For many years, WGWR has taken advantage of the public holiday for the Cambodian Water Festival in Phnom Penh to conduct its awareness campaign. In 2005, the Water Festival took place from the 15th to the 17th November.  WGWR, in cooperation with SACA, conducted an awareness campaign with the objective of raising public awareness on the consequences of SALW, the roles of civilian people, new arms laws, and ways to build a culture of peace. Boat racers were the main target group.  Our secondary target group was provincial visitors.  There were three main activities carried out during the campaign.

1. General Awareness Campaign conducted by youth volunteers
2. WGWR concert and booth
3. Television and Live Comedian performance.

Before conducting the campaign, youth volunteers were recruited and trained. Based on a series of public announcements, over 800 candidates sent their applications to WGWR. This amount of interest demonstrated an extremely high level of public interest on small arms issues among youth in Cambodia. The applications were cut down by short-listing and a writing test.  In the end, 75 youth candidates became campaign volunteers. They then went through two and half days training to learn how to successfully conduct the awareness campaign.  During the three-day activity, the 75 youth volunteers were divided into 15 groups working strategically placed throughout the festival.  As a result, the campaign reached a total of 32,781 people including: 6,467 boat racers, 5,402 members of the armed forces and 20,873 civilians.

In addition to our youth volunteer activities, WGWR hosted a concert with a promotion stand nearby. The concert stage and booth were surrounded by small arms slogans and information. The concert was quite educational, because it included songs about small arms, MC speeches on small arms issues, questions and answer sessions on small arms, and a variety of comedy skits with lessons on small arms education.  The WGWR booth near the concert stage provided a place for discussion and awareness raising with the public.  An exact number of beneficiaries of our concert were difficult to estimate due to the flow of audiences, but at its peak hour there were over 1,500 people in attendance.

The final activity of our campaign was a live television performance by a comedian. WGWR supported the Apsara live TV program by funding the comedy portion.  The comedians acted out stories written by WGWR concerning small arms awareness.  Through the television coverage of our comedy skits, our campaign reached a nationwide target audience. For more...

The German Development Services (DED) and the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs (UNDDA) have supported WGWR’s activities on Water Festival Days.