Girls in Cambodian Neighborhood Tap Into Digital World

When Girl Scouting came to the Cambodian section of Long Beach, young recruits did not rush to buy green uniforms, hats and sashes.

“Cambodians are coming from a war-torn country. Uniforms are not something they’re fond of,” said Michelle Burton, director of development at the Girl Scout Council of Greater Long Beach.

So the Cambodian American girls now sport navy-blue T-shirts with white letters reading “Girl Scouts Digital Media Studio,” summing up a unique program that is teaching them to use technology to record the world around them. It is supported with the help of a $10,000 grant from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign, which raises money for nonprofit agencies in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Girl Scout council program operates on Saturdays at St. Mary Medical Center. It draws 75 girls who learn computer and video skills, going on to produce projects ranging from personal film diaries to documentaries. They use laptop computers, video cameras and other equipment provided by the Girl Scouts.

Much of the program’s strength comes from a close relationship with the Khmer Arts Academy, a Long Beach-based organization that emphasizes traditional Cambodian performing arts.

The girls spend part of their Saturdays in dance workshops and the remainder honing their math, science, technology and literacy skills. The effort, known as the Khmer Arts Academy Discovery Enrichment Program, also helps the girls deal with the crime, violence and poverty around them.

The group is growing increasingly sophisticated.

One older girl recently helped produce a promotional video for the local Girl Scout council. Other girls are interviewing relatives and profiling residents of their neighborhood.

That Cambodian community, centered on Anaheim Street northeast of downtown Long Beach, poses unusual challenges for a national group more commonly associated with upper-middle-class white suburbs. Many parents fled Cambodia during the violence of the 1970s and 1980s. Many do not speak English. All of the girls’ families live at or below the poverty line.

Most of the girls were born in the United States, attend public schools and are eager to learn more about computer technology. Some girls are orphans adopted by white families. Fewer than 10% have computers at home.

Program organizers work hard to include the girls’ families. When the girls go on field trips, their mothers and sometimes their grandmothers may go along.

That not only builds trust among Cambodian families but helps recruit new volunteer leaders in a community where Girl Scouts can seem like an alien concept.

Girls in the Khmer Arts Academy visited such spots as the Getty Center in Brentwood and the Discovery Science Center in Orange County -- places they likely would not have seen without the program. They took their video cameras along and incorporated the footage into their documentary projects.

Burton is especially proud of how the girls contributed to the video for the Girl Scout Council.

“It felt really good to hear the girls say that the program helped them make new choices about their lives,” she said.

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