genocide education in cambodia

Genocide education in Cambodia

REPORT FROM BATTAMBANG PROVINCE

Challenges and Recommendations

Timing: village voter registration should be limited the numbers of the participants who would attend the public forum that was held during rainy season.

The team should consider how to hold the forum in another area during rainy season.

The tem should consider whether shift or change the schedule or list during the two weeks of Phum Ben day because local people would be busy going to pagoda, some doing farming and involving with their rice field.

Forum Coordination and Site Selection: Firstly, the team should consider critically difficult road conditions relating

to geographical distance. The team should approach to chief commune and provincial teacher

through phone calling in order that the forum would be well organized. The suggestion from chief commune to organize place in advance is

absolutely important. According to the recommendation from the chief commune and with

cooperation form school director, we would decide to choose the classroom inside the school as the forum site.

The team should make sure that the accommodation for the participants have more chair and tables for them because we hold the event in the classroom, however, the other buildings, such as the pagoda, were not available due to during Pchum Ben day.

A public Education forum between teachers and students and parents

THE REPORT FROM CHHNOK TROU COMMUNE, BORIBO DISTRICT, KOMPONG CHHNANG PROVINCE

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September 21, 2011

By Farina so

Challenge and suggested solutions

The forum organizers and participants face several challenges as follow: The forum was held on a floating house that the organizers and participants

were hard to approach the venue. People were busy with Pchum Ben and voter’s registration for the upcoming

election. The space was so crowded because of the number of participants that is hard

to manage it well. Most of the participants can read little, but cannot write well, so it consumed

so much time and the meeting was delayed until 9:00 a.m. Solutions In order to improve the forum , a few recommendation should be seriously

taken into consideration The organizers should provide them with more visual and material (color

papers, white board, etc.). They should be put into group activities and the number of participants

should narrowed down to between 100 and 150, which is easier to manage. Follow up forum should be made to maintain its success.

A REPORT FROM SUNDAN COMMUNE Sundan District, Kampong Thom Province February 20, 2011- written by Sayana Ser

Challenges and Lesson Learned

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Given the long distance and the remote area of the forum, it was difficult for the DC-Cam staff to get access to technology and supplies.

Because of the lateness of the students and villagers, the forum was delayed until 9:00 am lasting one hour.

The students had to ride their bicycle for more than 20 kilometers from other communes to attend the forum.

The electricity supply was so scare.

A public Education Forum between Teachers, Students, and Parents

REPORT FROM KOMPOT PROVINCE

May 22, 2011…By Sayana Ser

Challenge and Lesson learned

Even the team had good communication with the provincial teacher and received cooperation from the commune chief , but still some obstacles at some places

The team also had to find the contact of commune chief and call to ask for permission to conduct the forum

We will meet to give him a copy and show him the original permission letter from Ministry of Interior one day prior to the forum

Even with approval from the commune chief, the team still had to follow administrative bureaucracy.

After that the team realized that some far locations, depending on the actual situation, so the team will have to consider whether or it is necessary to go a few days earlier before the forum in order to ask permission, check on the situation of the site and look for forum locations and complete administrative work and communication that could take more than one day.

Attendance and Material: the challenge was that the need to confirm the number of participants with the host commune. Usually, the number of attendees is lower than 200 and sometimes even much lower than 100.

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The reasons for low attendance because of the far distance, road conditions, transportation, harvesting and planting seasons, household works

The team will have to reconfirm, implement measures to prevent and reduce any large discrepancy in numbers and engagement in the future.

Technology/ Road Condition: even the team was well prepared with the logistics and materials from the office and checked up with everything, especially the testing of the sound equipment, the amplifier was broken. This was due to the long bumpy road.

Some student participations made noise by bombing shell hung at dining hall, being used as bell for announcement.

Many students were shy and nervous when they were picked up to give a summary or talk about what points they captured from the readings.

