Solar Energy Lesson at Kirimineon Primary School

Morning: This morning we visited WRC is a drop-in women's center that provides information, support and agency referrals for women around Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Their work is centered around empowerment. Their staff members advocate for women in need of mental health and physical health services in collaboration with other organizations in the area. They are leading the women's movement in the area; their organization is managed by an all women Board of Directors and is committed to hiring Khmer staff members.

Included in their services are free educational workshops for small groups of women led by women in the community. The workshops are most often about legal aid, parenting, health education, reproductive health, pregnancy, child care, and domestic violence. This organization is pushing for women to make their own decisions by helping them be as well informed as possible. I was impressed by their policies around confidentiality and leadership. 

Afternoon: In the months of November and December, we started a solar fundraising project for one of the schools we are working in with the CCDO. I have a friend, Daniel Pachecho, who lives in Cambodia and started a solar company. Since we are only in Cambodia for such a short period, we wanted to fund raise for a project that would truly benefit the community that has opened their doors to our group. Given our connection to Daniel, we fund-raised $10,000 over the course of 2 months in order to fund a solar energy project to get the school electricity. Through family and friends, along with a large donation from Recurrent Energy in San Francisco, the CCDO (the organization we are volunteering through) was able to fund the project and pay Daniel and his team to build the project while we are here! 

Today, we had the opportunity to work at Kirimineon Primary School and teach two different groups of 40 students from 2nd-5th grade about solar energy. We went through the steps to making solar energy, created a movement for each part of the energy conversion, and process (TPR), and reviewed the steps as group. Each part of the lesson was translated by Kha, the amazing Berkeley student who grew up in Cambodia. 

When we checked for understanding, the groups of students had really ingested the information and were ready to get outside and explain each part to their teachers. Thanks to Kha, Matt, and Chandna for all your help to make the lessons happen! A great day!!