CSS produced a short video to highlight the internship experiences of former communications intern and Jarai indigenous youth Romam Leap. The video was very well received by the public on social media, generating approximately 150 reactions, 52 shares, and 2,700 views on Facebook
Similar Stories
Indigenous youth become confident in expressing himself
Participating in discussions and learning about current issues boosts indigenous youth’s confidence. “Because I participated in various activities and training, I now feel more confident in expressing myself and my community.” Mr. Mong Samut is a 22-year-old Brao indigenous youth. He was born in a remote area located in Sieng Say village, Ta Veaeng Kraom commune, Ta Veaeng district, Ratanakiri province. This is where he is living with his family. As an indigenous youth, he had few opportunities for further education. He was a young farmer without a confident expression and so preoccupied with his job that he was unaware of the situation outside of the community. However, land and forestry issues have arisen in his community. He wishes to seek assistance and share these conflicts and challenges with others to obtain protective intervention. Mr. Mong Samut (Red shirt) participated in the meeting on identifying topics on NRM and land conducted by CIPL in his village center located in Seang Say village, Taveng Kroam commune, Taveng district, Ratanakiri province. Until he gets to know Open Development Cambodia (ODC) and Conserve Indigenous Peoples Languages (CIPL) organizations, he has a chance to learn and participate in various activities and training such as mobile report training, data visualization and storytelling, and identifying topics on natural resource, land, and environment. He has learned how to identify problems, edit videos, and gain basic knowledge of natural resources, land, and forestry. Even though his knowledge cannot be compared to that of people living in cities, he is dedicated and always pays more attention to the lesson and discussions. The desire to express the community\'s issues and challenges keeps him go on. He is ready to share what is going on in his community while gathering information from others to share with his own. He pledges to open his community\'s culture, livelihood, and issues through what he learned if given the opportunity.
Data storytelling by data visualization trainees
Data is an essential component of every organization and journalist. Finding the value in data and communicating that value to your target audience needs time. Simply displaying spreadsheets with rows of numbers is insufficient for demonstrating the significance of data. However, when data is presented in the form of a story, individuals are more likely to appreciate its significance and respond accordingly. The good news is that people enjoy reading stories. Storytelling has long been a great tool for educating, explaining, and influencing a specific audience or intended activities. On 20-21 and 26 December 2022, ODC conducted training on “Data Visualization and Storytelling” to equip participants with basic data visualization and storytelling skills. The trainees have learned about the principle of data as well as using data for product visualization and short storytelling. Even though we have a short time, our trainees could produce such a visualization and combine it into a story that could present data. Note: The stories shown do not have further assessment or review. These are just participants\' practice exercises only. Story 1: The special economic zones in Cambodia The trainees produced storytelling by using visualization named \"Most of Cambodia\'s special economic zones do not unveil the specific companies\' number.\" The special economic zones in Cambodia do not show the specific number of companies, indicating that they are still in the planning stages and are not yet operational. It is critical to take more action and complete those projects with high investment capital that follow the regions. Cambodia\'s potential economic zones include Phnom Penh, Kandal, Preah Sihanouk, Svay Rieng, and Koh Kong, based on data. Story 2: Hydropower dam along the Mekong River and energy consumption Visualizations are used to illustrate the number behind the Mekong hydropower dam. Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam all have one thing in common: they would like to build a dam. As regional and global energy consumption and concern about climate change grow, one solution that can help address both at the same time is building hydropower dams in the Mekong region. Vietnam is the leading country in terms of energy consumption, with numbers steadily increasing up until the recent 2020 deadline. One thing is certain: electricity consumption is rising in all countries and shows no signs of slowing. A number of hydropower projects are planned across the five Mekong countries. Myanmar has the most hydropower plans, with a total capacity of 61,412.1 MW. However, the majority of the plans are still in the planning stages, despite the fact that Vietnam has the highest hydropower project operational rate. Renewable energy\'s future is bright, but some argue that it has taken far too long. Story 3: The most potential hydropower sites in Cambodia Our Trainees also used hydropower data from the ODC website to show which provinces have a lot of hydropower. The results show that the majority of hydropower dams are located in Cambodia\'s northeast, specifically in the provinces of Kratie, Stung Treng, and Ratanakiri. Kong Koh province also has a large number of hydropower dams. Story 4: Cambodia\'s deforestation in the last 20 years Indigenous youth from Ratanakiri province created a short story titled \"Is the forest in Cambodia truly lost?\" based on Global Forest Watch data. Data on deforestation in Cambodia show a significant increase from 2001 to 2010 but a slight decrease from 2011 to 2021. Story 5: Fishing trend by region between 2009 and 2019 in Cambodia In the short storytelling using visualization \"Fishing Activities by Zones,\" fishing zones such as the plain zone, Tonle Sap zone, plateau/mountain zone, and coastal zone are depicted. Cambodia has 20 provinces with Community Fisheries (CFi). In comparison to the other 19 provinces, Koh Kong Province has the most CFis, followed by Pursat and Prey Veng. The CFis in Svay Rieng is the fewest.
Renewed purpose: Raising awareness on sexual Harassment one community at a time
Sinath is a leader of a commune-based organization (CBO) in her community. She started volunteering with Banteay Srei in 2008. Sinath wasn’t always very confident and active in her community. Living in a small community, Sinath faced pressures related to societal and family norms, stereotypes, and judgements. She took on traditional roles of taking care of her children, husband, and in-laws and didn’t feel brave enough to socialize outside the house and attend village activities or meetings. After becoming a volunteer with BS, Sinath had more opportunities to attend different events with BS. Those events – meetings, trainings, public forums, study tours – in her province and beyond have helped her to build knowledge and experience. Now, Sinath has a better understanding of leadership and her self-worth. She has also gained new skills such as public speaking, communications, planning, business, community mobilization, and facilitation. Sinath continues to equip herself with new knowledge and skills. In 2023, she learned and gained new knowledge from BS on sexual harassment. Sinath is a member of one of the five CBOs selected by BS to receive sexual harassment training. Sinath finds this new knowledge very important for her and other women in her community. After the training, she is able to recognize different types of harassment as well as harmful and discriminatory jokes often made by people around her. Sinath believes that lessons on sexual harassment can help men to understand and cease their discriminatory behavior that leads to sexual harassment. After the training, she has applied what she learned in her daily life and among her monthly saving group that she belongs to. Her peers showed a lot of interest in the subject and expressed that this would help them shift their perception and inspire some positive changes in their daily lives. For the future, Sinath plans to advocate on the issue of sexual harassment in her village by using operational funds received from Village Savings/Credit Group program. Along with the advocacy effort, she also plans to raise awareness on other topics such as importance of educating children, the impact of young marriage, gender-based violence, leadership, and positive thinking.