Celebrating Traditions: Ms. Kha Sros’s Journey
Ms. Kha Sros, a 63-year-old indigenous Kuy, and her husband, Som Huon, live in Tonsong village, Stung Treng province. Their income traditionally comes from farming, but decreasing natural resources, climate change, and declining rice yields made daily life difficult. Also, since the Khmer Rouge regime, they have seen the decline of their traditions and cultural practices and they have been worried about the loss of their ancestral culture. They have tried to maintain it in their village, but with no funds and no idea of how to promote it, they were facing difficulties to enroll the younger generations.
Forests and Livelihood organization (FLO), with support from the Belgian government, launched a joint land registration project and Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Culture Promotion Project. Ms. Kha Sros, as a skilled traditional Kuy dancer and musician, participated in these initiatives. Seeing an opportunity to finally reach out further and preserve the Kuy traditions.
Through training from FLO, Ms. Kha Sros enhanced her leadership and advocacy skills. Now, she has more skills to teach the younger generations and she can also get better income by performing and promoting traditional Kuy culture in local and national events. Her dance group performs two to three times a year at various events nationwide. She hopes that one of the group members will take over the leadership of the group and keep promoting their culture worldwide!
Ms. Kha Sros’s efforts have been recognized by various villages, communities, government institutions, and NGOs for her significant contributions to preserving and promoting traditional culture.