Thursday 5th May 2011 marked the beginning of the Photography Open Workshop Series at Kinyei, taught by Mr André Vandam. Andre is a freelance photographer who is interested in the history of Cambodia and capturing that history through photography.He start to follow his passion as a photographer and traveler in a couple of years ago. He changed the direction of his career from teaching to photography a couple years ago. His passion for photography has grown into a full time career while living abroad in China for 2 years and now Cambodia. In China he enjoyed photographing many beautiful landscapes. He will stay here (in Battambang) for two years as a photographer with his wife who is a volunteer at the Battambang’s Provincial Education Department.

This workshop series catered to organizations in Battambang needing to up skill their staff in how to take quality photo’s. This enables us to visually share our programs and community initiatives online with supporters and stakeholders.

15 participants attended the workshop series from many organizations around Battambang. Half the participants were foreign volunteers working in Cambodia who brought a Khmer counterpart to ensure the skills were passed on sustainably.

I am Untac, a participant in this amazing workshop and want to share what we learned. I got something that I never expected I would get from this workshop. That is taking a perfect picture by knowing how:

• To use shutter speed, appeture and ISO,
• The camera balances light,
• To use the rule of thirds and
• many more useful photography principles that we never knew.

For the last workshop session we had a photography contest and I got second place for the photo below. What do you see? This is what I see when I look at this photo:

“While I am sad this picture makes me better. If I am glad this picture reduce it because when I am sad this picture tell me that not only you who sad, I am also. And when I am glad this picture tells me that No… you have to help somebody to get them as happy as you because there are still many people around you who want happiness.”

This is a photo in Battambang along street 2 that I took for the contest

Because the photography workshop became so popular, Kinyei and Andre are running another one this month for those that missed out first time round. We still keep practicing and sharing our photography with each other on our very own Facebook Page called Battambang Photography. Be sure to check out the awesome photography coming out of Battambang by following us on Facebook.

First things that I found at the Kinyei Cafe Shop

Cappuccino at the Kinyei Cafe Shop

Kinyei cafe is a social enterprise where the profits go towards Kinyei’s Community Based Organisation Open Workshop program and other community initiatives. I have worked at Kinyei Cafe since early May 2011. I saw a job announcement at the University of Battambang. I felt interested so I applied for a job at Kinyei. After I have worked there, I got the cafe skill that i can run my own business and have developed other skills such as English, communication, the ability to interact with different cultures and work experience in making coffee. I think that the cafe shop at Kinyei is a good place for Cambodian people and foreigners learn about eachothers cultures. We will learn together and share the education. Because Kinyei opened the shop and other programmes, I get more education to develop myself. I share this learning with young people in the community who don’t have a job to do. I use my salary for my studying and social living. It’s a good idea that the managers pay some English school fees for the staff here. So, there are many wonderful things to do at Kinyei Cafe Shop.

Kinyei Cafe shop located in Battambang city, Cafe opens from 7: 00 am until 7: 00 pm, Monday to Sunday. We serve the espresso coffee drinks , tea , baked goods and others such as fresh spring roll, hommade yogurt, fruit, honey milk….We also provide free fast speed Internet.

I have learnt to make a lot of things both drink and snack. The drink I most enjoy making is the Cappuccino. “Cappuccino is very popular for the customers here like to drink it” said by Mr. Sean who is the supervisor at Kinyei Cafe. Here is a video of how we make Capuccino at kinyei. So if you want to try a delicious drink and snack which is served by us, we welcome you to come and pay us a visit!

Sean teaches new staff how to make a cappuccino at Kinyei Cafe from Kinyei on Vimeo.

Kinyei Cafe’s characteristics and specific policies are a very important part of my work. I think that if we don’t have good characteristics, it is hard to work as a team or group. Today, I work at the cafe with Sean, Palla, Utac, Sakana, Sakhey, Sothearak, and Chenda. Our characteristics have similarities which are:

• Friendly and welcoming,
• Hard working,
• Attention to detail,
• Taking initiative,
• Willingness to learn,
• Happy to share what we already know and
• English competency.

Staff celebrate Khmer New Year at Kinyei Cafe Shop

My colleagues and I have an idea about the policies and that is to provide excellent espresso coffee drinks, fast professional service and high quality products. So the cafe team really enjoy taking care of our customers with delicious coffee, fast service and friendly smiles.

Working at the Kinyei Cafe shop is a good place for me to learn, share education and culture between Cambodians and foreigners, access learning work shops,and develop my skills. Kinyei bring me brightness life in the future!