A public Education Forum between Teachers, students and Parents

REPORT FROM KANDAL PROVINCE

May 08, 2011…By Sayana Ser

Challenge and Lesson Learned

- The school director and commune chief previously hesitated and did not completely trust communications via phone calls. It was required that the permission letter be delivered in hand or in person

- After seeing actual site, the team found the dining hall did not have a good atmosphere and condition that holding the forum there could be also be a cause of disturbance to monks’ dinning time(at 11 a.m.). the commune office is too small to hold the forum

- For pagoda’s Buddhist center was not available to hold the forum because the head monk had brought the key along him to the center with him to the city and he would not return until next day, so the team decided to pick a proper open spot under the shake of two mango trees near the main temple.

- For the most part, many of the villagers during this forum did not appear to be as engaged as the students. Some villagers were illiterate or had weak eyes and were unable to read without spectacles.

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Recommendation- The team should bring along two or three MP3 recorders as the other

recorder were being used in fieldwork by two other project teams - The team members just only recorded interviews with students on a mobile

phone and another member conducted an interview with the commune chief by taking notes using pen and paper

- The team should bring more than 200 copies of the textbooks since several participants did not receive one in hand.

A public Forum between Teachers, students and Parents

REPORT FROM KEP PROVINCE

August 7, 2011…Sayana Ser


the few similar challenges were laid out :- firstly, due to school vocation and rainy season, it was so hard to gather

students and inform them to join the public forum even they had been already sent message

- Secondly, the difficulty was about completing the survey questionnaires since a lot of villagers are illiterate and elderly attendees were unable to read the small font.

Recommendation: - The commune chief and the head monk together with the layman suggested

that DC-Cam’s team should have a few days before the forum in order to check on the location and provide documents to villagers beforehand.

- The forum should not be held in rainy season because it would not be more students and teachers to participate in the forum.

A public Forum between Students, Teachers and Parents

THE REPORT FROM KOMPONG SPEU PROVINCE

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September 19, 2011…By Ly Sokheng

Challenge

- There were three challenges noticed for future improvement:

- firstly, the high potential students from secondary and high schools should be selected to be part of the entire forum such as assisting villagers in filling out surveys.

- Secondly, the illiteracy level among villagers remains an obstacle to keep the forum schedule form lagging behind the time set, so they fully need the assistance from a dozen students that DC-Cam has asked the commune chief to form

- Thirdly, it is necessary to have so many people being present- villagers, students, teachers and local authorities.

- Lastly, the open space forum makes it difficult for the facilitators of DC-Cam to monitor the class, specifically the group practice. To deal with this, the facilitators need to give each group clear and precise instructions, through the dozen students assigned to lead group.

Results and outcomes - Throughout the team’s observation, the participants were provided the a

variety of benefits for the forum- Students play a role in assisting villagers in filling in surveys, which was

beneficial for several reasons. Firstly, the students demonstrated self-inspiration for their community Secondly, they could demonstrate their bravery and their potential to engage

and lead any social program. Thirdly, they demonstrated that they could make their parents and other

senior in the community satisfied with their useful work. - Last but not least, most villagers said that they wished to see the trial of KR

leaders at Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). And they seemed to be inspired by the teaching and discussion on the DK history.

A REPORT FROM O SAMPOR COMMUNE

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MALAI DISTRICT, BANTEY MENNCHEY PROVINCE

February 6, 2011...written by Pong- Rasy Pheng

Challenge

Attendance: Before the trip to Malai, team member of the project had made a contact with commune chief and provincial teacher that we asked for students from grade 9-12 from high school nearby, but actually when we started to hold the forum, there had no students from high school to attend and we contacted to provincial teacher who received the teacher training workshop, but while we were at that place we could not contact to provincial teacher, so in order to solve the problem , commune chief promptly contacted to the principle of the primary school instead by asking for students to attend the tomorrow. Thus, in the future we had to make sure that we should reconfirm the number of participants with the commune and implement measures to prevent this large discrepancy in number happening in the future.

Document arrangement: Normally, all documents include DK history books, searching for the Truth Magazines and booklets have already been prepared few days before the trip. This trip, there was a small error occurred among preparation. The mistake was that staff who is responsible for preparing document for us did not know which boxes are DK history book and teacher guidebook. Some boxes of teacher guidebooks were appeared while we were distributing the documents to the participants. This kind of document was not allowed to distribute to participants because it was reserved for teachers who teach history only. However, the team members collected them back. This was a lesson for the team members for next trip.

