CSAJ 2009 Report

December 4, 2009

CSAJ GENERAL ASSEMBLY

One Year Report

January – December 2009

CSAJ STANDING COMMITTEE

1. Mr. Ear Chariya, Chairman (Kanto)

2. Mr. Sar Senera, Vice-chairman (Chubu)

3. Mr. Thea Tonghor, Vice-chairman (Kansai)

4. Ms. Cheamphan Viriya, Vice-chairman (Kyushu)

CSAJ EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

1. Mr. Ear Chariya, President

2. Mr. Tea Seanghy, Vice President

3. Ms. Nom Sotheary, Secretary General

4. Ms. Aing Heak, Tohoku Regional Coordinator

5. Ms. Yos Seilaroath, Academic Officer

6. Ms. Heng Sopha, Public Relation Officer

7. Mr. Peng Minea, Cultural Officer

8. Mr. So Yada, Financial Officer

9. Mr. In Thearith, Auditing Officer

10. Ms. Hok Kakada, IT Officer

PREFACE

Cambodian Students Association in Japan (CSAJ) is a non-political and non-profit association representing the networks and platform of Cambodian students and researchers in Japan. The Interim CSAJ Standing Committee consists of four representatives from regional Cambodian students associations in Kanto (CSAK), Chubu (CSAN), Kansai (KSAK) and Kyushu (KCSC). Since it was found in 1994, CSAJ has organized various useful activities annually such as: cultural festivals; sport festivals; welcome and farewell parties; academic talks, forums and seminars; charity events and fund raising. Found in Article 2 of CSAJ Status, these activities are articulated in the following objectives:

1. To promote communication, cooperation, exchange, mutual respect and mutual assistance among members in different regions inside Japan;

2. To foster cultural, academic, physical and spiritual develop-ment of members;

3. To strengthen the relationship between CSAJ members and members of other associations and individuals;

4. To facilitate the implementation of any technical, academic and voluntary financial contribution projects initiated by CSAJ members in the interest of Cambodian students, researchers and other communities inside Cambodia;

5. To strengthen a network of Cambodian human resources for the future.

As the committee members both standing committee and executive committee, we have done our best to preserve and promote our Khmer values, dignity and unity in all possible ways. We work in the spirit of mutual respect, understanding and meaningful development dialogue and partnership among the four regional representatives and with all members, partners as well as the stakeholders. In spite of our hard work and dedication, there remain a number of obstacles to genuine participation and cooperation. In many cases the existing focus of participation and cooperation is too narrow of understanding. Time, which allows for reflection and open-mind of new ideas, is a critical for meaningful participation and cooperation which might help to sustain and promote such useful activities.

Although there are many challenges facing by such constraints, all CSAJ committee members are proudly to present our achievements and successes of this year. In this report, the main activities that have been organized in the four regions through out the year are summarised in time order. We hope readers will be well informed of what have been done, and from this they know what should be done for a better movement. In the meantime, for newcomers and old hands, it offers an engrossing introduction to the united Khmer students in Japan.

December 03, 2009

Ear Chariya

President Cambodian Student Association in Japan

CAMBODIAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION IN NAGOYA (CSAN)

CSAN’s activities here refer to activities carried out after the decision of the Committee of CSAN and with the participation of CSAN member(s).

I. COOPERATION ACTIVITIES

1. February 2009: Hosting the Visit to Nagoya University of Cambodian Ambassador to Japan. The visit was sponsored by Center for Asian Legal Education of Graduate School of Law of Nagoya University.

2. April 2009: Promoting Cambodia and Cambodian Cultures through Khmer New Year Celebration. An estimated number of around 150 guests participated.

3. May 2009: “Coconut and Blessing Dance” Performance at Orchid Garden in a fund raising event hosted by CHUBU-JAPAN SINGAPORE COUNCIL. This council has been providing monthly scholarship to some Cambodian students in Cambodia.

4. June 2009: Participating in an event promoting knowledge about Cambodia to Japanese children. The event was hosted by an NPO called Rainbow Bridge.

5. July 2009: Performance at Nagoya University in an event celebrating 60th anniversary of the establishment of Nagoya University.

6. July 2009: Cooking Khmer desert to serve in an event to celebrate 10th anniversary of the establishment of School of Law Volunteer association (SOLV). This SOLV is officially recognized by Graduate School of Law of Nagoya University.

7. July 2009: Participation and performance in an annual event of KOTA town to promote friendship among Kota town and Cambodia. The event was hosted by Kota International Association.

