University students participating in an Urban Planning workshop run by EWB and partner organisations STT and CEDT at Cambodia&#;s Science and Engineering Festival ; with Longhan Choeun (CEDT), Sovann My (STT) and Katrina Bukauskas (EWB)
Report from Katrina Bukauskas
On th March , EWB field volunteers Ben Garnock, Marcel Tjandraatmadja, Ajay Chouhan and colleagues from their partner organisations Community Empowerment and Development Team (CEDT), Samakum Teang Tnaut (STT) and RainWater Cambodia joined together to provide workshops as part of Cambodia’s first Science and Engineering Festival. The event was an opportunity to showcase to the young Cambodian population the opportunities that exist in Science and Engineering. In Cambodia the median age is only years, compared to Australia&#;s years.
Two workshops were run to complement the festival activities, which also included an exhibition hall, presentations and hands on demonstrations. CEDT and STT worked together to deliver a workshop for university students focused on urban planning. Students were given a city canvas, and asked to consider locations of urban services such as housing, marketplaces medical clinics, schools, community centres. Students worked in teams to dream up their urban masterpieces. When reporting back, the students discussed the range of issues they had considered such as green space, safety of children, noise restrictions, employment opportunities and transport. They were all very proud of their creations,and demonstrated a real interest in the importance of urban planning.
The second workshop for high school students was run by RainWater Cambodia based on a piped water supply system where students were tasked with building a pipeline to supply a number of villages out of straws and cups. This activity proved to be very popular and lots of fun.
The Cambodia Science and Engineering Festival attracted ‘s of people, young and old. I’m sure it will be running again next year. If you are interested in finding out more about the event, visit www.cambodiascience.org/