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Young pregnancy in Cambodia: Root causes, Consequences, and Challenges

Young pregnancies have experienced a sharp increase over the past few years in Cambodia, especially in the rural areas. Due to conservative cultural norms, adequate sex and reproductive health education still remain a taboo topic, which affects especially the decision-making of teenage women related to their family planning. Without the knowledge of the consequences and challenges of young pregnancy, many young females have insufficient understanding of making appropriate decisions for their future, which can impact the child and their own future negatively. As young pregnancy is a highly sensitive topic within Cambodian society and particularly for the affected young females, we want to spread awareness about that issue by creating a safe space to discuss the root causes, consequences, and challenges of young pregnancy.  

About our distinguished speakers: 

Ms. CHHAY Sovanpanha

CHHAY Sovanpanha is a fresh graduate from the Department of Media and Communication, the Royal University of Phnom Penh majoring in media management. In 2020, she interned as a production and technical assistant at Cambodia Development Center, and in 2022 she interned as an assistant director and video editor in the Nursery program at Havas Riverorchid Cambodia. Moreover, Sovanpanha is interested in films, especially documentary films that are intended to be documented, primarily to educate and keep historical records. As she sees that the film industry in Cambodia has been growing for years, she wants to be one of the filmmakers to boost the local film industry's popularity and fame abroad. She has produced a short documentary film called “Kmeng Kjey” which focuses on the effects of young pregnancy in Cambodia in order to graduate from DMC.

Mr. SOK Haingkheang

Sok Haingkheang is a fresh graduate from the Department of Media and Communication. He also holds a Bachelor of International Relations from the Royal University of Phnom Penh. In 2019, Haingkheang interned as a press coordinator at The Ministry of Environment, and in 2020, he continued his internship as a news reporter at Voice of Democracy. In addition, he is interested in the field of research and journalism. To graduate from DMC, Haingkheang has done qualitative research, “THE PERCEPTION OF CAMBODIA FEMALE JOURNALISTS TOWARD THEIR CAREER” Which focus on the challenges faced by female journalists in Cambodia and offered practical recommendations and solutions to the challenges that the Cambodian female journalists are facing which obtain from Ministry of information, press association, and a lawyer. On top of that, Haingkheang also joined as an assistant producer in a documentary called “KHMENG KEJY” meaning "Youthful" in English which was produced by Chhay Sovanpanha.