Greeting From Mr. Sokchea SAING

Hello Friends!

How are you all? I’m sorry that you haven’t heard from me for a while. In the past few months I have been very busy because I now work for two organizations. At the weekends, I often teach leadership class. My skills as leadership teacher have improved, especially since I joined two workshops abroad: The Landmark Program in Singapore, one week in May, and a course in Play Therapy in Australia, one week in June. These courses helped me understand people’s feelings better, and I learned a lot about conflict solving. Both times I appreciated the opportunity to improve in intercultural communication.

My new skills helped me be a stronger leadership teacher here, for example at Rudi Boa Center, where I taught September 6th and 7th. The community in that area will be relocated soon, and it was very important to me to teach the kids some skills they will need when they face the new situation: Once they lose everything (home, jobs, etc.) they will need to be strong to start again. They will need to know who they are, what their goal is, and how they can solve conflicts productively. That weekend I taught them how to go about problems with people close to them – friends, family, classmates. They learned how they, acting as the key figures in their conflicts, can stand up for themselves and take action to solve problems, while at the same time treating everyone involved with respect.
We invited their parents to join us on Sunday, and, in front of the whole class, students apologized to their parents for their mistakes and told them that they loved them.

Here is a letter by Thaong Pung Thida, a 14-year-old girl in grade 9:

Studying leadership, I have become aware of my past behavior, my mistakes and my attitude. I realized that I have never been very respectful to my parents and that I have never listened to them. Instead, I have often made them sad. But now, I have begun to become a new person and am starting a new life. I don’t hang around the wrong crowd anymore, and I quit skipping school. Furthermore I don’t talk back to my parents anymore, and I feel that leadership is the best course for me and for everybody.
Everyone who has the opportunity: Please join it!
Finally, I would like to tell my parents that I love them so much, even though they didn’t come to join our workshop. I will love you forever and ever.
Also, I will be a good student and pay respect to the teacher. I would like to express my special thanks to teacher Kakada, who always encourages me to be a good child and a good student. THANK YOU!