Recently three remarkable CIS secondary school students were inspired to reach out and connect with a group of students from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, through the co-writing and illustrating of a bilingual (Khmer/English) picture book.
“The purpose of our initiative was to come together and learn as much as we possibly could from one another and our respective cultures, and how we could explore what we love to do together,” explains CIS student Megan Wright.
The group worked on the project throughout the past school year. They collaborated and shared ideas through Skype calls and housing their work in a shared Google doc, which allowed them to edit and provide feedback to each other. They also enlisted other CIS students to help write the stories and create the artwork to accompany each page.
“Collaborating with the students (from Cambodia) and members of Open Book (small NGO library in Phnom Penh) was really eye opening,” says CIS student Mechelle Wu, “we were able to develop international-mindedness through sharing our different ideas and perspectives.”
“As students, the best way in which we can use our education is to apply what we’ve learnt in a way that fosters progress and builds positive relationships,”adds Megan. “I think that’s a large part of the purpose of our collaboration with the literature club in Phnom Penh. We love working with them and learning from them, and writing about the values that, as young people,
we share.”
The main theme throughout the book is to show that despite the different cultures, children living in Singapore and Cambodia share many similarities. Each page is a fun, colourful and humorous look at the life of an average child living in Singapore and Phnom Penh.
A few translations are still in progress but afterwards the students then plan to get the book published. We will let you know as soon as a copy is available!