8. November 2009: Participation in the exhibition of Cambodian culture mainly food, dance, and dress at Nakamura. The fair was hosted by the Nakamura Kindergarten in the purpose of showing our tradition to those kindergarteners as well as their families.

II. INTERNAL ACTIVITIES

1. January 2009: New Year Gathering

2. January 2009: Providing a pick-up assistance to a Cambodian who came to receive a training at Toyota Training Center in Nagoya

3. March 2009: Farewell Event for 2009 April graduates

4. April 2009: Welcome Gathering for 5 new comers

5. August 2009: Congrats and Send-off event for Associate Professor Kong Teilee who was scheduled to go to Harvard University

6. September 2009: Farewell Party for 2009 September graduates

7. October 2009: Welcome Gathering for 3 new comers

III. ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

Academic Talk: 13 forums have been held since January (on a random basis)

Khmer Seminar: is held every Friday and in both first semester and second semester of each academic year (regular basis forum)

Cambodian Economic Initiative: is held every Monday on a regular basis

November 27, 2009

Reported by Mr. Sar Senera (CSAN President)

Email: bns.disneyworld@yahoo.com

KHMER STUDENTS ASSOCIATION IN KANSAI (KSAK)

Below is the summary of the main activities of the KSAK:

A. 31th December 2008

(Year-end Party): International New Year Party was held. Members of the association and foreign guests, including many Japanese, are invited to the party where several kinds of Khmer dishes were served.

B. 14th March 2009

(Farewell Party): Farewell party for Cambodian students finishing their study and returning home was held.

C. 11th April 2009

(Khmer New Year Party): Khmer New Year Party was held. Cambodians and foreigners, espeically Japanese people, were invited. The number of guests was around 150. We served several kinds of Khmer food and held a culture show in which four performances demonstrating Khmer culture were done by Khmer students in Kansai. At the party, we also presented a proposal for carrying out a hand-pump well making project to the party attendants.

D. 1th May 2009

(Funds-raising meeting): A meeting was held, and then funds raising for the hand-pump well project was held among Cambodians living in Japan, especially in Kansai.

E. 15th May 2009

(hand-pump well project in Kampong Speu): The hand-pump well making project was launched in Phnom Srouch District, Kampong Speu province. The cost of the project was 1700$. The very good-quality hand-pump well benefited about 300 families chronically suffering from clean water shortage. In particular, with the well, the village children were saved from a number of common diseases and from the burden of going to get water from a far-away location. The project was completed on May 25th, 2009.

F. 22th August 2009

(Farewell Party): Farewell Party for Cambodian students completing their study and going back to Cambodia in September 2009 were held.

G. 25 October 2009

(Participation in Internaitonal Cultural Festival): Cambodian students participated in an international cultural festival. We held an exhibition of Cambodian handicraft and sold a number of Khmer food.

H. Early November 2009

(hand-pump well project in Preah Vihear): A hand-pump well making project to be launched in Preah Vihear Province was initiated by a member of the association. A few meetings were held one after another to discuss the project. The project is still under consideration. The project will be carried out early in 2010. Funds-raising is going on. The project will make a few wells.

I. 1th December 2009

(Presidential election): The presidential election to elect the president of the association for the year 2010 was held. The whole of December is for transitional arrangements. The new president will take office from 1st January 2010.

December 3, 2009

Reported by Mr. THEA Tonghor (KSAK President)

Email: tonghorthea@yahoo.com

CAMBODIAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION IN KYUSHU (KCSC)

I would like to brief you our area’s activities both in Japan and Cambodia. Actually, we, Cambodian Student Association in Kyushu especially APU’s Cambodians, have done lots of activities throughout these years starting from 2007.

In Japan, mainly, we do annual exchange program with elementary school where the school grows rice to support for orphan in Cambodia through the WFP. Representing Cambodia, we participate from rice planting with small elementary students during the summer to the rice shipment to Cambodia in the early spring. Our students interact and share ideas to over 81 nationals around the world promoting and answering questions related to Cambodia in general. Sometimes we are asked to do presentation about Cambodia as well for local communities in the area. Besides, we do lots of small participation in schools and communities in Kyushu.

In Cambodia, we use our annual donation from each member (3000Yen) to carry out one small project called “Awareness raising: Charity Campaign for rural poor children”. I can tell it is a very small scale project but with inspiring ideas. Noticing the name of the project, we want to let most rural children know the value of education for themselves and our nation. We inspire them by introducing ourselves as scholarship students in Japan with somehow the same background to them in the past. Moreover our Japanese friends also joined promoting these activities. Thank to them with their love and efforts. We hope students will feel passionate for our role model and try to study to improve emotionally education and commitment. By going to the rural areas, we cannot go with empty hands. We use the fund to buy stationery for limited school population around 100-120 students and buy some souvenirs for the principle and teachers. We have done it 4 times already in the provinces of Kompong Thom, Kratie, Rattanakiri, and Kandal.

