Phan Chanda

The Ecology project staff

Story

If you go to ‘Banteay Prieb’, the first thing you can see is the beautiful welcoming scenery of trees, grasses and flowers. Above all, the most notable thing that catches your attention would be the big tree wearing orange robe. This ‘Tree with orange robe’ reminds us of Cambodian buddhist monk and is actually a work by JSC Ecology team for its ‘protect tree’ campaign. The Ecology office is located in the middle of the school building in Banteay Prieb. As you enter, you can see many Cambodian plants and the big fish in river Mekong is decorated. And also one Cambodian girl will welcome you. Her name is Phan Chanda. She takes charge of the running office and the environmental education in local communities.

Please introduce yourself.

Hello. My name is Chanda and I’m 22 years old. I was born in Kampot. When I was young, I’ve stayed in the house of the Missionaries of Charity(MC) in Chamchao. So this is my first job and also Banteay Prieb is my first community after I came out from MC sister’s house. Before coming here, I’d studied accounting in Don Bosco school. In 2013, when I almost finished my study, Fr. Gabriel suggested working in ECOLOGY team to me. So I just said, Yes. At first time, It was all new and difficult to me. I’ve never imagined that I would live in BP and work in the field of ecology. So from the work in Ecology team to the community life in Banteay Prieb, It was utterly not easy. Actually, when I was young I didn’t know anything about environment. But I liked mountain and sea. In Kampot Province, there are mountains and sea. It’s really beautiful.

How is the working environment with people in the office?

We always work together like a family. This atmosphere cannot be imagined in the ordinary company. We all together share our responsibilities and we all work for our community, for all of us in the society. So even if someone makes mistakes, we try to understand and be generous. Working with these people is very joyful.

What is the best thing of this work?

I like this job because this is the work for others, not only for me. I can raise awareness for the importance of environment. And also, I can gain my experience here. I plant lots of trees, I study about environment of my country and I can get opportunities to teach people. Especially, I like the advocacy activity. When I explain, then people ask something to me. Then I can learn more in this Q&A process.

Then, What is the most difficult experience?

‘Prey Lang’ project. ‘Prey Lang’ project is the campaign to prevent the destruction of the forest named ‘Prey Lang’ because of indiscriminate development. At that time, we saw the big forest was being damaged brutally. The developers destroyed even the trees that are over 100 years old because of money. I felt terrible. So we made banners and t-shirts with the slogan “Prey Lang is our forest too.” And we’ve carried on a campaign with the local community members. Also, we planted a lot of trees because we hope to plant more than damaged trees.

Do you have something to say to the people about environment?

“No plastic!” When I was little, I frequently saw the people pack something with the leaves of banana tree or the fabric ‘Kroma’. But now the people use plastic too much and throw trash everywhere. So I want to say that there are many eco-friendly ways to pack something in Cambodia. And it is more beautiful too.

What is your dream Chanda?

My dream is that our team grows up. Then we could do more activities to protect environment. Plant more trees, study more, do more advocacy activities to the local people.