បច្ចេកវិទ្យានិងបណ្តាញសង្គម

Hands on training at the STT computer lab

ICT Training Project Begins

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Yesterday, on March 18^th, 2015 STT conducted their first training session as part of the ICT Community Training Project. Ten community activists arrived at the STT computer lab in order to receive training on basic technological skills such as how to use standard computer programs. Future sessions will include how to use smartphones and different social media applications. The project will occur regularly each month until December of this year.

The purpose of conducting these sessions is to facilitate access to 3G+ devices for members in urban poor communities, which will allow their voices and opinions to be heard through social media. In the long run, the objective of the trainings sessions is to enable human rights defenders and community activists to use the best communication technology to report promptly, safely, and accurately. Through the mechanisms and strategies taught throughout the program, participants have the knowledge and means to raise any alerts when confronted by human rights violations in Cambodia.

Hands on training at the STT computer lab

ICT gives activists computer trainging — ICT gives activists computer training

Monthly Training Course on Facebook for Urban Poor Community Activists

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Facebook is a free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. Currently, Facebook has more than 1 billion users in the world. Facebook users employ it in different ways. Some people use it for entertainment while others use it for business purposes.

On August 29^th of 2014, the ICT project of Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) conducted a monthly training course on Facebook to urban poor community activists at the STT computer lab. The Facebook training followed a two-part series of training in Khmer Unicode, and then Internet and Email. The 6 participants came from a variety of urban poor communities surrounding Phnom Penh City. The training aimed at strengthening the urban poor community activists’ knowledge by using technology for advocacy and by having them participating in urban poor development in Phnom Penh. The training was comprised of three important sessions: an introduction to Facebook, how to create a Facebook account, and practice sessions on its uses. The training also focused on using Facebook with a smart phone.

The ICT project team taught the community activists how to create and use Facebook to improve communication and share community information through social media. Participants were also able to find information on social media to expand their knowledge beyond traditional media outlets.

The first session, in the morning, was an introduction to Facebook. First, a trainer gave some facts on the social media giant. It is an unpaid social network and is extremely popular with social media users. Facebook became available in Cambodia in 2008 and has been gaining users here everyday since. Second, the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook were introduced to participants. The website is free of charge and allows you to engage with friends, family, literature, games, and so on. Most Cambodians use it for social and entertainment purposes. Nevertheless, there is still a risk for users to waste time if you don’t manage your time effectively. And like most Internet sites, there is always a chance of stumbling on fake information and/or immoral content.

In the second session, trainees were shown how to create a Facebook account. Participants were also given a chance to practice using the site during this session. After they had all created their own personal Facebook account under the instruction of the trainers, they were also taught how to do it on their smart phone by installing the Facebook application. The participants were then able to use Facebook on both the computer and the smart phone.

The last session of the training course was a great opportunity for participants to practice what they had learned under the guidance of the ICT staff. They had a full evening shift to run-through both how to create a Facebook account and how to use it, using the computer and smart phone. They also managed to share, like, and comment on information they found on the site. Overall, the training course was a success and the participants were very pleased to have learned how to navigate the world largest online social network.

Design Intervention for Urban poor community Workshop

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From the 22nd August, STT will be conducting a 3 day Urban Poor Community Design Intervention Workshop at Niroth Boeung Chhouk Community. Approximately 30 students of architecture, urban planning, engineering and other young people will take part. They will gain knowledge and skills in poor urban planning design and relocation sites, and the effects of forced eviction.

Public Forum On “Consultations on housing issues with community residents remaining Borey Keila”

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In early 2003, a “land-sharing” arrangement was proposed for Borei Keila, which allowed the well-connected construction company, Phanimex, to develop part of the area for commercial purposes while providing housing to the residents on the remaining land. Phanimex was obligated to build 10 apartment buildings on two hectares of land for the villagers in return for obtaining ownership of an additional 2.6 hectares for commercial development. In April 2010, Phanimex unilaterally reneged on the agreement, however – with the approval of the government – and only constructed eight buildings. The 300 Borei Keila families excluded from the original agreement had their houses demolished by Phanimex (eight community representatives were arrested at the time), and have been living on the site since then. In January 2012, the remaining community members who were waiting for the two promised buildings to be constructed had their shelters bulldozed by the company and supported by local authorities and were forced to leave the site. On August 12, 2014, the Phnom Penh Municipality organized a public forum to find a solution to this ongoing Borey Keila housing crisis at Chenla Theatre. The program was open to public participation from residents, civil society, and other relevant organizations that depend on the City Hall set up under Mr. Khoung Sreng, Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh.To keep order there, a team of City Hall officials arrived one hour before the program opened at Chenla Theatre. Approximately 300 people participated in the forum, which was chaired by deputy of Phnom Penh Governor Mr. Khoung Sreng. However, this forum was just the platform for collecting the relevant documents to be used as evidences for a final resolution in the near future. Mr. Khoung Sreng confirmed that City Hall has the resources to provide compensation to the remaining residents. He also stated that this program will be offered to citizens who present verification that they own the land to the City Hall team. There are many documents that applicants need to provide such as: grid, national list, voting card, family book, doctor certificate, and identity card. The City Hall team also recorded evidence and people’s thumbprints to confirm that they provided the necessary. Before closing, Khoung Sreng said that the purpose of this program it just to collect and verify evidence for the Borey Keila case. At the end, he also said that Phnom Penh will help the residents of Borey Keila and will strive to solve all of their problems as soon as possible.

