A group of students from Singapore participated in a community involvement program in Cambodia from June 3-7, 2011. They visited Roka Primary School to research issues facing the students. They learned that the village was one of the oldest in the area, but the province had high poverty and illiteracy rates. The students also found that the children could not afford basic hygiene items. So the group focused on teaching hygiene and distributed donated toothbrushes, soap, and other supplies. While communication was challenging due to language barriers, the students were happy to see the Cambodian pupils smiling at the end of the day.

1. It started when a group us signed up iin
the Community Involvement Program
(ICIP) in our school to Cambodia from 3
June to 7 June 2011.
Team members
Li Jun, Syahmin, Farzaana, Mingxuan.
Haziq and Luqman

2. So we started to discuss what could be the
possible problems that children face in
Roka Primary School, where we were going
to…

3. So we started to do a little research on the
school . And this is what we found out …
1. This village was founded around 60 years ago, one of the oldest in
the area.
2. Although Siem Reap is a popular tourist destination, it has been
ranked as the second poorest province with the sixth highest
illiteracy rate.
3. Over the years, the community has put in much effort to build and
rebuild the school.

4. We also found out that the children were
very poor to afford basic toiletry needs
like toothbrush, toothpaste, combs,
towels, nail clippers, soap and shampoo .

5. So our group decided to focus on their
personal hygiene.

6. We taught hygiene at Roka Primary School today.
We distributed items like toothbrushes,
toothpaste, combs, towels, nail clippers, soap
and shampoo to the pupils, which we collected in
Singapore as donations.

7. We helped them wash their hair, showed
them how to hold the toothbrushes,
especially for the younger pupils and also
how to clip their nails.

8. Our greatest challenge was to communicate with the
Cambodian pupils. They did not understand us and
therefore, we had to use sign language and very simple
English with them. We did not give up although the pupils
did not understand us.

9. By the end of the day, we were all tired but
very happy when we saw the smiles on the
Cambodian pupils‘ faces as they went home.

10. We like to thank our teachers and the school for
giving us this opportunity to make the change in
in the lives of these pupils from Roka Primary
School in Siem Ream, Cambodia, even though it
was it was for a few days.