Kate volunteered at Grace House Community Centre in Siem Reap, Cambodia from July 26th to August 27th 2014. Grace House provides education and services to children from 3 villages living below the poverty line. Kate worked with Class 2 and their teacher Salas, conducting English, math, art, and sports activities with the enthusiastic children over 4 weeks. The children were grateful for the education provided by Grace House, as many Cambodian children do not attend school. Kate was inspired daily by the children and looked forward to returning to volunteer again.

1. Volunteer Kate’s time in Cambodia
with

2. Volunteering in
Cambodia
26th
July - 27th
August 2014

3. As I left home I was feeling nervous but also
very excited. My daughter drove me down to
Gatwick airport for my flight to Cambodia.

4. North
America
South
America
Asia
Africa
Europe
Australia
The journey of 6,200 miles to
Cambodia took me about 14 hours on
the aeroplane.

5. I stayed in a place called Siem Reap
in north west Cambodia.

6. When I arrived at Siem Reap airport I was met by
Mr Kim who was to be my tuk tuk driver for the next
few weeks. We left the airport and travelled along
the main roads towards the town of Siem Reap.

7. After about half an hour I arrived at my hotel,
The River Garden.

8. It was a beautiful place set in a lush, green
garden, a mini rain forest.

9. The next day, after a lovely long sleep, I was given a
brief tour of the town of Siem Reap. We saw many
markets and I couldn’t believe how many tuk tuks and
mopeds there were whizzing around!

10. After a while we set off on the journey to Grace
House. It was amazing to see what mopeds were being
used for – mattresses piled high and yes, 5 children
on one saddle!

11. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the
entrance to Grace House. . .

12. Do you remember me telling you about Grace
House Community Centre? It provides a service
to 3 villages where most of the community live
below the poverty line. This means they earn
very little money, have very little food and have
poor living conditions.

13. The children who attend Grace House are very
lucky because here they are taught English and
lots of different subjects that they are not
taught at their primary school. The teachers at
Grace House are very kind to the children
whereas they are sometimes hit at their
primary school if they are a bit slow to learn or
simply do not know the answer to a question.

14. As I arrived on that first day I knew I was to be working at
somewhere very special. There was a warmth and happiness
that made me smile whenever I was there.
Here you can see some of the classrooms, the kitchen and
library.

15. Each day Mr Kim picked me up in the tuk tuk at
8.15am for the journey to Grace House where I
worked with the children in Class 2 and their young
teacher Salas.

16. Over the next 4 weeks Salas and I worked together on lots
of different activities with the children.
There was . . . Maths

17. English . . .

18. Drawing and painting . . .

19. Making puppets . . .

20. Football and cricket . . .

21. Parachute games . . .

22. Stories in the library . . .

23. Sometimes we’d get some visitors in the
classroom . . .

24. And sometimes the children would just get
so tired they needed a little nap . . .

25. One of the activities that Grace House provides for the
children is teeth cleaning. Everyone has their own toothbrush
and is expected to clean their teeth between lessons because
they do not have toothbrushes and toothpaste at home.

26. • I can honestly say that very day while I was working at Grace House I
woke up and bounced out of bed as I really looked forward to the day
ahead. The children were so enthusiastic in all their lessons. They had
great concentration and listened attentively. They really appreciated
the education they were getting as so many children in Cambodia do
not go to school and cannot read or write.

27. The children of Grace House inspired me every day
and I couldn’t stop smiling when I was with them. I
will definitely be going back to work with them again.