The ice bucket challenge, in which participants douse themselves in ice water to raise awareness and funds for a charity, spread to Cambodia in recent days, with celebrities and politicians alike getting freezing wet for a cause.
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s youngest son Hun Many, a lawmaker in Kompong Speu province and head of the CPP-aligned Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia, got in on the action with a video posted to his Facebook page on Saturday in which he challenged fellow CPP progeny to do the same.
The ice bucket challenge has become a social media craze in the U.S., where participants typically challenge their friends to either donate $100 to the ALS Foundation, a research group committed to eliminating the degenerative neurological disorder Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also called Lou Gehrig’s disease), or dump a bucket of ice water on their head and donate just $10.
Mr. Many switched up the challenge a bit, choosing instead to throw his soaking-wet support behind the Taramana foundation, a Phnom Penh-based charity that supports schoolchildren.
Before having assistants douse him with a cooler full of ice water, Mr. Many chuckled as he challenged Say Sam Al, the environment minister and son of CPP secretary-general Say Chhum, and Sar Sokha, a fellow lawmaker and the son of Interior Minister Sar Kheng, to do the same.
“I would like members of Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia to participate in the spirit of charity and help society with small or great deal,” Mr. Many wrote in a message accompanying the video. He did not say how much he would donate to Taramana.
Popular singer Ouk Sokun Kanha also took the ice bucket challenge, dropping a few cubes of ice in a gold-colored bowl before pouring it over her head, though she failed to say what charity she supported or how much she would donate.
Ms. Sokun Kanha’s fans were quick to point out the shortcomings in her effort in comments on the video posted to her Facebook page.
“You need to donate money after doing ice bucket challenge to help ALS research and awareness,” said one user, punctuating the comment with a frowning emoticon.
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, an avid Facebook user, announced that he would not be participating in the challenge due to his sensitivity to extreme cold.
“Many friends have invited me to play ‘pouring ice,’” the information minister wrote. “I want to play too, but for a long time now I’ve been a person with too much heat inside, and I cannot tolerate cold substances.”