Surveys: Some post and pre-forum surveys were distributed at the same time to participants after distributing DK history books. Because of students attending the forum were younger, they spent much time to fill in the surveys and also older villagers who could not read and write depend completely on the team members to assist in completing the forum, so next time, the team of the project should divide participants into groups of villagers who can read and write, and groups of whom cannot read and write.

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Teaching preparation and action: Because of the location is former Khmer Rouge stronghold, the model teaching should be cleared and stronger. The presenter should be clear with the objective of the lesson, lesson plan, using the right way of methodology and concentration to the participants. Actually, lesson plan and objective of the lesson were well prepared from the office. Additionally, a meeting was conducted before the trip to discuss this issue. But the problem was that presenter seemed to forget to use this during the teaching. At the end of modeling, in order to attract all participants, one of the team members did a perfect summarizing the whole chapter. For the next trip, especially trip to the location of the Khmer Rouge stronghold like Pailin or Anlong Veng, presenter should have well-prepare and be clear with everything.

A REPORT FROM MONOROM COMMUNE

Sen Monorom district, Mondul Kiri province

April 26, 2011...written Pheng Pong-Rasy


- Mr. Pich Sinoeun, who was another provincial teacher, received the teacher training from DC-Cam and ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. He used to be a teacher at Mondul Kiri High school due to his family issues, he had to quit teaching. According to the meeting with the team, he said that he would return to teach again.

- Just in advice, Mr. Pheng and the team told him that the importance teaching DK is very important for the next generations and then Mr. Pheng explaind, “You are the key to producing and building peace and reconciliation to students.

The obstacles during forum:

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- While the participants were reading a chapter from the DK history book, two policemen came to ask for permission from the authority of Munorom commune asking for permission from the commune chief to do the forum. At the same time, Rasy gave them a permission letter from the Ministry of Interior. Later, they went back and thank us for providing a permission letter.

- Some participants, especially villagers, looked exhausted and left the forum while it was still in progress. Mrs. Im Chann asked to leave first to cook food her workers and many villagers and nuns left for the same reason.

- Some participants said that they would not attend the meeting because they were much older compared to students. For this reason, Mr. Pheng to them the main purpose of doing forum and explaind that the forum was to engage in discussing about the Khmer Rouge regime between students and elders who experienced hardship during the Khmer Rouge Regime.

- Some students were playing on their phones while Mr. Vanthan was presenting a chapter and Mr. Pheng came to those students and told them to stop playing and to listen to the chapter.

.

REPORT FROM PAILIN PROVINCE

July 10, 2011...By Tatiana Sainati, Sharon Kim, and Sayana Ser

Challenge and Recommendation

1. Dedicate more time to pre-planning and outreach. Given the value that DC-Cam places on genocide education and

community participation, it is important to determine the challenges faced on each trip and provide recommendation for improvement.

- Before outreaching, the staff should contact the commune chief and the pagoda committee leader, and obviously, other community members and teachers, earlier in advance of the forum

- Geographical distance and practical considerations, including limited modes of communication, may serve as major barriers to the implementation,

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however, advantages of having a better advertised event, and stronger working relationship with village leaders likely outweigh these concerns , so we suggest establishing an exploratory team that could head out to the provinces a week or two before the public education forum in order to provide community leaders with a more thorough introduction to DC-Cam as well as to raise awareness about the upcoming event, and build relationship with the local villagers.

The exploratory team would be beneficial for two main reasons: - First, it would help to build trust between DC-Cam staff and the local

communities - Second, by spending more time in the preparation stages, the public

education forum could allocate more time to meaningful discussion, beyond the history

2. Focus more discussion, less on book distribution:- The team should also seriously consider whether the current means of

material distribution is the most effective in promoting genocide education- A significant amount of time was spent on handing out booklets, which

could have been allocated to fostering interaction among villagers, students, and teachers.

- DC-Cam should consider implementing a longer three to five day program, by allowing the exploratory team to give the teachers and students the textbooks in advance.

