Cambodia4Kids.Org

Khmer Version: Take Back The Tech

Via Jinja's blog

Online Sexual Harassment of a Blogher in Cambodia

The Cambodian Blogosphere is, for the most part, a warm and supportive online community of Cambodians in Cambodia and spread around the world, ex-pats in country blogging about their experiences, and others like me who are interested in the country's beautiful culture.

Sadly, there is a dark side.   Read about it over at the blogher site.

Cambodia Bloghers

Earlier this week, Boston Globe correspondent Maura Welch (who really gets it) wrote an article called "Women tap the power of the blog."   Boston area Bloghers Lisa Williams, Tish Grier, Millie Garfield, and yours truly were featured in the article.  (Recalling some advice  from a colleague that I don't toot my our own horn, I posted a link to the article on my other blog.)

I've had some interesting email, including one from my 85 year-old Dad who was very proud, but asked me "What's a blog?."   Maybe Millie Garfield's example will inspire him!

The most exciting thing that happened was a comment from Cambodian blogher Details are Sketchy who told me that the article inspired her to create a Cambodia Blogher's page, something that I'd always wished existed!   So, I spent some browsing the links and not surprisingly, I found a number of Cambodian Bloghers who work or are involved with ngos!

Here's a roundup of a few blogs written by women who write about Cambodia and are connected to nonprofit organizations or causes!  Some are khmer and some are not ..

Srei Saat Adventures in Cambodia is written by a Philipino woman who works in Cambodia for an environmental organization, Mlup Baitong. I had the pleasure of interviewing her for Global Voices.

Loung Ung is an activist, author, and lecturer and survivor of the killing fields of Cambodia where out of a population of just 7 million, some two million Cambodians were brutally murdered at the hands of Pol Pot regime.   Loung Ung's blog primarily promotes her books, including her most recent book, Lucky Child.

Sinin's Blog is a recent college graduate and lives and works in Phnom Penh for a travel agency. She recent went on a "Charity Trip" with a group of students at the University of Cambodia to provide school supplies to children in remote provinces.  Another Cambodia Blogher, May Sony was also on that same trip and blogged about here.

7DA Dairy Land is a software engineer who has worked on the Khmer OS Project customizing Open Source software programs so they run in the Khmer Language. The project is managed by Open Forum, a Cambodian ngo.  I got to know this blogher when I interviewed her a while back.

There are few more of bloghers that I'd like to mention, although their blogging about Cambodia was part of their brief work or travel in country.   

Kalabird whose extended assignment with a Cambodian women's ngo is well-documented on her blog and her flickr stream.   

Worlds Touch's Trisha Perkins, a self-described Nonprofit Technology Dudette, spent some time in Cambodia volunteering for Open Forum - her photos and blog entries (p1, p2, and p3). 

And, I couldn't not mention Lee and Satchi of The World Is Not Flat and their duck egg eating adventure.(yuck)

Cambodian Girls Turning to Soccer

This article caught my eye - Trying to break gender stereotype, Cambodian girls turn to soccer.

But the game marked a milestone in Cambodian sports and changing social mores it was played by women. In a country where gender inequality is the norm and sexual abuse against females is common, some young Cambodian women are trying to show that they are neither weak nor subversive by playing what is generally regarded in their society as a man’s game.

The article gives a mini-history of soccer.