Pchum Ben Day, an audit, student collaboration

What Pchum Ben Day means in Cambodia, a ministry audit of the TukTuk office, and new collaboration with Seinan Jogakuin University students in Japan.

From the TukTuk team in Pursat, Cambodia

Milly’s debut at Japanese nursery 📛

A TukTuk staff member poses with a group of students in front of a TukTuk presentation screen

The days are still warm in Japan, even in the autumn season, how are all of you doing?

Now that we are finally settled in Japan, we have started using a kindergarten, a nursery school, and various local childcare service centers for Milly and that's really good for us to learn what's really happening in Japanese early education system. We’re realizing that Japanese services are truly meeting the needs. Each preschool, nursery school, and government facility has its own policies, but we have the impression that children in these environments are both spontaneous and resilient. In our daily lives, we often feel that Cambodian children also display spontaneity and strength. However, in a school environment, it’s slightly different, and since the Cambodian government encourages learning through child-centered play, we hope to gain insights from Japan’s early childhood education that we can share in Cambodia, where Milly is in the midst of her own educational journey!

Warm regards,

Adrian, Mayu, & Milly 🦘👘🧒

What's "Pchum Ben Day"? 🙏🏽

Collage: Pchum Ben Day poster with photos of families preparing food offerings and flowers for the temple

October 1–3 marked the holiday "Pchum Ben Day," one of Cambodia's most significant religious festivals, along with Khmer New Year in April. The exact dates vary each year due to the lunar calendar, but "Pchum Ben Day" lasts for 15 days, with the final three days designated as holidays. During this time, Cambodians return to their parents’ homes, visit temples with family, and relax together.

In Cambodia, where most people are Buddhists, temple visits are a relatively common part of daily life. It’s traditionally believed that visiting at least seven temples during the 15 days will reunite one with the souls of their ancestors. However, in recent years, this tradition has become more flexible, with many people visiting only one to three temples.

"Pchum Ben" has become even more special as families prepare dishes to offer to monks, bringing them to the temple. After listening to the monks chanting sutras, the monks eat the dishes brought by the families. This act is believed to serve as an offering to the visitors' ancestors. Afterward, temple visitors are also welcome to enjoy the dishes. Because of the variety of food, this event is sometimes called a "temple buffet."

Outside the temple, families take photos, and villagers gather to play games. It has become a true community event, centered around the temple and filled with a warm, friendly atmosphere where families and neighbors come together and enjoy the day. 😊

The nerve-wracking (?!) Audit 👀

Collage: ministry officers meet TukTuk staff around a table in the TukTuk office during the audit

In mid-October, about 15 officers from Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labor from Phnom Penh visited the TukTuk office to conduct an audit of organizations employing foreign staff.

We received the notice about a week in advance, allowing Sokha, our administrative and accounting manager, to quickly gather the necessary documents. Thanks to her careful day-to-day management, we didn’t need to prepare any additional paperwork. On the day of the audit, we were able to respond smoothly, submitting the requested documents and receiving guidance on administrative procedures related to foreign employees.

We truly appreciated that they took the time to visit even a small organization like ours. Being located outside the capital, where information doesn’t always reach easily, this was a valuable opportunity for us to confirm procedures directly with the officials themselves.

Khmer of the month

Khmer Word: Phy

Sokha's words after the audit: She was more than just "phy" (nervous or worried) about the unexpectedly large group of officials and whether she’d be able to answer all their questions. But with everything completed smoothly, she felt a huge sense of relief. 😌 It was all thanks to her consistent work in managing the office tasks day by day.

Khmer Food: Saml Chanang (Chanang soup) 👇

Chanang soup, a Ratanakiri black soup made with bamboo shoots and pork, with text describing the traditional dish

Continued collaboration this year! 🗾

Collage: a TukTuk staff member introduces TukTuk to university students in a classroom in Japan

The English Department at Seinan Jogakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan has been collaborating with TukTuk since the 2021 academic year. Professor Kris oversees a course called "International Volunteer Seminar," and has been assisting us with creating TukTuk's teaching materials and publicity. This time, Keiko visited us to introduce TukTuk before the start of the second semester in October.

Some of the 13 students have experience studying abroad or are interested in working with children in the future. They asked insightful questions based on their perspectives.

This year, they will be helping us once again by illustrating storybooks, translating Tukbooks, shooting activity game videos, promoting TukTuk, collecting donations, and reading TukTuk's Kamishibai to children in Japan. We are very much looking forward to seeing their work and accomplishments this year.

Best regards to the International Volunteer Seminar students! 😌

Voluntuker spotlight | Proloeung

Portrait of Proloeung, video editor at REAN AAN, with the title Voluntuker Spotlight: Meet Proloeung

This month, we’d like to introduce Proloeung from REAN AAN, TukTuk’s partner organization.

What are your favorite things? My favorite things include videography and creating engaging visual content, especially for educational purposes. I enjoy the creativity involved in storytelling through video.

What do you do at REAN AAN? At REAN AAN, I work as a video editor, specializing in creating animated educational videos for kids. My main tasks involve editing footage, adding animations, and ensuring the content is both engaging and informative.

What makes you happy at work? I enjoy my job because it allows me to combine my passion for videography with the opportunity to make learning fun for children. Seeing kids engage with the videos I create is incredibly rewarding.

What do you think about the collaboration with TukTuk? I believe the collaboration with TukTuk could be very beneficial. It may help us reach a broader audience and enhance our educational content by integrating different perspectives and resources.

What are your expectations for the future of education in Cambodia? I hope for a future where every child in Cambodia has access to quality education and engaging learning materials. Increasing support for innovative teaching methods, like animated videos, can significantly improve educational outcomes.

Proloeung oversees video production. When the REAN AAN team visited the TukTuk office for face-to-face meetings, he filmed the sessions and later compiled them into a nice video. ✨

This concludes our introduction of the REAN AAN team members. As you’ve seen in the previous four articles, they each have their own strengths and are passionate about education reform in their country. We at TukTuk will continue to work passionately as a dedicated partner, while also being inspired by them. 🔥

We are currently looking for volunteers with the following skill sets to help TukTuk bring educational resources to Cambodia;

Google Ads
Fundraising
Website Development

If you want to get involved or know someone with skills that could help us spread positive education in Cambodia, hit that link below and say hi (we're friendly, we promise). 😉

Get Involved ⇢