A public Forum between Students, Teachers, and Parents

Inauguration of Anti-Genocide Memorial

A REPORT FROM MODUL KIRI PROVINCE

October 25-26…SER Sayana

Challenges, observation, and impacts

-the forum was held unexpectedly without much preparation at all

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- It was conducted within the compound of the primary school, so the noise of the school children could distract participants’ attention away from the presentation and discussion

- the majority of the villagers are Pnorng who could understand Khmer language but found it hard to reply to the team, so the communication challenges in the form of language have already prevented them from exploring the exact nature of the KR atrocities.

- After the forum, the team made a short interviews with the villagers for collecting names and stories of their lost relatives

The inauguration of the anti-Genocide Memorial - It was created for the purpose of promoting forgiveness, tolerance,

education, and reconciliation and also help to recall the past and generate interest in the upcoming trial of the four surviving senior leaders of the KR

- The team has worked closely with Mr. Keo Vibol, deputy director of Hun Sen Mondul Kiri High School in order to prepare for the inauguration ceremony of the Anti- Genocide Memorial.

- The event was held in the morning of October 26 with her Excellency Ton Sa-Im Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, and Mr. Toem Sang Vat, head of Mondul Kiri’s provincial Education office, serving as guests of honor.

- DC-Cam’s deputy director, Mr. Vanthan P.Dara, explained to the students about the up-to-date information of the KR Tribunal.

A public Forum between Teachers, Students, and Parents REPORT FROM PHNOM PENH

June 5, 2011...By Sayana Ser


- The exact number of participants is still a challenge because the team confirmed with the local authorities, school director, and teacher about the about the number of students who would be able to attend the forum which can accommodate up to 180, in contrast, the team was informed at the last minute that there might be up to 200 student to participate , and in the

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future, the team should try to confirm the exact number and should bring 200 sets of documents and materials and the surplus materials .

- The atmosphere in the forum location was a bit crowded and extremely warm despite having all windows and doors opened. The weather was completely different from the previous day when the team checked on the place.

CRITIGUSE FROM FOREIGN PARTICIPANTS AND RESPOSE BY SAYANA SER

1) Valerie Stranieri, from Tulane Law School- Her suggestions were that for the forum based on my understanding of you

purpose - First, I did not see much interaction between the villagers and students , for

example, by dividing the student s into smaller groups and having one villager work with each group

- Most people feel uncomfortable getting up and speaking into a microphone, especially about such a sensitive subject.

- I would also suggest posing some questions to the villagers as well and I noticed that the questions and discussion were all directed toward the students making it seems like a student-focused program that villagers were simply invited to observe.

Morgan’s suggestions:

- There should be monitors to observe during the group discussion and survivors’ story.

- There should be a break before the survivor’s story so the group can concentrate better.

- Since some survivors have stories but find it difficult to talk about them, the same survivor should speak to smaller groups or in the form of an interview to make it easier.

- The group should be divided into smaller groups of 40-50 during the survivors’ stories.

- There should be at least one photo to demonstrate the brutality of the regime so the students believe what happened.

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- After the survivor’s story, we should ask the group: What part of the story interested you the most? Will you tell your parents about the story/forum today? Why?

A public Forum between Teachers, students, and Parents

REPORT FROM PREAH VIHEAR PROVINCE

September 6, 2011

By: Ser Sayana and Ly Sokheang

Challenges, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations

- Because of heavy raining, the forum could not be concluded properly and also the number of participants were sitting under the shade of numerous species of trees in front of a high school building.

- Due to the high level of illiteracy among the villagers, the forum’s schedule were slowed down and also the villagers had weak eyes and were unable to read without spectacles.

- A few villagers who tried to read tended to focus only on the materials without paying much to the forum discussion.

- there are only about fifteen students who participated since the forum was held during school vacation and some students were helping with their housework and farming while some others were working in other districts and provinces.

- the team brought 200 copies of the textbook; this number was expected to be more than enough since in prior forum, there were rarely a higher number of participants than amount, so the team had already experienced several forums that took place during this time that only had attracted between seventy and one hundred fifty participants

-Despite the geographical distance and practical considerations, including limited modes of communication, the staff had contacted the commune chief and the pagoda committee leader, and ideally, other community members and teachers,

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one week in advance of the forum and instead of conducting these initial meetings upon arrival in the province the day before the event. The team as well as the commune chief learned that we should come to the forum site a few days before the forum starts in order to see and check on the actual location, complete bureaucratic administrative work, and build trust between the staff and the local communities as well as the authorities. The team learned that administrative communication and logistics on location could be, at times, an obstacle to the forum.


