Pasiona and the Llar d’Infants train young people in Cambodia in robotics

Cambodia remains a country in reconstruction and with great basic deficiencies. Despite recent government efforts to improve access to the education system, constraints such as geographical dispersion, disease and poverty drastically reduce school enrollment.

Many parents prefer their children to work rather than go to school at very early ages, annual teaching hours do not reach the recommended minimum and the professional future of young people, their right to education, is truncated. The latest official data (UNICEF) place the enrolment rate at around 56% and the situation is even more complicated to make the leap to higher education.

We have just closed with resounding success the first edition of #Tech4Cambodia. A project of high educational impact put into practice through our Foundation [T]echdencias and for which 30 students of the NGO Llar d’Infants del Món Cambodja received training in robotics, technology that they had never seen before. “The result has been unbeatable,” says Clara Planet, Head of Design/UX at Pasiona and professor at Tech4Cambodia. “They were unable to assemble a robot and program it to move, but in the end they got it and it was as surprising as it was exciting, both for them and for the teachers.”

#Tech4Cambodia arises from the intention of making up for the lack of interest and preparation for technological careers in the Asian country. In rural communities like Rohal, where access to technology is very limited, young people find neither the motivation nor the tools necessary to access computer engineering careers, for example. Official training is insufficient and their arrival at the university, sometimes dramatic: “they must ‘compete’ with students from the capital and undergo very complex exams but they do not do it on equal terms,” warns Clara Planet. The project promoted by Pasiona works for this equality, giving access to technology, training teachers to guarantee continuity, and “providing students with the necessary skills to face their future professional career and be masters of their future,” he concludes.

A situation that is changing

The deficit of the education system in Cambodia is palpable. The average number of official teaching hours is around 700 per year, well below the recommended 850-1000, according to World Vision International. These educational deficiencies are filled by projects such as the Llar d’Infants del Món Cambodja, which began in 2004 as an orphanage and has now become a center that supports more than 400 students from the Cambodian community of Rohal.

The role of parents is essential. “Many do not see it necessary for (their children) to go to school, they want them to start working as soon as possible to help the family economy.” Fortunately, the situation is changing, explains Àngels Vila, program manager of the Llar d’Infants del Món Cambodja. “Little by little they see that the children of other parents finish high school, continue studying in the big cities and get a job with which to help their families without having to go to work illegally in Thailand, which is what children usually do when they finish their studies,” he adds. “It is motivating to see how a girl from a very poor family, once she has been able to finish her studies, can return home because, in addition to being an example for others, she is growing her own community,” says VAN Kimnea, director of the center.

From the Llar, and with the help of its Volunteer Program, they accompany the minors of Rohal from the moment of their educational insertion until their professional training. Until they face a future they finally own.

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