“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about” Angela Shmitd

Nowhere is this quote more true than working working with kids in Cambodia.  Volunteers find it inspirational to see children with so little, enjoying life so much, especially when compared to the millions of spoilt yet unhappy children in the West. Volunteering is a two-way experience that will teach you (the volunteer) a lot about life, and a lot about yourself.  You can hopefully help provide some unfortunate and impoverished children, the fun and enriching childhood they deserve, and help send them out into the world as young adults ready to prosper.  Volunteering here in Cambodia is just as rewarding to you as it is to the child.  It is a balance of teaching, learning and  knowing at the end of the day that you are helping out the life of a child. 

We here at MaD have a foster child named Thuy who is a lovable, intelligent young boy.  He is eager to learn all that he can from who ever comes to the doors of MaD.  Signing up for the Teaching & Child Care Program, brings you into our MaD family by becoming a big brother or sister figure to our child.  This includes a daily English lesson, picking him up from school, bringing him to after school activities and of course playing games.  You are providing him with a mentor, teacher and friend as well as providing him with the everyday care and emotional support that a growing boy needs through times of change and development. 
English is a very important skill to have here in Siem Reap.  The Siem Reap economy thrives on the tourist industry.  Westerners come here from all over the globe to see the temples and discover the charms that Siem Reap has to offer.  With out good knowledge and understanding of the English language, getting a decent paid job in the city is exceedingly difficult. Those who speak good levels of English typically earn twice the amount of those who don’t speak any.  This is why it is important to provide children with the opportunity to learn and develop their English skills.  This is why we not only give Thuy his daily English class, but why we also provide English classes at the near by school five days a week. By volunteering in MaD’s English Teaching Program you will also be responsible for planning and holding these English classes for local children in Siem Reap.

Working at the school is a very trying but very rewarding experience.  Teaching at a Cambodian school will be very different than anything you've done before.  It will be a challenge to create structure and a lesson plan and actually execute it in the way that you originally planned.  Cambodian schools run very differently then any Western school, this is where the main challenge comes in.  You must learn to go with the flow.  Some days everything may go according to plan but you must remember that every day is a new day.  What worked yesterday may not continue working due to the fact that there may be kids coming in and out of the classrooms, mistranslations, late students as well as teachers, and often things that just change at the last second.  It can be frustrating but it will keep you occupied and on your toes and ready for what ever may come your way.  You will learn how to make your own style work and have fun in the process of doing so.

We will also be helping out with the schools I.T. Program.  The school is one of the only ones in the province that has a computer lab for the children to use.  As part of this volunteer program, you will also have the opportunity to help educate the young children at the school to use technology which will provide them with invaluable skills later in life.

Another part of our English Teaching Program will bring you out into the rural areas of Siem Reap where MaD implements its rural development projects in order to set up activities for the children that live there. Rural regions such as the ones that MaD works in have extremely limited opportunities for children and so they never have the chance to enjoy many of the activities that we, as Westerners, enjoyed so much as children. We organize fun and enriching activities for the children at the villages we work in and you will be responsible for helping us to organize them. You could be arranging games or doing arts and crafts: the possibilities are endless. Simply cast your minds back to your childhood and help these kids enjoy theirs by teaching them to play all the games you played when you were young – be that musical chairs, hopscotch or bulldog. Ultimately you will get as much out of it as you put in – you will need to approach your work with a can-do attitude and bags of initiative. That way it’ll be a positive two way experience – they will no doubt teach you a lot about yourself.  Teaching the kids, dance, music, bead making or what ever else you may have up your sleeve, will help them to learn and think creatively, and will give them a rounded education and a rich and fulfilling childhood.

Typical Working Day

Let us start by emphasizing that there is no ‘typical working day’ on a MaD project. The nature of voluntary work in a developing country is that plans and priorities change at a moment’s notice. Volunteers will generally be working from Monday to Friday, though you may have to be flexible at times. Sometimes you’ll volunteer from 3pm to 7pm, other times from 7am until 3pm, and if there is an opportunity to stay on site you could find yourself volunteering all day long! You’ll have to be prepared to take whatever the day throws at you.