REPORT FROM PREY VENG PROVINCE

October 4, 2011…By Ser Sayana

Challenges

- The flood and rain delayed the forum schedule from starting at 8:00 to begin at 8:30 and even at 9 o'clock, so a few villagers were still coming to the forum.

- The majority of older women in the commune are widows whose husbands were killed in the KR and some suffered from the pain of losing loved ones and from torture they endured, as well as trauma or mental disorders due to the unbearable situation they confronted in the KR past.

- Fear of being abused for expressing ideas and thoughts is intricate amongst Cambodian citizens. For example, Mrs. Seng told us that her twenty-four year-old son told her not to give an interview with the team because he is afraid that the KRT could not provide justice through a fair trial and right judgment, and he is scared of having KR family members seek revenge.

A public Education between Teachers, Students, and Parents

A Forum with Guest speaker Mr. Andrew Cayley

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International co-prosecutor, Khmer Rouge Tribunal

A REPORT FROM PURSAT PROVINCE

August 11, 2011

By: Tessa Bialak and Sayana Ser

Challenges, Lesson Learned, and Recommendation

- The event might be helpful when it concludes a guest speaker in order to remind participants throughout the event about the schedule of activities planned for the forum. For instance, program facilities could remind participants before the guest speaker’s concluding remarks and after remarks, there will be an additional activity, so the participants will be clear about the forum’s schedule.

- Even Mr. Cayley’s presence provided a different format for this forum, there were fewer students than normal, so in the future the team should think creatively how to encourage student’s participation during school vocations.

- The last question at the forum, posed by a male student who asked who were the senior Khmer Rouge leaders to be prosecuted at the ECCC, demonstrates that there is still a lack of awareness among certain community members, especially in remote areas such as Rumlech, about the Khmer Rouge and the Court. Programs such as the Public Education Forum should continue to work on raising awareness about Khmer Rouge history and the process and procedure of the ECCC to encourage more widespread awareness and understanding. As Mr. Cayley reminded participants?

A public Forum between Teachers, Students, and Parents

A REPORT FROM TRAPEANG KRAHAM COMMUNE

Kaun Mum District, Ratanak Kiri Province

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March 20, 2011- Written by Pheng Pong-Rasy and Ser Sayana


- Some villagers and some students had to leave in the middle of the forum because the team did presentation, which seems to take longer to present, the presenter should provide a brief introduction and summarize important key points to explain to participants

- The project team members, when addressing participants, frequently referred only to students while ignoring the presence of the villagers and teachers. This could cause the villagers and teachers to feel uncomfortable and out of place.

- The number of participants from Trapeang Kraham are a bit less than number of participants from Trapeang Kramham because some of students went home for nearly school vocation and they need to help their parents in the rice fields, farming and managing the household, while some other students earn their living by picking cashew nuts.

- Tranpeang Kraham is more remote and lacks vegetables and water while its neighbor Trapeang Chreh is near the district , so their children have more time to attend the forum

- Passengers have difficulty to travel because the road is so dusty and smoky.


A REPORT FROM KRALANH DISTRICT, SIEM REAP PROVINCE

October 9, 2011

By: Khamboly Dy, Sokhegan Ly and Peoun Dara Vanthan

Challenges and Recommendations

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- The preliminary contact and preparation : the team was a bit late in providing sufficient information about the forum as well as asking the permission from local officials to hold the forum

- The head monk did not allow the team to hold the forum in pagoda campus because the pagoda is a neutral and quiet place; it is not a place for political parties to attack or to compete each other for the votes, however, after long explanation from the team, the head monk allowed the team to hold the forum inside the pagoda.

- Illiteracy villagers: some villagers could not read and write, so the team could not receive sufficient information from the participants because they have never been involved in the activities related to surveys and the team had to spend a great amount of time in explaining, reading, and filling out the survey on their behalf upon permission from them.

