Top Ten hotels with a Heart.
Looking for somewhere to stay, these are the recent award winners
http://af.reuters.com/article/moroccoNews/idAFLDE74Q19D20110527?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
Positive Programming
Once again Australian television makes a positive report on some of the great work going on in Cambodia. This piece features Anthony and Fiona owners of both The Villa and Sojourn in Siem Reap and the contribution they make to the surrounding villages.
Cambodia Orphan Fund
In light of the horrendous events of last year the COF is no more. A number of former volunteers are working extremely hard and have decamped to Cambodia permanently to assist in the creation of a new NGO and are working with CEOP to bring this to a successful conclusion. In the meantime I am now back home in Sussex and look forward to lending my support again in the future once things have become settled.
A number of people are still coming to me for advice regarding donations and volunteering, Please see below for comment. Do please remember that there are some wonderful organisations operating in this field, my notes below should help if you are looking for a placement .
A number of people are still coming to me for advice regarding donations and volunteering, Please see below for comment. Do please remember that there are some wonderful organisations operating in this field, my notes below should help if you are looking for a placement .
Volunteering in Cambodia?
This is essential viewing.http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/2011/02/2011210123057338995.html. It raises many good points. See below for a summery of points raised and my comments accordingly.
If you are coming do bear these points in mind.
Is your money going direct to the NGO you are seeking to help?
There is now a whole industry building up in volunteer tourism, and a lot of money is being made. Some of these organisations give as little as $50 per volunteer to the project it is purporting to help. You may have paid up to $3000 for the placement. It does not take a great deal of time to work out someone is making a lot of money here.
Are you really helping?
It depends what you are doing. If it is a three week teaching assignment, and you have no qualifications, you are not going to help, much the opposite in fact. You cannot become a teacher overnight. (A TEFL would really be a minimum requirement) Some volunteers come with friends on building projects, if you are a builder this can be particularly good, if not less so.
Where volunteers do help?
A long assignment training Khmer staff to do a good job, and letting them train the children brings stability and gives a Cambodian a job.
Are they really Orphans?
Quiet often not, I certainly came across cases where parents wanted us to take their children because we offered a better living standard. There were of course more genuine cases where the parents could not cope, severe illness is common as is alcoholism.
Street Projects
Here is a positive, there are some excellent street projects in hand that aim to help families as a whole, helping the parents cope with poverty, so they can look after their children in their own environment.
There is now a whole industry building up in volunteer tourism, and a lot of money is being made. Some of these organisations give as little as $50 per volunteer to the project it is purporting to help. You may have paid up to $3000 for the placement. It does not take a great deal of time to work out someone is making a lot of money here.
Are you really helping?
It depends what you are doing. If it is a three week teaching assignment, and you have no qualifications, you are not going to help, much the opposite in fact. You cannot become a teacher overnight. (A TEFL would really be a minimum requirement) Some volunteers come with friends on building projects, if you are a builder this can be particularly good, if not less so.
Where volunteers do help?
A long assignment training Khmer staff to do a good job, and letting them train the children brings stability and gives a Cambodian a job.
Are they really Orphans?
Quiet often not, I certainly came across cases where parents wanted us to take their children because we offered a better living standard. There were of course more genuine cases where the parents could not cope, severe illness is common as is alcoholism.
Street Projects
Here is a positive, there are some excellent street projects in hand that aim to help families as a whole, helping the parents cope with poverty, so they can look after their children in their own environment.
