H.O.P.E CAMBODIA
× SOMA GROUP

“INSPIRE AND DRIVE POSITIVE IMPACT”

Soma Group’s mission — “Inspire and drive positive impact in society through sustainable solutions” — is not a tagline. It’s the architecture of H.O.P.E Cambodia.

Under LCT Krasna Cham’s leadership — first female CEO of a major Cambodian group, WEF Young Global Leader 2020 — Soma has built a CSR engine, Soma Initiative, structured around three pillars that align precisely with H.O.P.E.

H.O.P.E puts the faces of those children — now adults — on the walls of the country Soma helped build.

10 DIMENSIONS

H.O.P.E is not a photo book. It’s a transmedia ecosystem where each dimension reinforces the others — social impact multiplies artistic visibility, and vice versa.

ART BECOMES INFRASTRUCTURE

20-30 monumental portraits installed on bamboo structures along Siem Reap’s provincial roads. Each structure is engineered from day one as a demountable shelter. After 4-5 months of exhibition, the billboards are dismantled and reassembled as Peace Houses for the poorest families — via Life & Hope Association’s existing housing program in 5 villages.

The mesh banners are sent to LHA’s Sewing School at Wat Damnak, where they become school bags distributed to children across Siem Reap and Phnom Penh — in CFC’s 21 schools, orphanages, street schools, and Sunrise Cambodia centres.

Routes: NR6 East (→ Kampong Thom) + NR66 (→ Banteay Srei, Cambodia’s “Route 66”) + road to Tonlé Sap Lake.

No other art project in the world has converted its exhibition infrastructure into permanent housing. This is the first.

SOMA’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY STORY

HOW SOMA PARTICIPATES

Everything listed below is something Soma already operates. The partnership activates what exists.

PARTNERS ON THE GROUND

H.O.P.E plugs into an existing ecosystem of established organizations:

THE VOICE OF CAMBODIA

Every installation carries a message. Not an imported quote. Not a Western slogan. The voice of Cambodia itself.

44 authentic Cambodian citations — traditional Khmer proverbs, 12th-century inscriptions from Jayavarman VII’s hospital steles at Angkor, poetry from Krom Ngoy, lyrics from Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea, contemporary voices like Vaddey Ratner and Loung Ung.

On a school wall: “A child has two wings: good education and good manners.”
On a hospital wall: “He suffered the illnesses of his subjects more than his own.” — Jayavarman VII
On a rural billboard: “Don’t lie down and wait for luck. You have to work hard.”

Mix of portraits: children of 2007 now adults + children of today. The proverbs work for both generations.

800 years of Cambodian wisdom on the walls of Cambodia’s future.

THREE LOOPS. ZERO WASTE.

Loop 1 — Art: The portraits transform the road. Visible, monumental, inescapable.

Loop 2 — Infrastructure: The billboard structures become Peace Houses for families.

Loop 3 — Education: The mesh becomes school bags carrying fragments of the artwork — distributed to CFC schools, orphanages, street schools, Sunrise centres.

Materials: PVC-free polyester mesh (OEKO-TEX certifiable) + certified sublimation inks. Safety-testable at Hohenstein Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

Others recycle material. We recycle meaning. And we build houses from art.

SIX WALLS. THREE ROADS. ONE STORY.

PHNOM PENH — Phase 1 (Sommet, November 2026)

SIEM REAP — Phase 2 (April-May 2027, 20th Anniversary)

Each billboard: bamboo structure, monumental portrait, Khmer proverb, solar LED lighting. After exhibition: structure becomes a Peace House, mesh becomes school bags.

THE ARC

LUDOVIC CAZEBA

French fine art documentary photographer. Photography since November 2004. 20+ years of professional photography.

The 2007 Cambodia photographs received an Honorable Mention at the International Photography Awards. In 2008, the work led to Photo Art Asia — a charity exhibition where 100% of profits went to HIV-positive children in Thailand.

“Not to photograph what sells anymore. To photograph what matters.”