TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2007
AT THE EMBASSY CINEMA, 16  PINE STREET, WALTHAM
SEATING BEGINS AT 6:10 PM
FILM SCREENING 6:30 - 8:00 PM € DIRECTOR Q & A 8:00 -8:30 PM
TICKETS € $10.00
FREE PARKING AFTER 6PM IN LOT BEHIND THE THEATER

ABOUT THE FILM: An accidental aside heard at a family party impelled
filmmaker Socheata Poeuv to uncover her family¹s long-hidden losses in
Cambodia¹s Killing Fields and their new strengths as they survived and
emigrated to the United States. New Year Baby, with its poetic honesty
coupled with disarming humor, has won numerous awards including, in 2007,
Target Filmmaker Award and Best Documentary, San Francisco International
Asian American Film Festival.

You can purchase your tickets in two ways:
To purchase online, please visit:
http://primarysource.kintera.org/newyearbaby
Or you can mail a check for $10 made out to Primary Source, 101 Walnut St.,
Watertown, MA 02472, Att¹n:  Renee Covalucci
Tickets will be mailed to you.

Questions?  Please contact Renee Covalucci (617.923.9933 x 24 or
renee@primarysource.org)

³New Year Baby is my search for the truth about how my family survived the
Khmer Rouge genocide and why they buried the truth for so long.² - Socheata
Poeuv

Cambodian young people are joining the global conversation in the
blogosphere and sharing their perspectives through different forms of
grassroots citizen's media thanks to the efforts of a dedicated team of
Cambodian bloggers. This team has been working on a voluntary basis to
conduct 14 workshops called “Personal Information Technology Workshop” at 14 different universities in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap with more than 1700 students participating.

They are organizing the first "Cambodian Blogger Summit (aka Cloggers Summit)"
to take place 30-31 August 2007 in Cambodia. The idea is to bring
together students, professional Bloggers, writers, NGO workers, media,
and tech gurus from within and outside Cambodia to share and learn more
from each other on about how the ICT (including Open Source Software
and Web2.0 tools) can make their study, work, and life easier.

I've been given an opportunity to help by leading a training and
sharing my experience with nonprofits and social media. Here's what I'm
going to do:

• A train the trainers workshop with the Cambodian blogging
  team to share resource information, answer questions, and exchange
  ideas for teaching young people how to use social media in a developing
  country like Cambodia



• Keynote welcome



• A conference workshop on blogging techniques and video blogging techniques



• Bring over 3 video blogging kits (inexpensive camera, a book, batteries, and SD cards) that will be used as "prizes" to encourage new bloggers



• Learn about and document how the blogging team is doing outreach and encouraging new bloggers and share on my blog



• Identify and interview 3-5 amazing Cambodian BlogHers and post on BlogHer site



• Bring a suitcase of donated technology and nonprofit t-shirts for participants (they have no budget for scwhag)



• Document the learnings from this personal fundraising campaign

I need your help. I'm raising $4,000 and the amazing folks at ChipIn
are matching 50% of my donations. So, I'm turning to the power of
personal fundraising and hoping that you, my readers, friends of my
readers, and friends will support in my desire to make a difference in
Cambodia. Even a donation of $20 will help.

Timing is running out. I need to reach my goal by August 10th so I can
book my plane travel and I will continue to fundraise up until the date
of my departure, tentatively scheduled August 25th. With your help, I
know this can happen.

So, here's what I need you to do:

• Make a donation. If 100 of my readers each donate $20, that will make the campaign successful!



• Blog about this campaign and repost the fundraising badge on your blog



• Forward the url to your colleagues and friends and ask them to contribute or repost.



• Have at least three or more new t-shirts from a tech or nonprofit tech organization? I'd love to pack them in my suitcase!

Those beautiful guitars are from MahaloMusicBoston and  Scott Lesniewski (Mahalo Music Boston).  Scott was one of the generous donors who is supporting Leng Sopharath's college education.

Scott writes and records original, instrumental music intended for use in film, commercials and other media productions. He can also write a catchy pop tune! You'll find music samples and contact information here.

I look forward to reading your updates. Education is a very important part of life, I think so many of us take for granted. Even just the ability to read and write can change a life.

Here's the description:

Cambodian Heritage Camp is a family camp where campers from age 3 to 18, plus     their parents participate in classes, workshops and family-oriented special     events presented by Cambodian Americans, adult adoptees, professionals in the     field of adoption, and the campers themselves, all of whom enthusiastically     share their perspectives and expertise with adoptive families. More than 30     Cambodian American young adults serve as counselors, acting as warm and caring     role models and mentors to the children as they participate with them in cultural     classes. Adult family members attend cultural and adoption-related workshops     ranging from Cambodian cooking to the blessings and challenges inherent in     our adoptive families. Founded and run by adoptive parent volunteers, CamHC     is one of ten camps facilitated by the highly respected Colorado Heritage Camps     organization, which has been running heritage camps for adoptive families for     15 years.

The goal of this film is to give insight into the lives of street children in Cambodia and to inspire viewers to support education for these impoverished youth so that their life conditions may improve.

I watched the trailer and it looks like it will be beautiful film. 

Click to see larger version

Mongkol sent us this lovely New Year's card.  We'd like to wish everyone a happy New Year!  We hope to attend the celebration in Cranston, RI over the weekend and take photos and videos.    Meanwhile, enjoy this Cambodian New Year's video from last year and some more information about Khmer New Year's here.

A message to me in Mybloglog:

Hey, Beth. Do you know bloggers in Cambodia and other parts of Asia? Please could you help me invite them to join the Asia Social Media Directory.