Volunteering in Cambodia

In almost all cases, that's a big no-no. Please make this topic sticky. All that mindless volunteering does more damage than good.

This article should contain sufficient information...
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mini … try-68218/

JanKrohn, without the consistent support of volunteers we most likely would still be in the "dark ages". It seems you are rather discouraged with Khmer Volunteer work.

I'm not entirely against volunteers. When it comes to Khmer volunteers, who take responsibility in improving their own country without compensation, I'm indeed very impressed, and wish there were more of them.

However, most volunteers come out here for a couple weeks or months to play with kids at the orphanages, teach them some English and computer knowledge, and pay thousands of dollars to be allowed to satisfy their good intentions.

When it comes to such orphanages and other fake NGOs, don't visit them, don't volunteer, don't give them any donations. The volunteer business is a Curse of Cambodia.

There's more than sufficient background information easily accessible in Google.

http://madmonkeyhostels.com/?h2o_blog=v … m-bad-ideahttp://www.gooverseas.com/blog/avoid-or … ing-abroadhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peo … 38171.htmlhttp://www.trust.org/item/20150706000213-rfcrthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM9LFZzhlC0http://www.vice.com/read/cambodian-orphanages

At Kep Gardens Association, about 10 kms outside of Kep in Kampong Tralach Village, we welcome volunteers.  Apart from our English school and various other projects we are involved in (see our website kepgardens.com) we have a Reading and Conversation Programme.  This enables volunteers to have a one-on-one contact with students ranging in age from about 10 to 20.  The younger children are not at the talking stage yet.  This programme is very important as once the students leave here each day they are not in a position to practise their English.  This 20 minute session for each student is invaluable to them.  Their spoken English has improved so much since we started this programme.  The beauty of the programme is that volunteers can come for 1 day or weeks at a time, it doesn't matter as short stays do not disrupt the remainder of the programmes at Kep Gardens.  We have a bunkhouse that houses 4 people if volunteers want to stay at Kep Gardens and soak up the atmosphere of living and working in a vibrant village community centre.  We love having visitors stay.  Please go to our website and click on volunteers for all information you may need.  Contact can be made through email:  [email protected] or phone Janine

I think you have a very narrow view of NGOs or Associations.  Not all of them are orphanages.  Our students gain from having volunteers.  Their confidence visably grows.  Where has that impossibly, shy, retiring child that jumps at their own shadow gone?  This has been achieved by coming into contact with volunteers.  This self confidence in turn enables them to try different things, widen their outlook on life and generally grow.  Of course, we are careful who stays at Kep Gardens and has contact with our students. The whole community passes through Kep Gardens at some stage, whether it be health workshops for older members, cultural concerts, coming to watch their children at sports days or bringing smaller children to play in the playground.  Many of our older students also give their time voluntarily
to train football or volleyball teams and organize sports days.  We have a Youth Programme where the teenagers take on various jobs or events at Kep Gardens.  This teaches communication, team work, conflict resolution, organizational skills and responsibility and has been improved by input from volunteers.  Volunteers should be used constructively and not just for "playing" with the children.  In this way both the Khmer people and the volunteer benefits.  We could not achieve what we do at Kep Gardens without the help of volunteers both foreign and Khmer.

As I said in my last post, I'm not entirely against volunteering and NGOs. I can easily name 20 to 30 organizations that have a massively positive impact on the country.
I'm just against all these Fake charities, which seem to outnumber the "good" NGOs by factor 10 here...

I've not heard about Kep Gardens, so I will neither judge nor endorse it.

We used to run a weekend charity classroom project in rural Sri Lanka  for 4 years teaching children and young adults English and computer skills. Have relocated to PP Cambodia and would love to do something similar here. Looking around for the right area to get started. Like minded individuals are welcome to contact me. Gentle reminder--This is charitable, remuneration seekers--please excuse.

