Cambodia House Building and CICFO Support: Excited for meaningful service but short on time? Our house building expeditions are compressed into roughly 7 days. The houses we help build for villagers is the culmination of a micro-savings program. Families inch their way out of poverty through the combination of savings, sustainable agriculture, micro-enterprise, and a heavy dosage of hard work and commitment. The homes we help them build is a joint effort to celebrate their accomplishments–helping families get off the streets and into their very own home–forging unbreakable bonds and partnerships for years to come.
We will also be working with the children’s home we support in Phnom Penh (CICFO). There the team will learn how we work to support CICFO to be self-sufficient.
To learn more about why we do this program and to see a day-to-day working itinerary, follow this link: http://forpeace.us/service_learning/2012/hb.html
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Led by Margret Ellwanger and Steven Wrigley, this program brings over 15 years of combined experience working in Cambodia. Be prepared to learn invaluable lessons about the field of sustainable development! Teams are typically a good mix of old and young, students, teachers, academics, professionals, diplomats, parent/child combinations, retired couples and individuals looking for something meaningful to contribute to the world. To date, teams have been an eclectic combination of American, Australian, European, Israeli participants.
Additional Project Information:
We work hard to extract the talents and skills of our volunteer team members. We are always happy to adapt this program slightly to better utilize volunteers’ unique skills, all while maintaining focus on the core objectives we have set out to accomplish in our local partnerships for the betterment of those we serve. Please keep in mind that these project ideas are derived from homegrown solutions and partnerships that see results. These projects are directly correlated to meet local opportunities for development.
Location:
TBD
Accommodations:
Where possible, volunteers stay together as a group in a local village school, health clinic or family home stay specially selected and prepared to receive our volunteer team. This allows for greater cultural immersion as the team stays in the village and gets more time to interact with the locals. Moreover, it satisfies a direct economic benefit to the village, as GOA compensates local villagers to take care of the needs of our visiting volunteers. Unfortunately, in Cambodia, these types of living arrangements in villages are sometimes rare and difficult to accommodate. Therefore, at times are volunteer groups need to stay in hotels or guest homes as an alternative. If we go this route, we only select responsible, socially-conscious hotels that conduct corporate outreach train and employ those that seek to work themselves out of poverty. Additionally, we strive to give business to socially conscious restaurants such as “Friends” in Phnom Penh.
Food:
Going along our model of authentic cultural immersion, volunteers will get the opportunity to eat nutritious, locally prepared food. When staying with locals or in a village, we train and hire those with certified food handling permits to prepare nutritious meals for our teams. The food is fresh and tastes great! If village stays are not possible, we will eat out at responsible, socially-minded restaurants pre-selected by team leaders (e.g. “Friends” in Phnom Penh).
Optional Cultural/Adventure Excursion:
At the end of this expedition there will be an option for volunteers to embark on a cultural exploratory adventure to the ruins of Angkor Wat in Seim Reap, Cambodia.
Additional Questions?
Check out the FAQ section of our site. Or, please feel free call us at 801-449-0463.
March 30 - April 5, 2014
$200 Deposit + $1,000 Program Fee (Includes all in-country expenses (food, accommodations, in-country transportation, cultural learning excursion, etc.) and home building materials (to build 10 homes, we need $11,300). Does not include airfare to/from Phnom Penh.
