SACHA | Helping young Cambodians to reach their potential
Students from the University of Edinburgh have recommended that Journeys Within Our Community, a youth charity in Cambodia, should focus on mental health and social media to help young people contribute to society.
MORE than 40 years after Pol Pot was forced from power, the Khmer Rouge still casts a dark shadow over Cambodia. Up to two million people lost their lives under the brutal Communist regime during the 1970s, while the longer-term consequences have been passed down through the generations, affecting young people’s mental health and their ability to play a role in the country’s development.
Young people aged between 15 and 30 make up roughly 30% of Cambodia’s population, but many lack the skills needed to be successful in the workplace. Two groups taking part in the University of Edinburgh’s Students As Change Agents (Sacha) summer project programme identified mental health and social media as two areas that could be harnessed by youth charity Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC) to help young people reach their full potential.
JWOC founders Brandon and Andrea Ross moved to Cambodia from the United States in 2005 to open a boutique hotel. When they saw the needs of local people and the desire of their guests to help, they set up the charity to help young Cambodians fulfil their potential in education, employment, and engagement with their community.
Sacha brings together students from all year groups and all subjects within the university to tackle real-world challenges during a month-long summer project. Together, they create a “living laboratory”, in which they can use their diverse range of skills to explore fresh ideas for solutions to major problems.
This summer’s teams brought together students based in the UK, China, India, Italy, Pakistan, and Russia from a wide range of subjects, stretching from biology, economics, and physics through to divinity, English literature, and sustainable development. The two groups were asked, “How could JWOC go further in supporting Cambodian youth in contributing to the sustainable development of their society?”.
Focusing on supporting good mental health
One of the groups highlighted the ways in which the Khmer Rouge regime not only destroyed the country’s physical infrastructure, but also left lasting damage to the population’s mental health, including through anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The group recommended that JWOC should focus on supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing in order to give them a solid base for developing skills for employment and community involvement.
The students used the six Cs model of positive youth development to analyse JWOC’s youth leadership programme. They suggested that the programme should focus more on “caring” in order to develop participants’ sense of sympathy and empathy and ignite a commitment to social justice, and on “confidence”, so that young people feel that they are the masters of their own future.
The group believed that focusing on supporting good mental health would allow young people to achieve these aims. It identified that incorporating mental health and wellness into the youth leadership programme would also help to meet the United Nations’ sustainable development goals around “good health and wellbeing”, “decent work and economic growth”, and “sustainable cities and communities”.
The project also recognised some of the barriers to improving young people’s mental health in Cambodia, including the lack of infrastructure and institutional support, and the uneven distribution of existing support throughout the country. It identified that prejudices and stereotypes surrounding poor mental health were also a factor.
The team highlighted that support for teachers to help incorporate lessons on how to maintain good mental health into the curriculum was necessary. A need for financial support for poorer families to ease the pressure on young people to become the main household breadwinners was also discussed.
Harnessing the power of social media
JWOC’s social media channels came under the spotlight for the other group. It recommended that the charity could recruit more young people for its programmes and gain more sponsorship by increasing its online presence.
The group identified that internet usage in Cambodia had soared from about 15% of the population in 2014 to around 40% in 2018. Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the country, with just under 12 million users by January 2021, with JWOC’s Facebook page followed by around 8,500 accounts.
Video sharing website YouTube was identified as the country’s second most popular social network, with JWOC’s channel only attracting 32 subscribers. The students recommended setting up a social media calendar to help the organisation plan the production of more content to attract users.
Recommendations from the group included that JWOC should record online video interviews with alumni from its programmes, which would inspire other young people to get involved, and also provide motivation for potential sponsors to support its projects. Young people taking part in the charity’s programmes could help to make the videos and become involved in other aspects of the social media work in order to gain more digital skills for employment.
The students suggested that JWOC could also use social media to engage with fellow charities. Commenting on issues that affect young people in Cambodia could also help the organisation to drive changes within wider society.
Putting recommendations into practice
Each group produced a report containing their recommendations for JWOC. They both also presented their findings in short videos, which were shown during an online feedback session held on 30 June.
Following their presentations, each group reflected on the lessons they had learned by taking part in Sacha. They highlighted the benefits of gaining real-world experience to complement their academic studies, including through the development of broad skills such as time management, teamworking, and meeting deadlines, as well as more specific skills around handling data and editing videos.
Keisha Gani, the development director at JWOC, who studied previously for a master’s degree in health policy and health inequalities at the University of Edinburgh, worked with the two groups of students during their projects to help answer some of their questions. Her support included debunking myths, such as removing the idea that people in Cambodia do not have access to devices connected to the internet.
During the online session, Gani explained: “For JWOC, it was useful that the teams explored two different avenues, and we will take this feedback and utilise it as much as we possibly can. Also, I can really see the value of Sacha to students, and you shouldn’t underestimate the impact that an experience like this can have for you, especially when it comes to speaking to employers about your skills and experience.”
By Peter Ranscombe
Find out more about the Students as change agents (SACHA) programme.
Read the final report.

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