]Good afternoon! My husband and daughter came from Russia and live in Phnom Penh. We do not need shelter, since it removes the problem from the Russian market. My daughter is 8 years old. Unfortunately, I do not know very well English, but I can teach young children, as I have taught English in the books her daughter, 8 years old. I can also teach children computer. I can conduct lessons in sports. I am looking for a volunteer job is in Pnomepen. If you have any suggestions, please write to me, **

If you are a native English speaker and willing to work in tandem with a Khmer teacher, we have places for you in neglected rural areas about 30 minutes out- side of Siem Reap City. Expert condensed training is free and optional. We don't have a slush fund for tuk tuk travel, so that would be about $15 R/T at your expense. If you don't have time but prefer to donate, consider: www.cambodiacleanwater.org. As there are many clean water and school-assist programs in Siem Reap Province to choose from, the above website ending in .org also offers US citizens who prefer to contribute toward books and supplies an IRS-approved tax credit tax number.  Details are on the website **

There is some excellent advice in the downloadable book "Move to Cambodia" about how teaching is not everyone's "cup of tea," and the importance of finding out if teaching suits you before signing up for a year of English teaching under contract just to finance your stay here. The author's suggestion is to volunteer at an NGO first to see what teaching feels like, and from my experience that is excellent advice. In your preparation, an online teaching certificate may seem like a shortcut, but if you choose that route you will need the volunteer hours even more. Practicing teaching with your fellow students in the US is also not a good substitute for what will happen when you are faced with a student who is not a native English speaker, or a class of 20 or 30 students from backgrounds that may make you embarrassed at having lived such a comfortable, privileged life (my daily experience). In my case, I discovered that I enjoy teaching adult learners in small groups, but am really hesitant about teaching 30 or so energetic and easily distracted primary school students.

It is important to be aware that because the tourism industry is a major employer here, many Cambodian people see learning English as the way to a better future and so spend a high percentage of their incomes in what appear to me to be "English language factories." Volunteering as an English teacher will get you out of this loop and put you in contact with the more positive world of dedicated NGO foreigners and worthy but impoverished Cambodians. This is vital to your mental health and feelings of self-worth and community (my experience again).

If you are someone like me who came to Cambodia because he hated his life in the US, volunteering is the best way to do something beneficial for other people and gain experiences and contacts and information that will create great benefits for you later. Volunteering is not charity work: it is gaining healthy life experiences you can use to create a happy new life for yourself here in Cambodia.

Good luck!

Do you know of anything in Sihanoukville where I can volunteer?

Your additional insights are valuable. Can we meet sometime? Unfortunately I don't knów about opportunities in Sihanoukville. So far I have my hands full in Siem Reap, Bob

Meetup4English wrote:

Your additional insights are valuable. Can we meet sometime? Unfortunately I don't knów about opportunities in Sihanoukville. So far I have my hands full in Siem Reap, Bob

hi, Bob!
I'm from Russia. My English is poor. I can work volunteer?

Teaching English in Cambodia as a volunteer is one good way of giving someone the tools to catch their own fish instead of depending on handouts of fish in order to survive. The chance to learn to speak English from a native speaker can be very expensive here, and therefore only available to the children of wealthy Cambodians or to those whose parents are willing to make incredible sacrifices. So I believe even a limited contact with a carefully screened native English speaker can be very helpful, especially to younger children who learn language quickly. Being paid attention to is also very motivating, more so for a child who might be overlooked in a class of 20 or 30. Perhaps I am biased as the father of two grown daughters, but I feel that girls are often treated as being less important than boys here, so individual attention is even more vital and inspiring.

Another benefit of direct volunteer experience is being able to choose how to use your "cultural capital"/English language skills in what you feel is the most worthwhile way. Personally, I'm most interested in teaching business English rather than traditional literary English, and since I feel that teenaged girls are the most vulnerable to being married off into a domestic world of limited choices, I'm planning a class for the four older girls I recently met at a village school about 3km from Siem Reap. There is wireless service there if I bring my modem, and I have two US smartphones that are otherwise useless in Cambodia because they won't accept a SIM card. I plan to teach them about how to use the Internet for email, check bank balances, pay credit cards, Facebook communication and show them the business English classes on YouTube, etc.

