March 28, 2013: Ms. Shiori Kawahara, a senior student from the Fukuoka University in Japan, paid a visit to the University of Cambodia, as part of a trip funded by a scholarship from Dr. Haruhisa Handa to do research on the education sector in the Kingdom of Cambodia and visit to different organizations which provide vocational training.
In the previous ten days, Ms. Shiori had visited four different NGOs in the provinces, including BDF in Battambang where her girlfriend is currently working. She hopes that Cambodia people will get more support from foreign countries so that they can get good jobs so that they can support and their families, and their children can grow up healthy and able to go to school.
Ms. Shiori also said that when she returns to Japan, she will remove people’s misconceptions about Cambodia. “It’s said that Cambodia is an unsafe place to visit and people are mean and lazy, but all of these negative rumors are completely not true”; instead, “Cambodia is a very safe place to visit and people are very nice, honest, friendly, helpful and kind.”
Ms. Shiori is majoring in English at Fukuoka University, as well as studying world history – particularly the history of Cambodia and the Philippines. After completing her four year degree program at Fukuoka University, she intends to look for a job with an organization or company involved in poverty reduction and organizing vocational training programmes to help the vulnerable.
