Having seen that the involvement of young people in social work is important, ICA and CAN have organized a 3rd Youth Camp which focuses on youth involvement in social development which based on the principle of Honestly, Purity, Un-selfishness, and Love, under the theme " Youth and Social Engagement". We created a time and space for the participants to create their vision for Cambodia and what each individual can do for a better Cambodia. The 3rd youth camp was financially supported by Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Below are the details activities of the camp:

Early in the morning, the bus carried around 40 participants heading off from Phnom Penh to Pailin province, nearly 400 km. On the way, each one of us got introduced ourselves to one another, sang song, and played games. Fun time made our journey short. We arrived at Battambang at around 1pm and we picked up other 10 participants there. We continued our trip toward Pailin and reached the town around 5pm.

The first session began at 6pm by a welcome remark and a program introduction. Following the welcoming, Mr. Sreng Bunkheng the vice-president of ICA challenged us to think deeply about our roles and responsibilities as a youth citizen. He added that government along cannot bring Cambodia to peace unless each of us participate along with the process. Mr. Kok Tha was invited to give short introduction about CAN and FNF. He also said that FNF was financing this youth camp because it saw the necessity of youth engagement in society. Ms. Neang Sovathana, the head of organizing committee and youth camp facilitator, introduced briefly about the objectives of the 3rd youth camp and announced the responsible committee.

Next, Ms. Sovathana led a Number game that allowed participants to get into different grouping to discuss about their expectation. After 40mn of discussion, they came up with expectation as following:

- Finding out what each individual can do to make Cambodia a better place
- Building a youth network
- Learning from other participants about their volunteer experiences
- Learning to create a culture of sharing
- Earning new experiences and understanding how to work in a team
- Understanding the importance of leadership in a network
- What they would do for our society?

The morning session of the second day basically focused on introduction of ICA and CAN in general which included their visions, missions, values, projects and activities. Both organization, ICA and CAN, are working on voluntary basic. Their members strongly believe in youth participation in society because the government alone can not move the whole country ahead. The participation of citizen, especially young people, is truly important. Ms. Sovathana, FNF program assistant, also welcomed participants on behalf of FNF and introduced FNF principles of works and its program in Cambodia.

Mr. Bun Borath, one of the participants, spoke in detail about ICA principles which included Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love. Each participant was asked to do a ten minutes quiet time to reflect on themselves in the past. Then, they shared with a partner their past experiences on how they spend their time and how much they have contributed into social work?

In the afternoon from 2pm, participants registered into different small workshop team which included the topic of Leadership, Team building, Dancing, Conflict Resolution, Life Coaching and Dare to Fail. Different workshops were facilitated by core team members of ICA and CAN base on their experiences and knowledge.

The workshop teams finished their works by 4:30pm, then we resumed in the meeting hall at 5pm for day two evaluation and feedback. The program of day two finished at around 6pm and we had dinner at 7pm. After dinner, participants got into their family group for general sharing.

Day III: 31st October 2009

The third day began with Yoga exercise at 6:30am. Yoga exercise helped us feel refreshed and energetic for the day. Then, the session began at 8am with a welcoming song. Then, Mr. Peng Sopheap, one of the participants, led the morning quiet time on the topic of "Good habits". He challenged us to look back to our daily activities, and see what the good habits were and what weren't? After 15mn of quiet time, participant got together with their own partner for sharing.

Next, Mr. Chem Thornin, youth camp co-facilitator, facilitated a group discussion on "What are the challenges that block youth from involvement in social work?" Participants were divided into five groups to discuss on this question. Each group was given one hour to discuss. Then, each group representative presented their results. Factors that block youth from involving in social work includes:

Society: Cambodia is a developing country where political commitment is limited. People are still poor. Their first priority is to earn enough money to support their family. Involvement in volunteer work would take away their time. Security is another concern. Youth involvement in society is limited because young people feel that freedom of expression is limited and they could be accused for being opposition party which could bring them to trouble. Young people feel that Cambodian government is not that open and encouraging.
Family concern: related to safety again, parents do not dare to allow their children to get involved in social work. They think that social work is political, and politics is a risk. Parents who experienced Khmer Rough time are scared of the word politics and would rather keep their children away form it. Young women are facing another extra pressure of tradition. Young women are supposed to stay home after school.
Youth themselves: some young people do not give value to social work. Some of them don't even know what that means. Lack of general knowledge made them mistakenly forget their roles and responsibilities as citizen. They believe that government is the one who has to be responsible for the development of the country.

In the afternoon from 2pm onward, participants continued their discussions in their small workshop teams on different topic as mentioned in day II. Each team had to prepare a role-play presentation as well so that the other team could learn for them since one person could only choose one workshop to attend.

Day IV: 1st November 2009

In the morning, we visited Phnom Yart Mountain. Besides enjoying the view from top of the mountain and having a good time, we collected trash and plastic bags as an environmental activity. We came back from the mountain at around 12pm and had lunch. After lunch, we continued our sightseeing to the Cambodia-Thai border. Our sightseeing finished and around 5pm and we were ready for the closing session.

The closing session started at around 6pm in the meeting room of Bamboo Garden. We shared what we have learned and how we feel about the youth camp. Each team presented their results as form of role play. The main ideas presented by each team were:

The team building workshop group presented a role play of a team who work together for better environment. They discussed on the role of a team leader and team members. Through discussion and experience sharing, the team building group presented many ideas that contribute to a good team work. Everyone in a team need to learn to understand each other, respect the differences and value each other's ideas. By the end of the role play, one team member concluded that it is very important that we consider about equal contribution among the team members. Another team member added that we do need a team to be effective in responding to social problems.

SAMCHOL is a "Quality of Life" concept which combined the concept of self development and leadership created by Dr. Yang Saing Koma, the Chairman of Citizen Action Net for Social Development (CAN). This workshop helped participants to understand the four components which help to develop themselves physically, mentally, emotionally Intelligence, and financially independent.

The first component is Health. It included physical, emotional and psychological health. For this component, there were some simple activities and exercises help to strengthen individual health. The second component is friendship and the third and the fourth components are knowledge and money.

The four components must grow together and have mutual interactions. Thus, they will contribute to individual positive change and development for being good leaders.

The dancing workshop presented their newly invented choreography. Before their performance started, the workshop facilitator introduced that young people are powerful and energetic. We can't ignore the fact that dancing is one of many common things young people are enjoying. Dancing is one of the team building formats. This workshop was a combination of putting together different styles of each participant who registered for this workshop and making a collective performance. Through this session, participants were able to realize that no matter how different they are in term of personalities, backgrounds, families, and so on, yet they can make use of those differences to invent sometime new for unity.

Two main important points of the dare to fail workshop team were "I used to fail but I am not a failure", and " Failure does not mean you are a failure, it just means you have not success yet." These concepts reflected the lack of youth involvement in society. In a country where freedom is a concern like Cambodia, young people may fail to make changes; however, "If we keep trying, one day we will success", one member added after the role play.

Last but not least, the life coaching workshop group presented their role play which reflected the ownership of each individual lives. Young people should make the habits of making decision about their life. It is important that we own our lives, not our parents. Our parents or other people can help us in giving direction, but we do need to make decision by our own.

We leaved Pailin at around 8:30am after breakfast and arrived for lunch at Battambong province at 2pm. The participants from Battambong provinces dropped off there and we continued our trip back to Phnom Penh after lunch. We arrived in Phnom Penh at 9pm.