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Around 80 young participants from various organizations such as Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC), Khmer Youth Association (KYA), and Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) joined the radio drama writing contest on climate change held last December 23, 2008 at World Vision Training Center, Phnom Penh. The opening of the training was attended by the British Ambassador to Cambodia and officials from the Ministry of Environment.

His Excellency Andrew Mace, British Ambassador to Cambodia, presented his opening speech during the training.  He said that he is “delighted that the British Embassy has been able to support CCIM's work to build public understanding of climate change in Cambodia, and I would like to thank them for their work in organizing this meeting today.”

He also said that “It is important that the voices of countries like Cambodia are heard. And to make that voice most effective, the Cambodian people must understand their own role, and support an ambitious role for the Cambodian government. That is where CCIM's project - and you - come in”.

CCIM’s project entitled “To contribute in establishing a regulatory framework, policies, and actions for mitigation of climate change” focuses on raising public awareness on climate change issues in Cambodia through the broadcast radio. A 60-minute weekly radio program entitled “Earth Talk” produced by Voice of Democracy (VOD) aired every Wednesday from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Radio Sarika FM106.5MHz tackles various issues related to the climate change with invited studio guests.  Thirty two episodes of the radio program are planned to be aired within the nine-month period of the project, in which 14 of the episodes are dedicated for radio call-in surveys on topics discussed on previous episodes and another 10 episodes are allocated for airing the winning radio drama on climate change.

After the training, a total of 35 radio drama scripts were submitted as entries to the contest.  A committee created for this purpose reviewed the entries and selected 10 winning drama scripts. The committee edited the ten entries and asked the contestants to improve, edit, or rewrite some sections of the scripts.

The radio drama scripts will be produced by VOD into radio drama and will be aired during the last ten episodes of “Earth Talk.” During the airing of each drama, listeners will be invited to give rating on the drama, which they can do it by sending an SMS (text messages) to the program producers. Eventually, the committee will review the ratings and make their rating also to decide on the three winning radio drama, which will be awarded with cash prizes and the non-winning radio dramas will receive consolation prizes.

The announcement and awarding of prizes will be presented through a press conference after the end of the last episode of the weekly radio program.