Youth Chhlat

The Learning about Living (LaL) Cambodia project, or ‘Smart Youth Good Future’ as it is called locally, formally launched in March 2014. The goal of the project is to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to reduce gender-based violence and improve reproductive health outcomes for young people in Cambodia. It follows a scoping study conducted by OneWorld UK in 2013 with local stakeholders who have remained pivotal in the development and implementation of the project.
The LaL program was founded by OneWorld UK and Butterfly Works and initially launched in Nigeria in 2007. It has since been implemented in different expressions in Senegal, Mali, Morocco, Egypt and now in Cambodia. In each country, the program is designed to suit the local context and use appropriate technology available to young people.

At the end of the first year in March 2014, the initial development of two out of the three major project components proposed had been carried out. The mobile and web-based question-and-answer (Q&A) platform and the first 10 lessons for the eLearning platform had been completed. In addition, training for counsellors from leading implementing partner organisations, Child Helpline Cambodia (CHC) and Inthanou Association on the backend of the platform to provide support to users of the Q&A service was completed. A core group of Master trainers comprising teachers from 20 pilot schools and some officials of the School Health Department (SHD) from the national and provincial offices of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) were also trained in preparation for the training of teachers in the pilot schools. Finally, at the time of the launch, the Q&A service had been made available on the one mobile telecommunication provider only, Cellcard, with plans to connect to the other mobile providers subsequently.