The lack of Bunong women with technologies !



Bunong women is a indigenous people ethic group from a remote area in northern of Cambodia. I was born in a farm cover with the numerous forest in around us, my family and I lived there without national radio for 7 years and we haven't received any information. I was start myself with a digital mobile phone when I was grade 10, my dad gave me digital program (Nokia) mobile phone even my dad doesn't know how to use it. I started to play with all those program application and my dad was a nasty person to allow her child using internet or calling contact with other people in that phone that we have strict traditional culture norm. He knew it's might effect his daughter and he believes that women will lost virgin because of contact with other men that he didn't know then will bring an shamed to whole family and now he still saying little rude word while I am using internet with my smart phone. However, I start my self with internet after I graduated high school in 2010 when I started living in Phnom Penh to enter my collages. Phnom Penh is a crowded city that I never experience before. Most of the times, I see peoples at the internet shop enjoy with game and email while I don't know what's internet important for?



It was past for a few months that I was living in Phnom Penh without internet, I started to ask a sister to teach me how to open Mozilla Firefox/ Google Chrome then she created a FB account for me and she asked me to practice it after she showed me for a little one. I did it but not a perfect one. I didn't know what's wifi or technology as well in that time, I started little bit with Microsoft when I was high school and I don't know how to typing on computer as well till I graduated my high school. My life at the province was 10 years that I have never enter to technology or use internet, It's mean I have never received any information through social media or technologies and It's 100% of Bunong Women is facing it the same as me.



The only one reason that I can use the technologies or internet and smart phone because I enter to Phnom Penh city, If I didn't enter to collage I might became a frog in a pool that didn't know anything with technologies. It's because we don't have any technologies program at high school and we don't have much capacity to do so cause we Bunong indigenous women have only 2 women who enter to universities because of our Bunong indigenous facing with lower income, traditional norm, impact by government development, the public services is very low, lack of practices on the rights of indigenous peoples, most of the families in the district didn't encourage much women goes school as much as men and it's because most of our women elder is literacy. For me, I think technologies is difficult to start with it if other grassroots women doesn't graduate from high school, what the facing is? Indigenous Bunong women have only few number at universities. As you know, my self started with technologies after 6 months graduated.



The one way for us about technologies shall be in high school level not at university because we are not there.
The technologies changed my life, changed my community to bringing with a woman who know how big is this world, bring a woman to my literacy technologies to know how to use FB, Email and other social media that helpful to other communities. Moreover, because of technologies let us know how state controlled information and never show us through televisions and radios.
I wonder if our Bunong indigenous women have receive enough the technologies program at high school class to share and to learn each other from other women around the world and I am proud if my indigenous women have knowledge on technologies to start by their own at their grassroots region.

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