Cambodia

East Meets West

Siem Reap is a town rich in history, where East fuses with the West in spectacular style. It is situated at the foot of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Temple complex, close to spectacular forests, waterfalls and Tonle Sap, South East Asia’s largest inland lake.

This old French colonial capital, echo’s European influences, with shuttered windows and delicate ironwork, but now interspersed with a buzzing nightlife, street food on tap, night markets and cafes. It’s a fun and vibrant place.

Accommodation

The whole team will stay together in our volunteer house, in a safe residential area, just a short tuk tuk ride from the busy centre of Siem Reap.

You’ll sleep in dormitory style bedrooms with European style bathrooms with showers.

Food

3 meals a day are provided.

Expect: authentic Cambodian food with rice and noodle dishes forming the basis of most meals.

Better Hygiene, Better Education

Despite its beautiful exterior, Siem Reap is one of the poorest regions in Cambodia, where the difference between rich and poor is stark. Communities of displaced people, victims of land mines and sex workers live in deep poverty on the outskirts of town with little access to education or basic amenities.

During your time in Siem Reap you will venture out to one of these rural villages to help with these simple but life changing projects:

Fresh Water and Better Hygiene

It is estimated that only half the population have access to clean water and diarrhoea is a killer, particularly for children under the age of five.

This is where we come in, you will work with a team of local construction workers learning to mix cement, lay pipes and install water pumps to build a village well, providing access to clean, safe drinking water and implementing better hygiene.

Once this is done you will help build a flushing loo to stop families having to walk for miles into the forest which is their current dangerous alternative.

Teaching Conversational English

Due to the vast number of adult deaths during the genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia has one of the youngest populations in the world but sadly one of the worst education systems.

However, help is at hand as local NGO’s such as ‘Kid Tea’ and 'Elma' get busy to provide a free education for underprivileged kids.

Every afternoon you will help at Kid Tea or Elma to teach English, computer and sewing lessons whilst assisting with any maintenance needed around the place, making this a more inspiring place to be.

We are fortunate enough to have workbooks, providing structure and curriculum ideas, but you'll have the freedom to be as creative and active as you like.

A Hip Beach Town

Your next destination will be down on the south coast at Sihanoukville, best likened to Thailand’s ‘Koh Phangan’ before mass commercialism and 30,000 drunken revellers arrived.

Sihanoukville offers pristine beaches, palm trees (and the occasional full moon party) without the crowds. Tropical islands and crystal clear waters, so pack your snorkel.

Accommodation

Here you‘ll be staying in a house rented for the sole use of our volunteers close to the project work and yes a mere 5 minute tuk tuk journey from the beaches.

Food

3 meals provided. You will eat at a designated restaurant organised by the project leader.

Teaching and Development

Sometimes the most beautiful places on earth disguise the cruelest social problems. Look a little closer at the postcard perfection of Sihanoukville’s beaches and you will see too many children working when they should be at school. But the schools are over crowded and underfunded despite the invaluable efforts of local NGOs such as Starfish.

Under the direction of Starfish you will work at both the Sakura School and at the Computer Development Center, providing much needed teaching support and development ideas.

Sakura School

Hundreds of new students arrive every year and they really need help to keep their environment safe and inspiring. You'll also help with their painting and sport lessons.

The Computer Development Center

Founded in 2013, to provide an education for the poorest families at the fishing village. Today, the school has 8 classrooms and caters for 285 students from 5-15 years old. They need help with teaching computer skills, sport and with basic school repair.

Close to the Vietnam Boarder

From here, you’ll journey east towards Vietnam, past fields of swaying sugar palms, rice paddies and up into densely forested hill country interspersed with thundering waterfalls.

Welcome to Mondulkuri, one of Cambodia’s last great wildernesses, a vital wildlife corridor and home to the indigenous Pnong people. The Pnong are a tribe of hunter-gatherers, for whom a bond with elephants is at the very heart of their culture. Sadly, the ancient traditions and livelihood of this unique community are under threat as the environmental pressures of 21st Century Cambodia fast encroach on their homeland.

Thankfully, help is at hand, in the Elephant Valley Project.

Please note, this is unavailable in July.

Accommodation

Here you will stay in a simple bungalow (AKA Hefalump House!) on the slopes of the Elephant Valley Project, giving you stunning views over the surrounding forest. Sunsets can be spent unwinding here, enjoying the amazing sounds of the nocturnal forest creatures and the gibbons calling as they prepare to sleep. Bliss.

Food

3 meals a day provided.

Deep in the Elephant Valley

For the next week, you will live and volunteer in "Elephant Valley", a secluded jungle-bound project, rehabilitating these gentle grey giants and protecting the Pnong tribe’s rural way of life.

Only a few years ago, there was enough forest in Mondulkiri for a mahout to just let his elephant wander around, with little more than a leg binding but this is no longer the case. A mahout now has to tend to his elephant regularly to stop damage to a neighbour’s crops or injury from a poacher.

Here you will help the mahouts wash the elephants in the river or at the washing station and bring in supplementary food, their favourite being banana trees.

You will also help with a variety of maintenance projects, which in the past have included digging trenches, building water towers, constructing guesthouses and weeding.