Your Common Questions and Our Answers

Self Image

Everyone has a different body shape and size. Try to understand your motivation for wanting to change your weight / height. For example, is it because of pressure from or comments made by your friends? Are you struggling with low self esteem?

If you want to gain or loose weight, it is important to still eat a healthy range of food, and continue with regular physical exercise. You might also like to speak with a food specialist, sometimes called a Nutritionist, and they will help you develop a safe eating plan.

Your height depends on your genes which are physical, emotional and behavioral things or characteristics that are passed down from your parents to you when you were conceived. You can’t control your genes as they are your own human biology.

Sometimes certain clothes or shoes may help you appear shorter or taller, slimmer or wider. Try to find clothes that work for your body type and stand proud no matter what height or size you are.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

First, it might be good to understand more about acne. Acne is a skin disease that involves the oil glands of the skin and can affect people of all races and ages all over the body. However it most commonly affects young people on their face, shoulders and chest. It’s not dangerous, but it can leave scars.

Here are some tips to help you if you have acne:

  • Gently wash your face twice each day with mild face soap.
  • Don’t try to pop pimples as doing so may spread infection and cause scarring.
  • If you would like to get rid of a pimple for a special event, such as a wedding, ask a doctor to help you.
  • Try to avoid touching your face unless you have washed your hands first.
  • Wipe your mobile phone and glasses regularly as they will collect oil and skin cells.
  • Avoid wearing tight clothing or accessories around the effected area.
  • Try to use light, oil-free make-up and don’t go to sleep with it on.
  • Hair collects oil and skin cells so keep your hair clean and off your face.

If you have very bad acne, you could seek advice from a doctor or skin specialist, sometimes called a Dermatologist.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

You seem to be concerned about the beauty of skin. Try to remember that everyone’s skin colour is different and beauty is often about being healthy and happy.

Skin color depends on your genes which are physical, emotional and behavioral things or characteristics that are passed down from your parents to you when you were conceived. You can’t control your genes as they are your own human biology.

However, if you would like to make your skin look whiter or lighter, you can protect it from sunlight especially in the middle of the day when the sun is at its strongest. Wear a hat and a long sleeved shirt, and apply sunscreen to any exposed skin. If you want to use a skin product to make your skin whiter you should discuss the idea with a doctor or skin specialist, sometimes called a Dermatologist.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

Study and Lifestyle

Stress is a part of life. It is a normal reaction to emotional, intellectual or physical activities. It can be positive if it keeps us alert, motivated, and ready to avoid danger. However, it can also be negative if it becomes extreme as it can increase the chances of depression and other problems.

Here are some tips to help you manage stress:

  • Keep a positive attitude.
  • Accept that there are events that you can’t control.
  • Share your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry or quiet.
  • Learn and practice relaxation techniques. Try deep breathing or listening to relaxing music.
  • Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it’s fit.
  • Eat a healthy range of foods.
  • Learn to manage your time effectively. Keeping a calendar of important dates to stay organized can help.
  • Make time for leisure, hobbies and interests.
  • Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.
  • Don’t rely on alcohol, drugs, or food to reduce stress. Try not to drink too much coffee either.
  • Find social and emotional support. Spend enough time with friends and family who understand what you are going through.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

It’s important to get the right amount of sleep for you, so you can be effective when you are awake. However, sometimes it can be difficult to fall or stay asleep because of emotional problems or your sleeping environment.

Here are some tips to help you sleep better:

  • Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday.
  • Have short sleeps to make up for lost sleep.
  • Let as much natural light into your home and study space as possible.
  • Create a relaxing sleeping environment. Try to keep your room cool and make your bed comfortable. Try to keep the room quiet, with the amount of light or darkness that you are comfortable with.
  • Eat a balanced range of food and get regular exercise.
  • Avoid eating big meals late at night.
  • Avoid drinking too many liquids late at night, particularly coffee and alcohol.
  • Try to cope or deal with unhappy, nervous and stressful feelings. Try deep breathing or listening to slow and soft music.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

How can I become an outstanding student and improve my memory?

