Mr. Sokchea SAING won the Winston Fellowship Award to attend Summer courses at Eastern Mennonite University, United States

I would like to thank everyone who gave me support and helped me to get a scholarship at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) of Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and another one-week scholarship at Landmark Education in Baltimore, Maryland. Before I got the scholarships, I always hoped that one day I would have an opportunity to pursue short-term study in the U.S. Eventually, SPI made my dream come true. I still remember that when I had just entered the center to get trained on life skills, many communities were fleeing from the city. This scholarship was provided to me at the right time when I need it for myself, my communities, and this newly established program.

In just 6 weeks, I have communicated with many people from over 30 countries around the world. I have never had such contacts before. This program encouraged me to communicate with almost all the people who participated in SPI. I have learned how to respect, listen and have patience. When I was just in Cambodia, I saw that I lived in a very small world. After I have communicated with people from different countries, they understood what I said, thought, and studied because we have the same thoughts, participated in the same SPI program, and made the same decision about what we are going to do for our countries in the future. Communication makes us powerful because we feel that we are not alone anymore. We all learned and helped each other through all means.

I am very proud to have participated in SPI, across cultures, which is unforgettable. All the participants showed their own cultures and traditions which allowed all of us to get to know about the global value of those practices. As to my own view, I can say that SPI has prepared a program which I call “the culture of their freedom” because all participants in SPI had equal freedom to show the culture of their own countries without any worry.

Having spent a short time in the U.S., I got more experience and knowledge than what I had expected. I think it is necessary for me to return to Cambodia where I will apply what I have learned and the experience I have gotten. As soon as I arrived in Cambodia, three workshops had to be prepared for 220 participants aged 18 years and up. In July 2009, we are going to conduct three more workshops for youths. In August 2009, we are planning to organize another three workshops for staff of NGOs and, particularly, for poor communities and youths from the poorest provinces who are unable to further their studies.

These processes proceed well due to the lessons I obtained from SPI, and I will make the best use of this knowledge for myself, my community, and my organization. I imagine that one day I will have such a chance to attend SPI again and so will my students.