Simply donating money without direct knowledge can also be a problem. In the case of this school, they have used donated money buy British English textbooks that I feel have a strong Eurocentric "cultural imperialism" message that is passed along with the language skills. So I would not be comfortable donating money to buy more of these. Also, they desperately need a solution to the lake that appears in their outdoor classroom every time it rains, sending the children racing home on their bicycles. Their current idea is to buy loads of clay sand to raise the ground level and then put in a concrete floor. However, it is obvious to me that the proper construction method I see in Siem Reap is to use a bed of gravel under the cement to give proper drainage and prevent cracking. So a donation of $250 to create a cement floor on a bed of clay sand would be ill-advised. On the other hand, since no one lives at the school, it is entirely possible that a bed of gravel in the classroom and in the muddy driveway would quickly disappear into the neighbors' yards, since anyone who would "abandon" such valuable material must be rich enough to buy more. I don't feel I'm being cynical here, just practical.

I apologize for this long-winded example, but I hope you see the point of having direct on-site experience.

Right now my four potential students are not coming to their beginning English classes because they're tired from working all day and don't have a light on either of the two shared bicycles they use, so it's too hard to ride home in the dark on a road full of potholes. So, if I want to learn how to teach business English, I need to buy two rechargeable flashlights for $5 each and write the school's name on them so fathers and brothers don't appropriate them. (showing some more bias here? You bet.) Maybe I also need to donate two $30 bicycles to the school for my students to borrow. These are both ways to benefit others, but benefit myself at the same time....no charity involved.

I bought the book also.. Move to Cambodia.

Best insight and best book on the topic. Its almost a must if youre going here.

I very much admire what you are doing. You've expressed your insights into English language learning so thoughtfully. I'd like to meet you for coffee sometime as I do similar volunteer work in rural villages in Siem Reap Province.

NGOs are a CIA tool of conquest to "turn-out" nations.  They're a scourge on more nations than just Cambodia.  Believe it.

Hi Meetup4english

I am leaving for Cambodia tomorrow (12/10/2015) for approx 10 weeks, I have been communicating with an organisation to volunteer and team up with a local teacher in the Kampot region, unfortunately as my trip has been getting closer the communication has dried up and I am now not confident that these plans will be recognised.

In recent posts to "expatblog" you mentioned that you are involved in a similar program in the Siem Reap region, I understand that it is school holidays until the end of October so have planned to travel to Siem Reap arriving October 25th. I was hoping that if the opportunity falls through in Kampot you may be able to offer some advice, I have made no bookings beyond the week in Siem Reap so could easily change my plans if need be.

Would you be available to meet-up while I am in Siem Reap? If not, can you please share any information and links to reputable organisations worth offering my services to.

Cheers

Craig

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FYI, after recognizing the massive need in Cambodia for qualified ESL volunteers, I moved to Siem Reap two years ago to volunteer full time. In addition to training teachers in ways of enhancing their effectiveness in the their classrooms, I also offer intensive practice in English to refine their speaking skills. first with an emphasis on the English of their textbooks and later to further refine their overall fluency. Why Cambodia? Although there are many counties in need, I decided on Cambodia to honor the memory of Khmer friends who were murdered by Pol Pot.

The students at Maom Restaurant ( http://www.maomrestaurant.com/) where I teach an English class have created their own restaurant to support their studies in Siem Reap as well as community schools in the area (http://www.mydreamcometrueorganization.com/) and also in their home village of Samrong.

My suggestion would be to contact them for suggestions, since the Veal Village School is a real functioning school where volunteer instructors are always welcome and closely supported by the existing teachers, rather than an "orphanage" or other suspect organization. They do have one guesthouse room available for a good rate, which would give you the advantage of hanging out at the restaurant meeting local Cambodians rather than being isolated in a regular guesthouse with limited contacts with English speaking students.

Of course, I think it would be a great opportunity for the students to practice their English skills with you. 

Good luck!

Will Norell

I don't know what your background or experience of Cambodian NGO`S are,but they play a vital role in filling the gaps in education and family welfare that the government do not provide to the poorer families.You article highlights only one bad apple .For every one of them there are many doing good work.Having dealt directly with the Social Affairs department,they have much more powers now the weed out the rouge NGO`S now.
You should do more research before making sweeping inaccurate statements.

My Daughter has dedicated the past 12 years of her life, together with a Cambodian partner to creating and running an Orphanage in Kp Speu Province.
They and many other well run Orphanages have adhered to the Law, working closely with the Ministry of Social Affairs and given many Cambodian kids a much better start in life than they might otherwise have had.
On her behalf I and mine, I completely resent your insinuation "Orphanage" or other Suspect Organisation".
There may well be some Suspect Orphanages, but you need to get the facts before painting all of them Black.