We all want to do well in our studies and it can be hard work trying to remember everything, particularly when we’re very busy. But as the Khmer Poem says: “no one is born being good at all things” and “you become good at things through hard work.”

It’s important to understand that learning is an individual thing so not everyone learns the same way. Some people learn visually, through talking, or by writing and reading, while other people learn through a combination of all methods.

The key to studying and learning is being able to understand the meaning of a topic and being able to put it into your own words. Being able to think about what you learn and how to apply it in practice is also learning. This process is called reflection.

Here are some study tips that you can pick and choose from to find what suits your learning style best:

  • Memorization:
    Try reading information aloud many times, copy it by handwriting, or have someone else read it out loud for you and then you summarize its meaning.
  • Taking Good Notes:
    Write down key points in class and use short sentences. Try describing things in your own words that keep the same meaning. Also try developing short-cut descriptions – sometimes called abbreviations – to help you write notes faster. You can then write longer or more detailed notes after lessons as part of your study.
  • Highlighting:
    Try highlighting keys words or phrases with a bright coloured marker when reading or writing. This will help you remember the information or find it again.
  • Reviewing:
    At the end of a study session, review your work by identifying main themes and areas that still need more work.
  • Group Study:
    Sometimes it can help to break up studying on your own by discussing topics in a group with your fellow students and learning from each other. Different opinions and ideas can increase your knowledge and understanding.
  • Planning:
    Plan your study with a calendar and schedule blocks of time for different subjects or tasks. Be realistic with your time and give yourself regular breaks.
  • Rewards:
    Treat yourself with a break or reward if you study hard or get a good result. Maintaining a healthy balance between study and leisure can really help.

Here are some tips to help you remember information during lessons:

  • Try sitting in an area where you can clearly hear and see your teacher. If you sit at the back of the classroom, you may be disturbed by other students and loose your concentration.
  • If you have problems or feel stressed, you may be distracted as well. Try to resolve your problems so you can think more clearly and stay focused.
  • Ask your teacher questions if you do not understand something or would like more information on a topic you are interested about.
  • Try to listen to your teacher as well as take notes. Listening is an important part of learning as well. If your teacher allows it and your phone can do it, record your teacher’s lectures so you can focus on listening and make detailed notes later.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

Relationships

Breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend is often hard and you can feel all kinds of things, like feeling sad or even angry, and it is often hard to make these negative emotions go away. It can take time to heal and deal with these feelings, and the length of time is different for everybody.

If you are in a relationship with someone for a short or long period of time, it will be difficult to forget them as you have shared memories and time together, and it’s ok to feel sad. But there are things that you can do to help deal with the break up and help you feel less sad. Try spending time with people that you like, either family or friends, and doing things that you like to do. These activities might help you take your mind off your emotions.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

Someone should like or love you for who you are, so try not to change yourself just to attract someone because then you are not being yourself.

It can be very hard when someone you like doesn’t like you back. When you realize this, it’s good to try and focus on something else.

If you like someone, try getting to know them – ask them about their background, interests and personality. If you find common interests with each other, a friendship may form and then maybe romantic feelings could develop. But it is important to know that romantic feelings aren’t things you can force as you can’t control what other people are feeling.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

Sexual Health

First, it’s good to understand more about HIV / AIDS. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV damages the body’s immune system (the body’s way of fighting sickness) and can lead to AIDS which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system, so it can’t fight off infections. HIV can lead to AIDS, which is known as the ‘late stage HIV’. Here the body is no longer able to fight off sickness. People who have AIDS can become very sick from an illness that the body would usually be able to fight itself.

You can get HIV from having unprotected sex (not wearing a condom) with someone who has the virus. HIV can be passed from one person to another through blood, semen (including pre-ejaculatory fluid) and vaginal fluids. It’s most commonly transmitted through unprotected vaginal or anal sex, but can also be caught through sharing sex toys or needles and other injecting equipment. It’s much less common for HIV to be transmitted through oral sex, but there is a greater risk if someone with HIV ejaculates in your mouth, and you have ulcerated or bleeding gums.

