In March 12-18, 2018, the PEACE Student Exchange Program of Hiroshima University organized a one-week study tour of Cambodia. A group of Hiroshima University students (Japanese and international, undergraduate and graduate), along with some faculty and staff members, traveled to Cambodia to visit Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

The tour participants joined the PEACE-SDGs Ideas Mining Workshop, which was held on the campus of the National University of Management, the next day after their arrival in Phnom Penh. During the workshop, they engaged in intensive discussion with 8 local Cambodian students of the issues surrounding education in Cambodia, with SDG 4 (“quality education”) in mind.

The next day, the students attended a series of special lectures delivered by professors of our partner universities in Cambodia, which covered the historical, cultural, industrial, economic, legal, and agricultural aspects of the country. After these lectures, the tour’s participants visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum－a very important place in understanding the modern Cambodian history－which helped them develop a deeper understanding of peace.

During the tour, they also visited the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Cambodia Office and a community factory of the Kamonohashi Project (a local NPO trying to solve the human trafficking problem in Siem Reap) to learn what is happening in the field of international cooperation and consider how it should be promoted in Cambodia. The tour ended with visits to major Angkor temples such as Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm.

The following are the travel guidebooks (in English and Japanese) our students created as part of the assignments but are for anyone who is interested in but has never visited Cambodia.

Cambodia Travel Guide 2018_Group A

Cambodia Travel Guide 2018_Group B

Cambodia Travel Guide 2018_Group C