Cambodia tour & volunteering

We believe that travel can change lives! Travelling can change you as a person and, if done responsibly, can have a profound effect on the people that you meet and the places that you visit. We want as many people as possible to experience the heart and soul of another culture in the way that we have, and in doing so, help them to make a positive and lasting impact on our world.

The fascinating diversity in architecture and culture in this comparatively small country has its roots in Cambodia’s unfortunate history of seizure and colonisation. Now, more than one million out of the 14 million citizens live in Phnom Penh, formerly known as “Pearl of Asia”. As part of the Humanitarian Tour of Cambodia you will not only be able to see these exciting sights, but experience the reality of Cambodian life with its most needy and fascinating citizens, its children. The country’s persisting poverty has left behind a number of orphans, which is why we have decided to team up with a locally run project to give at least a small number of them the opportunity to smile and look into the future.

As a volunteer on this tour, you will experience the distinct beauty of the real Cambodia by getting physically and emotionally involved in a community development project desperate for individuals willing to give it their all. You will find yourself assisting the orphanage staff with general household duties, while supporting them in the most rewarding task of all: caring for the children.

You’ll stay in a shared room in a locally owned guesthouse ensuring that you directly support the local community while you’re there. You’ll also be supported by your local in-country coordinator; Kamlay who with his team is best placed to understand the specific economic, social and developmental needs of Cambodia.

On average 48% of your placement fee is distributed in-country for the services included with your placement (i.e. Local support, Food, Transport & Accommodation) meaning that the local communities are directly benefiting from your travels to their country. The remaining funds are required to cover the administration costs associated with sourcing, training, marketing and coordinating your travel experience.

We do not give a financial contribution to this or any of our projects as we believe that money is rarely the answer to complicated development issues; if it was, the poverty problems in the world would be getting better! Short-term aid relief can cause aid-reliance and financial instability and the corruption seen in many developing countries means the guarantee of your money going to the heart of the cause is massively reduced. From our experience (and by learning from our mistakes) projects benefit far greater more from a sustainable framework to ensure they develop rather than short-term financial aid relief.

If money is paid directly to projects then they may become dependent on that income. If that country or project becomes unpopular, or through restrictions in the opportunity to travel to that country, the money dries up and they are no longer able to continue with their work. Supplying projects with enthusiastic volunteers creates a constant supply of helpful hands and as they are not reliant on an income can continue without the assistance of the volunteer travellers, although significantly slower in achieving their goals.

Instead of giving money direct we operate a grants scheme from our Helping Hand Foundation. This is designed to allow all our partner projects to submit applications for funding to achieve a specific objective. In 2007 we have supported a number of partner projects including the installation of 20 toilets at a school in India, the construction of a community centre in Brazil and providing a radio communications unit for a turtle conservation project in Costa Rica.