Do anyone can tell me what NGOs here are working on the awareness of violence against women or the its prevention?  I need to contact a few for a project.  Thanks

Tim

Samaritan's Purse are working on preventing gender based violence up in Snoul.
Perhaps you could contact them.

reg butler wrote:

There may well be some Suspect Orphanages, but you need to get the facts before painting all of them Black.

It is a well known fact that most (not some!!) Cambodian "orphans" still have one or two living parents. Most (not some!!) orphanages are just after the money, not the kids' welfare.

Perhaps you could tell me in terms of total numbers and percentage how many of the kids in your daughter's orphanage have no living parents?

And for those with living parents, why they have to stay at the orphanage, and not in their village??

netexpat wrote:

Do anyone can tell me what NGOs here are working on the awareness of violence against women or the its prevention?  I need to contact a few for a project.  Thanks

Try "Daughters of Cambodia".

For those facts I will have to get back to my daughter and we live in different countries.
Could you please tell me on what authority your statement "It is a well known fact that most (not some) orphanages are just after the money, not the kids welfare", is based on?
Just where is this "money" coming from?
Adoptions from Cambodia were stopped several years ago, so it can only be coming from Donations, which in these hard economic times are more and more difficult to come by.
Anyway I do not wish to get into a slanging match, but agree with gman11 that sweeping generalisations help no one.
Genuine Orphanages have a hard enough time surviving without these unhelpful comments.

I'd like to meet to discus your suggestion about volunteers to the village, How did you miss our appointment the other evening?. Because I included my phone number in my reply the moderator probably deleted the entire message, not just the phone number. This time I suggest we meet upstairs at 7:15 at the original Blue Pumpkin near Pub Street. Can you suggest a date or two?

Sorry if this is a duplicate. . . . . .I'd like to meet to discus your suggestion about volunteers to the village, How did you miss our appointment the other evening?. Because I included my phone number in my reply the moderator probably deleted the entire message, not just the phone number. This time I suggest we meet upstairs at 7:15 at the original Blue Pumpkin near Pub Street. Can you suggest a date or two?

65bazza wrote:

Samaritan's Purse are working on preventing gender based violence up in Snoul.
Perhaps you could contact them.

Thank you for the info.

landen.bob wrote:

I'd like to meet to discus your suggestion about volunteers to the village, How did you miss our appointment the other evening?. Because I included my phone number in my reply the moderator probably deleted the entire message, not just the phone number. This time I suggest we meet upstairs at 7:15 at the original Blue Pumpkin near Pub Street. Can you suggest a date or two?

Hi Bob

Who are you addressing this post too. If it is me, I do not get to Siem Reap until the 25th of October. I would happy to catch up anytime after that.

Cheer

Craig

reg butler wrote:

Could you please tell me on what authority your statement "It is a well known fact that most (not some) orphanages are just after the money, not the kids welfare", is based on?

Here's one more article, just in case I've not posted sufficient yet...
http://www.itv.com/news/2014-07-11/fake … athy-scam/

reg butler wrote:

Just where is this "money" coming from?

Mainly: 4 Million tourists in Cambodia per year.

reg butler wrote:

Adoptions from Cambodia were stopped several years ago, so it can only be coming from Donations, which in these hard economic times are more and more difficult to come by.

If 10% of tourists visit an orphanage (probably that's more), and each one donates $10 (probably it's more), then that's already an awful lot of money.

Tourists spend almost 3 billion (!!!) Dollars in Cambodia per year overall.

reg butler wrote:

Anyway I do not wish to get into a slanging match, but agree with gman11 that sweeping generalisations help no one.
Genuine Orphanages have a hard enough time surviving without these unhelpful comments.

At the current stage, I wholeheartedly disagree. When genuine orphanages are the exception rather than the rule, it's up to them to prove that they're genuine. Meaning: Prove they give shelter to "real orphans", or otherwise provide legitimate reasons why their orphans live in the orphanage and not with their own family. (I can't think of many such reasons, but for sure there are some).

Sorry, Craig. My error. It was intended for Will. If, however, you have interest in or knowledge about the best volunteer projects in Siem Reap Province, I'd be interested in meeting with you when you arrive in Siem Reap.