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updates, thoughts + stories
Amidst these crazy times, as an active contributor to Cambodia’s tech startup ecosystem, Team Raintree continues to stay on the lookout for world-class programmes to bring them to the Kingdom, so our startups can make an even bigger impact on our economy and community. This is why we are super excited to partner with She Loves Tech and bring the world’s largest startup competition for women and technology to Cambodia for the first time. Read on to learn more about this amazing opportunity.
Learning opportunities for Cambodian children to become digitally literate are still few and far between. Barriers to learning range from access to computers (yet alone internet connectivity), to prohibitive pricing of the limited after-school classes in technology. One barrier to global learning is that the majority of programming languages are based on a Latin alphabet, but for aspiring Khmer students, we have some great news… the first version of the free, block-based coding language - Scratch - is now available in Khmer!! We wanted to share the great news and a little bit of how this came to life. Read more here.
As part of Raintree’s mission to enable capacity-building and education programs in Cambodia, we are so excited to announce a brand new program launching in April this year. In partnership with the fantastic Saturday Kids from Singapore, Coding Cats is a 5-week program for students aged 15-18 years old, with a playful curriculum based on Scratch, a block-based visual coding language. Generously supported by USAID’s Development Innovations, we are looking for people passionate about technology and education to become trainers, with the opportunity to be trained in the flagship Saturday Kids pedagogy and a chance to visit their campus. Read more to find out about the program here >>
Cambodia has seen a sharp rise in entrepreneurial and tech competitions over the past decade. They come in various forms, from one-day pitches, two-day hackathons, to several rounds over several months. They also target different demographics from as early as secondary school students, through more mature business professionals. While venture capital is still in its infancy in Cambodia (at least by the Silicon Valley definition), competitions are a positive sign of things to come. Here's an overview of some of the startup competitions in Cambodia that Raintree has been excited to engage with this year.
