PROHOK, THE MAIN FOOD FEATURE OF THE MEKONG
“Prohok is almost like the fish migrating. This means, people along the Mekong can catch tons of fish each year thanks to the fishes’ movement in the river throughout the year, feeding millions of people,” explain Chan Kimsan, project coordinator of the Project Prohok, one of the YEA Mekong Generation Youth Projects. He continues, making a remark that where there are rivers, there are fishes and there are people.
In the project “Wonder of Mekong”, Kimsan and around 30 other volunteers have participated in various activities ranging from in-house training to field trip to communities along the Mekong river. Through those activities, Kimsan and the other two members is connecting themselves to the Greater Mekong and understanding the lives of fishing communities. They particularly took a great interest in how important the role of Prohok play in the communities’ livelihood. “Besides being theireveryday food source, Prohok also can be sold, which is a great source of income,” he notes. Their curiosity began then, wanting also to bring the knowledge to light for other young people to study as well.
Therefore, wanting young people to understand and talk about the importance of Mekong river to their life, they start with a simple feature, yet so important; Prohok. “Because Prohok is one of the traditional Khmer cruises, and that everybody eats it, young people should at least know the origin of that,” noted Kimsan.