The article has been originally published on FutureChallenges

Soluy Hansen was a young adventurous woman who wondered through life experimenting different things in Cambodia but always believed in the saying that “everything is possible.” One such experiment was living in a pagoda and interacting and spending time in the jungles with monks who enriched her with the Buddhist philosophy and practice. Another was praying with members of a Muslim community at a provincial Mosque which cleared many doubts she had about Muslim religion. She also spent a few months with soldiers at the Preah Vihear province a border area where there were constant conflicts with neighboring Thailand.

All her experiences show that that she was willing to engage in activities which were usually a social taboo. Women in Cambodia are expected to stay at home, not to mention about living in pagoda or with soldiers. Her message to other young women in Cambodia was to get out of the comfort zone in order to learn.

When she spoke at a civic mobilization conference on June 4th, she inspired many others with her experiences. I was also amongst these speakers where I was also given a chance to inspire a great number of audiences; but instead, I felt that I had more inspiration from the other speakers whose personal life stories were very powerful and compelling.

Over the past few years, civic mobilization in Cambodia has gained momentum with the emerging power of digital and social media. Unlike in rice production where farmers awaited the rains for a good yield of crop, the young generations no longer await the initiatives from the government or civil society organizations to yield results.

They are taking their own initiatives through social movements led by youth groups and mobilizing their peers to be the agents of social change for the sake of their country’s well-being. Having attend some of these social movement, it is promising for Cambodia to see many young are very proactive and are willing to sparkle their dream for the country development.

A number of events including TEDx Phnom Penh, KhmerTalks, Cambodia Women in Business, and Barcamp Phnom Penh has been highlighted. Please read more on the original article published on Future Challenges

Written by Sopheap Chak in attribution to Open Institute’s Women Program
The article is part of Open Institute’s Women Bulletin issue #5, October 2010