SLS-8d2a Community Impact Study - The First Phase - STEM and Home Stay

In 2013, the first phase was launched with two community projects: (i) a STEM workshop at the local primary school and (ii) a community homestay program in the village. A portable “Lab in a Suitcase” was developed to provide a viable and sustainable digital inclusion solution for the rural school. It was a mobile computer lab, which contained a server and ten smartphones with offline eLearning resources (e.g., 5000+ educational videos, Wikipedia, and localised eBooks). Solar panels and batteries were equipped to power the devices. 

It can be transported in a tuk-tuk (a motorized trishaw) for enhanced mobility. The STEM workshop was carried out by twenty-three PolyU undergraduate students in conjunction with a local NGO in the form of a week-long, demonstration workshop on digital literacy and innovative learning activities for primary school children.

In the meantime, we learned that many adults from the village were working in Phnom Penh or even outside Cambodia, and only the children and elderly stayed at home.  This  leaves behind a lot of children and elderly with limited support. After discussion with the villagers and some local volunteers, we decided together to set up a homestay program for our students who were conducting the STEM workshop, partly as a method of income generation for the community, while our students experience village life and culture in an immersive environment. This homestay program started with four houses, which can accommodate around 30 people. The rest of the community also benefit through being involved in the running of a centralized kitchen, or providing transportation in the form of oxcarts or other farm transportation vehicles.  

By 2018, the homestay program was in its sixth year and has hosted not only PolyU, but also many other youth organizations. In total, it has hosted almost 500 young people from Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, US, and Australia. Encouraged by this success, the local organization has initiated efforts on replicating this program in another community in a neighboring province.

After the projects initiated in 2013, we used the “Lab in a Suitcase” to conduct other STEM workshops in June 2014, while continuing to build trust and relationship between the university, the neighborhood and local organizations. The villagers understood our motivation, and were enthusiastic to engage. Their behaviors and responses also changed accordingly. For example, when we first started doing home visits, we were asked to prepare a small bag of rice as a ceremonial gift as per local custom, and partially  to motivate the villagers to receive us. But after one year, we became much welcomed friends and the villagers are eager to share stories about their family and themselves with us.  These projects become very successful both in terms of providing a valuable service, as well as building a trusting relationship with the community.