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SOSH cadets travel to Cambodia

By Cow Uzkar Ibrahim

Six cadets took part in a Dept. of Social Sciences Advanced Individual Academic Development trip with Maj. Jeremy Gwinn to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand during May and June.

Firstie Joy Turner and Cows Uzkar Ibrahim, Lauren Looper, Michael Hammond, Christina Tamayo and Andrew Ziebarth were involved in the AIAD. Its purpose was to design, implement and monitor a hygiene curriculum for the humanitarian nongovernmental organization Journeys Within Our Community.

The project entailed educating the impoverished local population of the short-and-long term benefits of maintaining good hygiene. The focus of the education was how washing hands and brushing teeth can be beneficial practices to limiting the frequency of sickness, missed work and cost of medical care.

Each cadet gave a separate class to adults and children in classroom and village settings. In order to monitor their progress, the cadets created a survey and data collection plan to identify health-related trends that needed to be addressed as well as tailoring the training to best suit the needs of the population.

During the implementation of the project, the cadets stayed in the squatter village on the outskirts of Siem Reap, Cambodia, for two nights. It was an unusual experience for them as well as for the locals, who are accustomed to aid workers making short visits.

The cadets took the valuable lessons learned from the squatter village and later applied them to a similar project in rural Cambodian villages where the main activity is rice farming.

The West Point group plans to create a simple and effective system of education, monitoring and assessment that can be implemented by the JWOC staff, which is made up of Western administrators as well as Cambodian university students who work part-time with the NGO.

They passed the lessons learned and implemented hygiene education in the classroom to JWOC in Laos, as well as spent several days touring Bangkok, Thailand, before the conclusion of the AIAD.

The cadets experienced the rich history and culture of Cambodia by touring the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, the Royal Palace at Phnom Penh and the National Museum of Cambodia.

The cadets agreed that the AIAD was a challenging, but rewarding experience, incorporating cultural immersion and systematic problem solving in some austere environments. The group hopes to make a difference in the lives of those who need it the most.