Yokohama International School Collaboration with HOPE Cambodia

YIS and HOPE Cambodia have a proud history of working together on direct and indirect service initiatives. Yokohama International School prides itself on having an excellent, student driven service program that allows students to learn about a variety of communities home and abroad. Unfortunately, due to COVID, our connection with HOPE Cambodia was lost, but our dedicated group of students reached out to Jeff Behr and re-established that connection, resulting in our first service trip to Cambodia since 2020. Many people ask our service group why we don’t simply donate the money that we spend on traveling to Cambodia. This money could certainly be used for a good cause, however, we believe that directly impacting the community, and learning about the culture, history and work that HOPE is doing, would inspire our group to a lifelong dedication to service and hopefully service in Cambodia.

Upon arriving in Phnom Penh, we had the meaningful experience of visiting both the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. Learning about the genocide under the Khmer Rouge opened our eyes to the terrible suffering that the Cambodian people have endured, recently enough that we could still hear about the impacts from the people we met, and still see signs in our next destination, Pursat, showing when the area was demined. Knowing more about this horrific tragedy made the achievements of the HOPE Cambodia team on the ground all the more impressive and meaningful and allowed us to see how resilient and dedicated the members of HOPE International are to continue working in rural parts of Cambodia after experiencing great personal suffering and challenges themselves.

During our time at Pursat, the main highlight was the time our members spent at Angkrong Primary School. As a group, we enjoyed being able to directly support the Cambodian community while being given the opportunity to interact with the children. Along with this, our group helped by painting the interior and exterior walls of the school. There, we built a fun working environment that consisted of maximum efficiency and playful interaction with the children. Upon saying goodbye to our new friends, some of our members were unexpectedly left in tears, recalling the overwhelming joy that the children had given them. The following day, the group went to a rural village where we helped local families in planting watermelon, lemongrass and other plants. This experience (along with helping at the school) allowed us to broaden our understanding of global issues like poverty by connecting with daily experiences on a personal level.

Our first service meeting after returning from Cambodia was a whirlwind of stories and looking back over photographs. We were frantically trying to share our stories of what we did while we were working with HOPE Cambodia, with our group members who had stayed back in Japan. However, there was also a bigger shift in the group. All of us had just had our global perspective broadened more than we could have realized was possible, and we found ourselves more closely connected with each other and the cause our service group supports.

Everyone agreed that the highlight of the trip was meeting the children at the school we worked at because it was what left the biggest impact on us. Nevertheless, we had to continue the service group work so we began the process of trying to get our service team back to Cambodia next year. Our reflections in the group’s meeting also showed how much we felt the impact of this incredible experience and how much more passionate we were about the work we do. 

Quotes from trip participants