This website is not affiliated with the official Peace Corps Cambodia. It is independently created and regularly updated by Volunteer Gabriel Grela Mesa to provide information about the ongoing community work at the Volunteer's placement site.
Description of Peace Corps Volunteer Service.
Gabriel Grela Mesa was invited to be a member of the fourteen (K-14) group of volunteers to serve in Cambodia, and the first group since the Peace Corps returned to the country in 2022, following the global pandemic caused by the coronavirus-Covid 19. On October 19, 2022, Mr. Grela Mesa began an intensive nine-week community-based training program in Takéo Province. Training included: Khmer language, cross-cultural, safety, medical, and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) training. On December 29, 2022, Mr. Grela Mesa was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and assigned to the community of Ba Phnum in the Southeast near the Vietnamese border. He was assigned to work at Baphnom High School.
The primary focus of Mr. Grela Mesa's work was to improve the quality, trust and confidence of his community. His project goals included 1-Empower communities through innovative projects that inspire a love of learning, artistic and cultural exploration. 2-Promote a dynamic and nurturing learning environment where everyone, regardless of their circumstances, is an active participant in the learning journey. 3- Foster community partnerships to stimulate and catalyze initiatives that promote human capital development. To do this, he began a community assessment by interviewing students at the school to determine their needs. Based on the data, he focused on creating opportunities for all students to develop engagement, leadership and inspiration. To this end, he helped organize public speaking presentations, art classes, internships in two pagodas, invited in-person and online speakers to talk about opportunities after high school, trips to the capital to visit cultural and historical buildings, as well as applied for a grant to rebuild the school's library roof as a secondary project through the Peace Corps Grants portal.
In addition, Mr. Grela Mesa, due to his outstanding performance during the PST pre-service training, was invited to serve as an alternate director to coordinate basic operations in the event of a natural or political emergency.
Swearing in Ceremony K-14 December 2022