HIV cannot be passed on through everyday social contact. That means you cannot get HIV from shaking hands, kissing or hugging, using other people’s cutlery or cups, eating food prepared by someone who is HIV positive, sharing towels, sitting on toilet seats, or going to the swimming pool.

HIV can be passed on through heterosexual (straight) or homosexual (gay and lesbian) sex. Although men who have sex with men are most at risk of getting HIV, and women who only have sex with other women are the least at risk, it is a myth that you can only catch HIV from gay sex.

There is no cure for HIV or AIDS at the moment, although there are medications that help to control symptoms.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

The important part of sexual intercourse is that the people involved take their time and do what feels good for them, no matter what the duration of the experience is.

On average a man lasts about 3 to 13 minutes during sexual intercourse before he ejaculates (from when the penis penetrates the vagina until ejaculation). A woman can take longer before she orgasms or climaxes. This does not include hugging, touching and kissing before sexual intercourse which can take minutes or hours depending on the couple and situation. Every couple will be different.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

Firstly, it’s good to understand some important words. Virginity is the way to describe a male or female before they have had sexual intercourse. A virgin is a person who has never had sexual intercourse, and both males and females can be virgins. The process of losing your virginity is when a male or female has sexual intercourse for the first time.

Before you have sexual intercourse for the first time, you might have experimented by kissing, hugging and touching your partner, but you are still a virgin until you have sexual intercourse for the first time.

You can only lose your virginity once as you cannot have your first sexual intercourse experience again.

Sometimes a female virgin will bleed a little when she has sexual intercourse for the first time. This is completely normal and nothing to worry about. It is also possible that a female virgin will NOT bleed when they have sexual intercourse for the first time. The bleeding is caused by the tearing of her hymen, which is a ring of thin skin that covers part of the opening of the vagina. It does not cover the vagina completely but has a small opening to allow menstrual blood to come out. The opening is normally the size of a finger. When having sexual intercourse the hymen will stretch and it can feel uncomfortable or a little painful. Sometimes, the hymen can tear or break if it stretches quickly, and this can cause some bleeding. But the pain and the bleeding might not happen if the female virgin is relaxed during sexual intercourse.

The hymen breaking and the bleeding are seen in some cultures as proof or evidence that the young woman was a virgin. But some female virgins do not bleed the first time they have sexual intercourse, because the hymen has already broken or torn which can happen naturally during sport or physical activities.

Having sexual intercourse for the first time is a big decision and you might be excited and nervous at the same time, and wonder whether it will hurt and if you or your partner will be able to do it correctly. When you decide to have sexual intercourse for the first time you might ask yourself, how will it be, will I like it, will I do it right?  Listen to each other, have respect for each other and don’t do anything you don’t want to do or the other person doesn’t want to do. If you do decide to have sexual intercourse, it is ok to stop and at any point ask your partner to stop, because nobody has the right to make you do anything you do not want to do.

The most important thing is for you and your partner to feel comfortable and give consent or permission to having sexual intercourse with each other. You shouldn’t feel pressured into it. You should also remember that the Royal Government of Cambodia has a law that says that people from the age of 15 years old can consent to having sexual intercourse.

It is also important to keep in mind that you or your partner can still get pregnant or get a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) even if it is your first time having sexual intercourse. So, it is very important to use a condom.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.

Can masturbation negatively effect someone’s health?

Firstly, it is good to understand exactly what masturbation means. Masturbation is when someone touches their genitals (private parts) because it feels good and gives sexual pleasure.

Because masturbation makes a person feel good it has mainly positive effects. However people should be careful if they are using an object to touch themselves.

You can call Child Helpline Cambodia anytime for free on 1280 if you would like to receive emotional support or further information on this subject.