects and almost the same as the big microscope that costs thousands of dollars.

Currently, I am a part of the Foldscope Cambodia that is working on implementing workshops and creating Foldscope videos in Khmer in order to introduce this astonishing tool to rural Cambodian students.  To achieve this great mission, our team has implemented a few workshops in Kampong Thom, Cambodia, in which we brought this efficacious device to enhance the quality of visual experience for student’s science learning and self-exploration. 

During our successful workshops, we covered a lot of knowledge with scientific skills as well as soft skills in which we have improved their curiosity in science and gave them opportunities to let them discover the microscopic world they have always wondered about. 

I believe that Foldscope Cambodia is one of the best projects that made huge positive impacts on the students from my communities. I hope we would be able to support and assist more students during our future workshops.