Siem Reap is littered with trash and local young people have had enough. Once a month since March, monks and youth volunteers from NGOs, businesses and public schools have joined together to clean up their neighbourhood and promote awareness of how rubbish affects people’s lives. But the streets are not the only thing that volunteers want to tidy.

 

This month for the first time, the gathering kicked off with a meditation session for participants, to clean out their cluttered minds before turning to the environment outside.  More than 300 young people attended the event on Sunday morning, agreeing to sit cross-legged on the floor, close their eyes and focus their attention inwards to the instructions of a meditation teacher.

 

The turnout for the latest event at Wat Damnak pagoda came as a shock, even to the event’s organisers. “I was surprised that three hundred people came, because our previous events were attended by about two hundred people,” said Moeun Lyhorng, from the Cambodian Mentoring Association.

 

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5073725/young-march-change-face-siem-reap/

 

 

-- © Copyright Khmer Times 19/07

How wonderful.   Love Siem Reap.   It is a good town.