In our Exploration, we were working on one project is about creating the Cambodian Economy book. The books will distribute to every secondary school in Cambodia so that the students can learn about their country’s economy. There are nine students who worked in this Exploration and they’re focusing on different sectors of Cambodian economy. For me I worked on two sectors are Kampot pepper and Tourism sector. Kampot pepper is known as the best pepper in the world. People trust it because it got the GI (Geographical Indication) status. Tourism sector is one of the four largest sectors of the Cambodian economy. It provides many jobs to people that live around the area and it helps people learn different things including culture, language etc.
My group had seven weeks to finish writing the book. We had been to many different provinces and places to learn about the jobs that people do to help the economy to grow. I had been to Kampot province to learn about Kampot pepper and fisheries. I went to visit Sothy’s pepper farm to learn about the pepper. She said that there are many tourist who come to visit her farm to learn about Kampot pepper. So we could say that Kampot pepper farm is also one of the small tourism site in Cambodia. I also went to Crap Market to interview the people who catch and sell crabs.
In class we all are focusing on researching on the internet to collect data and write down that information in the book. We need to make sure that the information that we got is right so we have to check many times. When we finished writing in English we have to checked it with our foreigner teachers to make sure that the grammar is correct and it is in the right way. After finished with English section we have to translate it into Khmer. Then we checked it with the Khmer teachers. So that mean we have to write and edit many times to make it look good enough.
To design the book, we worked with Javier Solorio who is the Director of Graphic Design for a non-profit organization at Chicago. Every Wednesday we skype with him to discuss and give feedback about the book layout. We’ll really appreciate him because he designed our book for free and it looks so professional.
After we finished writing the book and it prints out, we were going to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to meet his excellency Hang Chuon Naron. He is the one who want our school to change Cambodia through education. We were so happy to meet him to give the first printed book to him. He will help us to put the book in every Secondary government school in Cambodia.
Just the day after we meet with the Minister of Education, we were doing our book launch at Meta House. We invite many people to join including all the Liger students as well. We all giving our speech to the audience about our book. I felt so happy that I’m just a 12 years old girl that had written the book about the economy to help my country even though it’s not easy but I still can do it.
Cambodian Economy book in the news
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/business-minded-tweens-publish-book