The Pastoral Office for Youth, Teenagers and Children of the Catholic diocese of Phnom Penh, organised a camp  from 6-9 April 2019 at the Holy Trinity Church in Kirivong, Takeo province. Participating in this camp were more than 400 young people under the leadership of priests, leaders and members of the young scouts in the pastoral sectors of Kampong Som, Kampot and Takeo.
Fr. Charles Ekuam Lechipan, the priest in charge of such camps  of the diocese, said during his homily at the camp that the leaders of the scouts were the result of the call of God and these leaders had the  strength to serve their members and also had to take care of them.
“The leaders of the young scouts receive education to serve the members with blessings from God who dwells in them and before we do something, we must pray petitioning for strength from God,” said the priest. 

In the end, he requested all the leaders to receive the strength from God in order for them to have the capacity to serve.

At the camp, all the leaders reflected together on the joint topic “I Can Do,”. The participants took part in Khmer popular games, drawings, creative ideas and the visiting of the elderly and poor people. A member of the diocesan Pastoral Office’s Roth Chantha, in
charge of the scouts, said that the aim of the camp was to get the children to have the chance to meet, live in groups, be courageous in taking part in activities in order for all scout groups to share personal experiences with one another.

Fr. Fernando Arango, the parish priest of the Takeo provincial pastoral sector, said: “The programme is useful for the children, families, Church and society because the way of having relationships means establishing communion with each other and between human beings and nature.”
After the camp, all the children could take their experiences home to put it into practice and grow and make a physical and spiritual living”. It gets them know that our life has dignity, when we start loving oneself, loving other brothers and sisters including care for nature.  This is the way for building the Kingdom of God.

Leader of the young scouts, Don David from Our Lady of the Smile Parish in Chamkar Teang, said that this was the third time that he had participated at the camp.  David added: “I enjoyed myself and obtained new ideas of how to give first aid, have good relationships with one another and learn to work in groups.”

The camp had benefited the children in order for them to have the chance to stay together as groups, have creative ideas, teach the children to help others and lead them to become good citizens in the future.A member of the young scouts from St. Paul’s Church in Koh Sla, Tong Lynita told that the camp, which was initiated by the Church, had made her get the courage to overcome her shyness, to respect elderly people, be grateful for her parents and to love nature. Nita continued by saying that her parents will be happy, when they see her correcting herself. The camp had helped and
made her know many people, learnt patience and meet hardships when visiting
elderly people and inculcate in her the idea of helping others.