Connecting Vietnamese and Cambodian youth through joint activities

At the meeting and friendly exchange between former Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts and Cambodian officials, embassies and students on January 4, many Cambodian students proposed solutions to connect the young generations of the two countries such as participating in volunteer activities; cultural and artistic exchanges...

According to Tith Chantha, a student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, volunteering and charity activities are one of the effective channels connecting youth of the two countries.

“Volunteer activities such as picking up trash, cycling to protect the environment; the “Green Summer” program; supporting learning for students in difficult circumstances… all have practical meaning. They not only demonstrate the responsibility of youth towards the community and society, but also provide opportunities for Cambodian students to interact with Vietnamese youth and improve their Vietnamese communication skills. In the lands we have visited, we have the opportunity to learn more about the country and people of Vietnam, and also have the opportunity to promote the culture, history, geography, folk games… of Cambodia to Vietnamese friends,” Chantha said.

Tith Chantha and her godmother at the meeting and friendly exchange between former volunteer soldiers - former Vietnamese experts and officials, the Embassy and Cambodian students in Bac Giang province. (Photo: NVCC)

Chantha hopes that Cambodian students will have the opportunity to participate in many volunteer and charitable activities in Vietnam.

Sorn Sambath (born in 1998) said: My father was a soldier in the Cambodian Revolutionary Forces who fought against the Pol Pot genocidal regime. The time spent fighting side by side helped him understand the heart, the sincere and wholehearted help of Vietnamese experts and volunteer soldiers in the fight against the brutal Pol Pot genocidal regime in the past and in the peace and development between the two peoples of Vietnam and Cambodia today.

“The love for Vietnam of the two brothers originated from the emotions when listening to their father talk about memories with his old comrades, from the impressions each time he visited Vietnam, from the simple Vietnamese communication sentences we heard every day... and continued to be nurtured after many years of studying in Vietnam,” Sambath said.

Sorn Sambath, a senior student at the Vietnam Military Medical Academy. (Photo: NVCC)

According to Sambath, the friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia will last forever and the young generation - the next generation to continue and develop that relationship in the future - needs to be nurtured in awareness and emotion because only by knowing and understanding each other can we have affection for each other.

Education is the process of equipping the young generation with basic knowledge and understanding of each other’s cultural traditions, people, languages, history, and geography. The two countries can accelerate this process by creating more opportunities for the younger generation to exchange through cultural and artistic programs; knowledge sharing seminars; workshops on making handicrafts, painting, etc.

The young generation also needs to proactively seek information through books, newspapers, and social networks; actively participate in common networking activities; be willing to share their own culture and accept good things from other countries' cultures when given the opportunity...

"I will tell my friends and relatives about my knowledge of Vietnam's land and people, about the good friendship between the two countries... just like my father told me and my siblings years ago," Sambath said.

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/ket-noi-the-he-tre-viet-nam-camuchia-qua-nhung-hoat-dong-chung-195381.html