Opening Ceremony of the Library – Orientation Center of Chi Hè High School in Kampong Cham Province

On Sunday, March 27, the official opening ceremony of the Chi Hè High School Library-Orientation Center took place under the presidency of Khieu Kanharith, Minister of Information, and Say Sam Al, Minister of Environment, with the participation of Kolpheng Vathana, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Education, representing the Minister of Education, Dr. Hay Ly Eang, President of the Kinal Foundation, and Hok Sothik, Director of SIPAR NGO.

While the library opened in January 2020, the Covid 19 pandemic prevented the opening ceremony from taking place at the same time.

This ceremony was held in conjunction with a Career Forum organized by SIPAR during which a dozen companies, including PPM and Confirel, presented to the approximately 200 students their activities and the jobs they need.

Initiated and financed by Dr. Hay Ly Eang and other former students of the high school with the support of the Kinal Foundation, the renovation work of the building housing this equipment had started in April 2019. The four original classrooms, in a sorry state, were transformed into a library and a meeting/conference room.

The initiators of the project had called upon SIPAR, which specializes in the promotion of reading and the construction of libraries, to ensure the project management of this space dedicated to both reading and personal development.

The library has been provided with a collection of 2500 books. A laptop computer is reserved for cataloguing books and two computers are available to high school students for book research in the library and for documentary research on the Internet.

The Nomad Lab, developed by Passerelle Numérique Cambodge in partnership with SIPAR, for the personal development and professional orientation of young people includes eight easy-to-use tablets with four modules in Khmer covering these main issues: self-conscience and self-discovery, management and finance.

Pointing out that this project had the support of HE Say Chum, Senate President and number 2 of the State, Khieu Kanharith reminded the reporters that it was as a former Chi Hè high school student that Dr. Hay had launched this initiative. “When he came back to Cambodia, Dr. Hay wanted young Cambodians to acquire as much knowledge as possible. The creation of this library is very important for both students and teachers because they can now do their research more easily, especially since we benefit from the support of SIPAR”, noted the Minister.

“It is very important for everyone to expand their knowledge and with digital technology, we can consult documentation from everywhere,” said Dr. Hay Ly Eang to the youth. You have to like reading because reading gives you ideas that make you think. And when we have questions, we can do research. The library is a very important source of knowledge. You can’t just rely on the school, on the teachers. You have to rely on yourself. You have to ask questions and do research by yourself to gain knowledge.”

The Chi Hé High School Library Orientation Center is one of the pilot projects of the Youth Empowerment program conducted by SIPAR. Following the success of this center, SIPAR and its partners decided to expand the project to 15 high schools that are part of the three-year “Youth Employability and Civic Engagement” project (2021-2024). The project aims to contribute to the improvement of the employability of high school students in rural areas by directing them to occupations that contribute to the socio-economic strengthening of the country and to reduce social and gender inequalities while supporting the civic engagement of youth. The Career Forum is part of this three-year project and will be held twice a year, each time in a different high school.