The Mekong ICT Camp is an annual event held in the Mekong region to workshop Information & Communications Technology for community development and activism. The camp attracts participants from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam who spend a week together workshopping technologies for activism, community development and social change.

Phanith Norm is a student animator at Phare Ponleu Selpak, an NGO in Battambang, Cambodia. He has been offered a scholarship to attend the Mekong ICT Camp, but like the vast majority of Cambodians, does not have the passport necessary to cross the border to Chiang Mai where the workshop is being held.

Kinyei has been supporting Phanith’s application and is now seeking donations to get him a passport. The camp is coming up in a few weeks so we’re on a tight deadline if we want to get the passport application in on time. There’s a letter from Phanith below and an animation of his online here: http://vimeo.com/11779187

I am Norm Phanith, aged 21, an animator at Phare Ponleu Selpak, seeking budget support in getting passport to participate workshop on the topic of “Mekong ICT Camp”. The purpose of the workshop is to use ICT in order to change the society. The price of passport is UDS240. Actually I have never been outside of Cambodia so I do not have a passport.

The workshop will be on 7th to 12th June 2010.

This workshop is very important to me because it opens an opportunity for young man like me to share my idea relating to ICT, media and story in order to make change in the society. At the same time I will gain knowledge from the workshop to share with others in Battambang.

I am looking for your positive response.

Sincerely yours,

Phanith