2 PHARMACY STUDENTS CAN’T WAIT TO PUBLISH THEIR MINI PAPER ON POLICY INTERVENTION TO TACKLE NCDS IN CAMBODIA


After four days and five nights in charming Kirirom (meaning Mountain of Joy) and joining the Policy Boot Camp, Marina and Vichheka who are both year-2 pharmacy students, are confident to make their voices heard in ‘A big book of small ideas’. A book of small ideas is a book founded by Future Forum which gathers small ideas from the young researchers that are willing to make positive impacts in the community. During this boot camp, they learned so many new things and make several new friends while enjoying the forest of the National Park.

They learned about the root cause analysis using 4D approach (Diagnose, Discover, Develop, Deliver), Policy, and research methodology. Both students are interested in finding an innovative way to fight against the 21st Century Greatest Health Challenge- NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases) in Cambodia. After using all of the tools provided during this training, the students found out that the prevalence of NCDs and their complications cannot be reduced until the people are sufficiently physically active.

From that analysis, they developed a micro-idea to increases physical activities among the locals from different perspectives. Marina is passionate in developing an innovative action to make office workers to exercise more whilst Vichheka is interested in developing greenery space to play with her classmates and other friends after school. Now they have about one month to develop a paper and possibly get a grant to realize their projects.