- In order to resolve this challenge, the team has found various methods to cope with it, for example, the team selected about ten students to help the participants to fill in the survey

- In addition to the survey, participants were also unfamiliar with the names of the early party leaders such as Son Ngoc Than, Tou Samouth, and Chan Samay. They had little knowledge of the Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party or the Worker’s Party of Kampuchea.


A REPORT FROM STENG TRENG PROVINCEE

April 24, 2011- Written by Nhean Socheat

Challenges

- The villagers were busy with their farmland because the rain had just started, while some other villagers need to do their business in the market and somewhere else.

- The villagers found the public forum less interesting and they did not get along well with discussion as a cultural norm; moreover, they are too illiterate to fill out survey forms.

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- Pre and post- forum surveys were even less interesting for villagers and almost all villagers attending the forum were illiterate or not used to filling out forms and did not understand what they were going to do

- Villagers also found the presentation less interesting while the presentation was going on, they chatted with their fellow villagers and others villagers, especially women, had to go home at 9: 30 or 10: 00 in order to food for their children.


REPORT FROM SVAY RIENG PROVINCE

October 6, 2011 ...By SER Sayana

Challenge

- Mr. So Khay stated that he was not quite sure whether the Khmer Rouge Tribunal can work fairly to deliver justice to Cambodian people.

- And the program had to be delayed for an hour because the villagers and students did not arrive until 9:00 a.m. due to rain, flood and household work and majority of young women in the commune are garment factory workers

- Even the forum was centrally located there is still the lack of transportation and poor road conditions.

- Since the forum started one hour later than expected the program (8:00 a.m.), it also concluded later than expected. There were a few parents of the student participants who called to ask the commune chief about their children. The team had tried to finish the forum at 11:30; however, we learnt that we needed to end the forum by 11 o’clock regardless of the delay because the students and some villagers such as monks had their regular meal time at 11 o’clock.

A public Forum Education between Teachers, Students, and Parents

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REPORT FROM UDDAR MEANCHEY PROVINCE

June 18, 2011…By Sayana Ser, Anna Mumford and Lise Reuss


- The team found some difficulties in engaging the villagers in the forum and about 40 villagers showed up to the event, which was more than expected.

- The beginning of the forum, many of the villagers were willing to share their stories during the Khmer Rouge period with the team

- The team went through chapter five with the students related to the geographical split of DK into five zones, so it was not easy to make students effectively interact and summarize the section assigned. This may be due to the more factual character of the information given

- During the forum, a student asked about the ECCC, primarily concerning Case 002. This generated many additional questions about the Court. Only a few of those present knew about the ECCC and hardly any could explain anything more than a headline or two about the existence of the Tribunal. Despite this, the apparent interest in the subject demonstrates a greater need for more information sharing about the work of the ECCC.

A public Education Forum between Teachers, Students and Parents

PUNLEAK VILLAGE, CHONG CHIEK COMMUNE, DAMBE DISTRICT, KAMPONG CHAM PROVINCE

March 6, 2011


- The forum was delayed until 12: 00 pm, half an hour later than predicted and like the previous forum, pre and post surveys took more than one hours to complete because the member have to guide the participants

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- While the team members began collecting the completed surveys, some of participants were still writing their surveys and at end of the forum, some students did not finish their post forum surveys since it was their lunch time

- Recommendations : the team should manage their time with entire forum and the surveys and should organize villagers who can read and write ,while villagers who cannot read and write to sit in different place in the compound of the forum

- The pre forum survey made the whole forum a bit less interesting and the team should find better way to conduct the pre forum survey and evaluation

- The team had tested and checked all the document materials and equipment in Phnom Penh before loading up in the car. In the evening prior to the forum, the team rented a battery from a villager to help supply power to the speakers during the forum. The morning of the forum, the team discovered that the rental battery could not be used as a full power supply for the sound. Fortunately, the team used the sound equipment of the pagoda instead. However, the team sometime used went without microphones to talk to the participants. This was because the microphones were very old and often didn’t function properly. For the next forum, the team has to be more diligent with checking the equipment.

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genocide education in cambodia

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