Cambodia Bunong Hill Tribe
Location
Cambodia: Rural Areas
Description
Globalteer is a registered charity in the UK providing ethical and affordable volunteering with the Bunong Hill Tribes people of Cambodia.
The Bunong Community project is located in the remote mountain town of Sen Monoron in Mondulkiri province, the Eastern highland region of Cambodia which shares a border with Vietnam.
Mondulkiri province is traditionally one of the most inaccessible and isolated regions of Cambodia. It is the largest but also least populated region of Cambodia. Owing to its seclusion, a semi-nomadic hilltribe people known as the Bunong remain the dominant ethnic group of the region.
The project focuses on supporting the Bunong people through education and income generation also providing healthcare, decent living conditions and additional recreational activities such as sports, arts and field trips.
Volunteers will divide their time over the following initiatives:
The Bunong Community Centre - High school students from outside Mondulkiri's provincial capital of Sen Monoron often have to travel for prolonged periods to go to the regions only high school. Those who are fortunate enough to be selected from rural villages to complete school often have little option but to stay in the schools dormitory.
135 students from isolated, mainly Bunong towns and villages stay in the eight rooms of the boarding school. The Community Centre creates opportunities for the training, education and recreation of these young adults. Volunteers will be requested to support supplementary English lessons of classes no larger than twenty.
Volunteers will liaise with the local English teacher to improve pronunciation, develop educational resources and materials and provide tutorial lessons. Due to heavy demands on the students these classes are often informal and conversational so that the students may practice what has been learned that day.
English classes at the Community Centre are also provided for local development organizations and the children of the adjacent orphanage. In addition computer skills, recreational activities, civic and social classes are held in the community centre and volunteers with an interest in these areas may be of assistance. Volunteers, particularly in the summer months (July and August), may also be called on to organize field trips and days out to local tourist sights such as waterfalls, the Elephant project, Bunong villages and scenic points for students to enjoy during the break in their studies.
Middle of Somewhere - The Bunong Centre also operate a café and shop in the town centre known as the Middle of Somewhere. The cafe operates as an income generating social enterprise to create jobs and support traditional crafts. The Centre serves as a crucial outlet for quality local crafts, generating both encouragement and significant supplementary income for villagers struggling to keep traditional skills alive.
The venture is also a contact point for tourists to arrange visits to Bunong villages and the many waterfalls in the locality. The staff, artisans and guides of the Middle of Somewhere are recruited from among the Bunong community and are dependent on the growing tourism industry for their livelihood. Volunteers are encouraged to teach daily English classes with the staff of the initiative. In addition, volunteers are sought to accompany Bunong guides on the tours and work on streamlining the excursion to a Western audience.
The Bunong Resource Centre - A growing amount of Bunong villagers are finding themselves dispossessed of their traditional land as development comes at an unfortunate cost to these indigenous people. Volunteers may be called on to record testimony from dispossessed Bunong which may then be made available to advocacy and human rights organizations active in Cambodian indigenous affairs.
It is expected that Bunong society will be assimilated into the greater Khmer culture within a generation. Therefore, efforts are underway at the Bunong Centre to document the Bunong way of life to preserve its rich cultural heritage. Interested volunteers are required for gathering and digitizing material, web design and mapping.
Volunteers with a background in photography, video-recording or multi-media may be interested in special projects and/or creative workshops with village children. Graphic designers, designers and artists may also contribute to the produce of the shop. Anthropology or sociology students are eagerly required to perform investigations and research into the effects of globalization on the Bunong. This may take the form of university research and suitable candidates should contact Globalteer.
Highlights
Heroic efforts are needed to defend Bunong rights from the threats associated with the contemporary world. Bunong students are eager to be at the forefront of protecting their way of life. Bunong students at Sen Monoron high school frequently aspire to become lawyers to represent their people and work with NGO's to defend their constitutional rights. Volunteers are essential in educating students and motivating Bunong youth by displaying an interest in their traditional way of life and providing recreational opportunities to students who study up to twelve hours a day.