Does your organization have a website that is in need of revival with fresh content and updates? WordPress is designed for the ‘non-techy’ and provides a user-friendly easy to manage and update website solution. Many of us are working for NGO’s and Community Based Organisations who have limited budgets especially when it comes to communications. WordPress is FREE! We want to share what we know about updating and maintaining your WordPress website so you can keep your supporters up to date on the latest development news.

Alex holding WordPress tutorial with Kinyei interns

What do we mean by Open Workshop?

**Kinyei Open Workshops is a free community run programme for skill sharing and education, everyone’s welcome to attend at no charge.

When are the workshops?

• Introduction to WordPress: Monday 13th June 2011 5pm-6.30pm
• Adding a blog post vs. a page: Monday 20th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm
• Working with images, video and maps: Monday 27th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm
• Working with widgets: Monday 4th July 2011 5pm-6.30pm

Who is running the workshop series?

Communications Officer for CORDE and Kinyei Consultant: Alexandra Robertson

I’m currently working as Communications Officer at Cambodian Organization for Research, Development and Education (CORDE) and a Consultant at Kinyei. I hold a Degree in Marketing and Public Relations and upon graduating began working in online marketing for UntangleMyWeb.com, as a Web Marketing Copywriter. It was here I learnt to navigate multiple website content management systems in order to update website content and blog posts. I always found WordPress extremely user-friendly to use, which is why I encourage its use for organizations who don’t have a technical genius to call on everytime their website needs updating.

I left UntangleMyWeb.com to work in community development and a core part of my communications roles at CORDE and Kinyei hasbeen to develop and update websites with the organization‘s latests news and development initiatives using none other than WordPress! I have found WordPress to be an ideal tool when training Khmer counterparts in updating blog articles and general website information, which is why I want to help make it accessible and achievable for other Cambodian NGO’s in Battambang.

Who should attend the workshop series?

Anyone involved in updating and maintaining their organization’s website. If you are a foreign volunteer and would like to join the workshop we encourage you to bring a Khmer counterpart to ensure the skills are delivered sustainably.

What languages will the workshops be in?

English and Khmer

How do I register?

Please email workshops@kinyei.org with:

• Your name:
• Your Khmer Counterpart’s name (if applicable):
• Organisation:
• Does your organization have a website?
• Does your organization currently use wordpress?

Please note you will need to commit to all 4 sessions and the workshop can only cater for 8-10 people so first in best dressed.

Materials needed: Please bring your lap top if you have one to practice what you’re learning in real time.

Where the workshop will be held: Kinyei Office, St 1.5 Battambang Town

Look forward to seeing you in June for some WordPressing,

Kinyei Collaborate for change www.kinyei.org

A couple of days to go till Sammaki launches with an all-singing all-dancing street party extravaganza. If you’re in Cambodia on Saturday you should be there as I’m pretty sure it will be the best thing happening in the Mekong region and I’m only slightly exaggerating when I say that. Check this thing out:

Holy crap look at this thing

For those who missed the introduction, Sammaki is a project we’ve been working on for the last 2-3 months to build an arts space for the Battambang community to use for exhibitions, workshops and general arting. It has already attracted a really vibrant community and some great local art so we’re pumped to launch it with a bang.

Got an old digital camera lying around? Participants at an upcoming Open Workshop on Photography are looking for donated cameras to hone their compositional and visual story-telling skills on! Quality of the device doesn’t really matter, so long as it takes what are recognizable as pictures, at least some of the time, we can absolutely use it.

The Open Workshop is designed for Khmer students and NGO teams who want to become better at communicating what’s going on in their projects visually, so your donated device would be furthering the causes of transparency and the open flow of life experience around the world. If you have something you’d like to give, please drop us a line and we’ll figure out how we can collect it!

Kinyei is holding a series of 4 Open Workshops on Photography throughout May. Good photography can go along way in helping us visually communicate Battambang globally. Recognising that many of us are working for NGO’s and Community Based Organisations that need to communicate development challenges, progress, environment and teams to supporters and board members this workshop series aims to help us do that through enabling us to take quality photographs.

When

Introduction to Photography: Thursday 5th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm More on Composition: Thursday 12th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm Light and subjects: Thursday 19th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm Sharing and discussing eachothers photographs: Thursday 26th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm

Who is running the workshop?

Andre Vandam Freelance Photographer

Andre was originaly a primary school teacher, but 3 years ago he changed careers to follow his passion and became a freelance photographer. Andre spent the last 2 years living in China, in a very remote mountian village, which provided him with lots of opportunities to photograph daily life. It was here that he developed a great love for black and white photography!