Urban Voice for Urban Development Workshop

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On July 31, 2014, from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm, STT (under a media project of Urban Voice) organized a workshop on “The Urban Voice for Urban Development”. Mr. Ee Sarom, acting president of STT, opened the program by welcoming the participation of students, community representatives, civil society,and other related organizations. The purpose of the program was to provide opportunities for participants to post comments and exchange ideas and experiences that they have encountered in the region.

Through the Sahmakum Teang Tnaut organization, this workshop provided a valuable learning experience and an active debate forum for finding solutions to problems that the participants had encountered. Under Mr. My Sovann’s guidance, the workshop followed a pre-arranged plan to make participants aware of many other challenges that occur in the city. After the debate, STT also organized games that asked participants to use simple patterns and work together to solve hypothetical problems.

Participants and organizers all had lunch together. This included a special activity in which participants had to debate and find a way to solve different problems. After a timeout, the seminar resumed and the organizers distributed the participants into separate groups in which they shared advice on the continuing development of the city and also explained some of the lessons from the workshop.

It took nearly a full day, but the workshop was very beneficial for the participants and organizers who were all able to learn from each other. They all picked up important pieces of experience and knowledge and, moreover, participants were given the opportunity to solve problems that regularly occur in Cambodian society. Although this workshop only lasted for a day, it made everyone more conscious of the contributions they can make to this city’s social development, which is a big step in the right direction.

At the end of the program, everyone had a better understanding of the problems that occur in society and how to solve them through participation and future development. STT was delighted to provide more understanding and awareness of urban development challenges and to promote collaboration to solve issues and help people living in Phnom Penh.

Social Media Training on Email

2 min read

On 30 July, 2014, STT hosted a training seminar for 10 representatives from different communities. With the support of the European Union, STT funded the training course and bought smart phones for use in the session. The course started at 7:30am and finished at 5:00pm, and included a morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack.

The purpose of the course was to teach community representatives how to use information technology and the Internet to circulate news regarding the abuse of land rights, human rights, evictions, security, and other issues. Through the guidance of Mr. Nget Vanna, the program focused on helping representatives better serve their communities. The training also included a game, which used a model community to illustrate the importance of social media networks and benefits of it. Mr. Nget Vanna explained the theory with a slide show, making the information more digestible.

After almost a full day of training, it was wonderful to see the participants gain valuable knowledge through on-site testing. This exercise showed that the representatives from those communities have the capacity to teach fellow community members how to solve some their daily challenges. At the end of the program, the representatives were happy with the knowledge that they had acquired and made a commitment to solving issues in society together.

Absence of some community representatives because of participation with other Organizations,

Some of the community representative who were invited to the training seminar were absent because they had to attend meetings with other organizations. Of the the 10 community represetatives, there were 2 people who missed STT’s seminar because they were busy meeting with the Women for Peace and the Human Right organization at Sithi Hub. Even though they were absent on the 30^th, STT still trained them on August 4, 2014.The community representatives who attended were also provided with snacks, lunch, and some money for their travels.

Their training was no different from those who participated on the 30th. In the end, they received the same course and they were very pleased with the knowledge they gained. A lot of the information was new to them and so was the technology, especially regarding the use of social media.

Our final conclusion was that training for 10 representatives was extremely successful and followed the planning of the organization set up under the ICT project.

Urban Poor Community Activists received Social Media Training

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On June 20^th, 2014, there are around eleven communities activists from the urban poor communities participated in the social media training on Khmer Unicode which organized by ICT project at Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT). The aim of the training was to Enable Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) and Community Activists to use best communications technology to report promptly; safely and accurately. The training session started at 8:00 am and finish at 5:00 pm.

The first session, the trainer presented about the basic computer which is cover about the definition of computer, type of computer and elements of computer. The second session, was to focus on the Khmer Unicode typing, both theory and practice. There were a lot of interaction during the training session especially, during practice activity. The training session was part of the social media training series, and the participants will be back again next month.

Social Media Training Kicks Off

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The first in a series of four workshops on the use of social media for community activists and youth took place on Aug. 2 at the Phnom Penh Institute of Technology. The first workshop covered the basics of the internet – what it is and how it can be used – as well as how to set up e-mail accounts with secure passwords. Although the workshop experienced one of the many challenges to accessing the internet in Cambodia – a power cut – all participants said they learnt something new and were keen to attend the next workshop (and do their homework in between!).