During two days I accompanied Classroom of Hope and their local NGO Partners for school openings in the north west of Cambodia.
I could combine this field trip with the creation of testimonial videos for Child’s Dream Foundation prior to this in the same area.
“On our recent trip to Cambodia, we attended the opening ceremony of two new schools. These ceremonies are an inauguration; an official handover of the school to the community. The first school opening ceremony took place in Oddar Meanchey Province in the village of Srei Krosang along the Thai / Cambodian border. Our team set out on a three-hour drive from Siem Reap to rural Srei Krosang with our local partner, Child’s Dream, and donors, Alisoun Mackenzie & Friends and Acts of Kindness Collective to open Prasat Toek Khmao Primary School.” (copied from the COH Bog Post about the trip)
“The next day the Classroom of Hope team parted ways with our local partner and donors to set off for Battambang, Cambodia where we would open the next school, Adoung Trach Primary School located in the Sanger District of Battambang. This school was implemented by our local partner Children’s Action for Development (CAD) and was supported by Navitas. Navitas has been supporting projects in Battambang, Cambodia alongside CAD and COH since 2014.” (copied from the COH Bog Post about the trip)
School Openings like this are always a interesting and for me as a Video/Photographer rather challenging. Every community has their own customs when it comes to Speaches, Prayers, Dances and the obligatory lunch afterwards. There is a rough schedule, but as I don’t understand the primarily spoken language its very crucial to be very attentive all the time on site to not miss an important moment/ shot.
The brief for both openings where slightly different, the focus for the first one was mainly on pictures and a rather simple video with a mixture of pictures a interview of Alisoun and b roll of the opening.
For the second Video the goal was to create a documentary style video about the experience two teachers from Navitas (which where selected as Ambassadors) had during the day of the opening. The outcome was later shared across social media by Navitas and Classroom of Hope.
the following pictures are a selection from both openings