We still undertake this idea and exchange activities inside Japanese societies to spread Cambodian rich culture. If you would like to know more about our activities in detail, please go to http://cambodia-apu.blogspot.com/ for more information. You will find pictures and media of our past activities.

November 22, 2009

Reported by Ms. CHEAMPHAN Viriya (KCSC President)

Email: mechelangelo@gmail.com

CAMBODIAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION IN KANTO (CSAK)

Since CSAK is also in charge of CSAJ activities in 2009, the following activities include both CSAK and CSAJ from December 2008 to December 2009.

No

Core Activities

Date

Remarks

1

General assembly

Dec 21

About 30 people attended

2

Year-end party

Dec 21

About 100 people attended

3

Cambodian Students Association in Kanto (CSAK) general election

Dec 21

About 30 people attended

4

1st CSAK Committee meeting

Dec 28

Discuss about the values, roles, rules and action plans

5

Cambodian Students Association in Japan (CSAJ) general election

Jan 10

CSAK president was elected the president of CSAJ.

6

Courtesy to Royal Embassy of Cambodia to Japan

Jan 29

CSAJ executive committee

7

2nd Committee meeting

Jan 31

CSAJ Action Plans

8

Meeting with ASEAN Youth Network in Japan (AYNJ)

Feb 15

Discuss about ASEAN Festival and sport event

9

3rd Committee meeting

Feb

Discuss about farewell and graduation party

10

Meeting with Learning for Success Center

Feb

In Cambodia

11

Meeting with Japan Alumni of Cambodia

Feb

In Cambodia

12

Orientation to newcomers (MEXT Students)

Feb 28

In Cambodia

13

Farewell and graduation party

Mar 14

About 70 people attended

14

Japan Alumni of Cambodia Reunion

Mar 20

At Embassy of Japan in Cambodia

15

4th Committee meeting

Mar 30

Discuss about Khmer new year party

16

Welcome new students at Narita

Apr 2

18 MEXT Students

17

Hanami event in Tokyo

Apr 4

About 30 people attended

18

Khmer new year and welcome party

Apr 11

About 150 people attended

19

Meeting with AYNJ (1)

Apr 25

Discuss about ASEAN Festival

20

5th Committee meeting

May 17

Discuss about charity event and student seminar

21

Meeting with AYNJ (2)

May 24

Discuss about ASEAN Festival

22

ASEAN Festival

Jun 13

23

Meeting with Cambodia-Japan Student Conference

Jun 14

Student Seminar

24

6th Committee meeting

Jun 28

Charity Event and Student Seminar

25

ASEAN sports festival

Nov 7

About 30 people attended

26

Academic Forum and Sport Tournament in Nayoga

Nov 21-22

Cancelled

27

7th Committee meeting

Nov 29

General assembly, CSAK election and end-year party

28

CSAJ General Assembly

Dec 12

29

CSAK General Election

Dec 12

30

CSAJ-CSAK End-Year Party

Dec 12

Charity Activities*

31

Charity Event in Komaba

Jul 19

About 100 people attended

32

First round selection (Help Our Community Project)

Aug

12 Proposals were submitted.

33

Help Our Community Project (Final round selection: Presentation and Interview)

Aug – Sep

In Cambodia: Two projects were funded ($2,000); one project was partly funded ($200).

34

Rural Primary School Fund Project (through recommendation from Japan Alumni of Cambodia)

Aug – Sep

In Cambodia: Two primary schools were selected in Kampong Speu province ($705).

Academic Activities

35

Student Seminar: (1). Presentation: “Designing Social Research”; (2). Discussion: “Cambodia – Halving Poverty by 2015?”

Jul 19

About 40 people attended.

36

First round essay selection

Jul 30

65 Essays were submitted.

37

Final round essay selection and ceremony

Aug 30

Select 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prize Winners, in Cambodia

Newsletter

38

CSAJ Newsletter Issue No.1

Apr

Academic and social life in Japan

39

CSAJ Newsletter Issue No.2

July

Academic and social life in Japan

40

CSAJ Newsletter Issue No.3

Dec

Academic and social life in Japan

*Please visit CSAJ website to find detail report of charity activities.

December 03, 2009

Reported by Mr. Ear Chariya (CSAJ-CSAK President)

Email: chariya4peace@yahoo.com

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