Andre moved to Battambang in September 2010 and intends to stay for 2 years. His most recent project was a calendar for 2011, which sold very well in the Netherlands, France, Spain, England, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and Cambodia.

Among his new projects are exhibitions in Cafe Eden and the Lighthouse Gallery, near the Royal Hotel and cards, which are hand made, and contain unique photographs of Cambodia. Andre is excited about sharing his knowledge of photography with Battambang’s community, as it’s such a fantastic way to capture and record the amazing projects taking place.

Who’s it for?

Anyone involved in producing communication and marketing marterials for their organisation. If you are a foreign volunteer and would like to join the workshop we encourage you to bring a Khmer counterpart to ensure the skills are delivered in a sustainably.

What languages will the workshop be in?

English and Khmer

How to register?

Please email workshop@kinyei.org with:

Your name: Your Khmer Counterpart’s name (if applicable): Organisation:

Please note you will need to commit to all 4 sessions and the workshop can only cater for 8-10 people so first in best dressed.

Materials needed

A camera (simple is fine; does not require an expensive camera)

Where

Kinyei Office St 1.5 Battambang Town

Look forward to seeing you in May and taking some amazing photos!

March has been a busy month for Kinyei’s Open Workshop space. Our most recent workshop was led by Amit Janco, who ran a creative arts class, exploring self-expression through a range of mediums.

The participants, both Khmer and foreign, hailed from a variety of occupations, some NGO workers, some English teachers, others small business owners who worked in pairs to enhance communication methods using paints, and other tools.

Participants had lots to say about the experience. One particpant was “refreshed [about] the meditative aspect of artwork, and enjoyed the people and Amit’s easy charm”. The participants created artwork collaboratively, working in pairs. They then went on a meditative walk to explore how their heightened sensitivity to their surroundings transformed their creative process. It was great to hear one participant say “ideas come from doing, not thinking though that is needed to carry them out”.

Greetings Kinyei Cafe Backers!

We’re nearly two months on from the end of our Kickstarter and wanted to share some of what we’ve been up to and what your support has enabled. The hot season is nearly upon us here in Battambang, but things have been ramping up we’ve got momentum going to sustain energy levels even through the most brutal of 40 degree weather!

Coffee + the Cafe

• We’ve introduced some western snacks to the menu. Khmer snacks such as sugared sweet potato fries were trialled but we couldn’t compete with the reigning kings of these snacks around the market on price or secret khmer snack-fu techniques.
• One of our backers requested the number of black coffees without ice sold. It is 57.
• Total khmer vs espresso coffees served: 84 : 436
• Nationalities served: 23
• Small lattes (“latte dtoich”) are the new rage

Introducing the small latte; objects in photo appear larger than they actually are

• Our staff regularly get told they make the best coffee in Cambodia. We’re pleased as punch about this.
• With a fridge breakdown, a burst pipe, and sudden wedding-related staff absences almost every week this month, we’re learning to deal with mini crises.
• Two team members, Phalla and Untac, participated in the first ever TEDx conference in Cambodia in February and are completely pumped to organize Battambang’s own in the coming months
• Competition is heating up as the staff battle it out on the espresso machine for best cappuccino. This week, best yogurt!

Untac's winning yogurt creation

Other projects developing in the space

• An exciting collaboration between local artists, Siem Reap’s ArtDeli and Kinyei is kicking off. “Sammaki” is going to be Battambang’s first collaborative art space, a gallery which exhibits local work without restriction, and hosts artists’ workshops and events. It will be run as a cooperative effort between 2 artists in residence, Kinyei and Jam’s Art Deli. We’ve already hosted planning workshops and it’s all hands on deck these next few weekends, as we’ll be prepping the space art(/rennovation) attack style. Check out how far we’ve come.
• The Open Classroom has seen lots of traffic in the last month with workshops run on women’s reproductive health, working with Cambodian culture, and cross-cultural creative expression
• Soksabike community tours have been operating out of the space and have been going great guns: Soksabike feature in local publication
• Seavyi Yonn, a Kinyei intern has started a skills club in the Open Workshop space, now 10 sessions in, that allows high school students to get together and share extra curricular skills such as email use, something they desperately want but cannot get without paying for pricey short courses.

Seavyi's internet workshop

It’s really exciting to see the communities spring up around this place, even within a few short months. I think we’ve got a really great year ahead of us and we’d like to invite you all to come visit some time!

Cheers, Kinyei