Volunteering for some lessons in life on a teaching course in Cambodia

via Khmer NZ

By Carol Driver
19th August 2010

According to STA Travel, the number of A-level students taking a gap year is expected to increase by 150 per cent as youngsters miss out on places at universities and choose to travel instead.

The options are seemingly limitless, from round-the-world backpacking trips to year-long work placements. Here, Carol Driver recounts three weeks spent as a volunteer teacher in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

There are forty beaming faces staring up at me waiting for my next move. They giggle as I jump up and down, attempting to sing ‘with a moo-moo here’ from Old MacDonald’s Farm.

I know I look ridiculous, but I’m far from caring. It’s 4pm in Cambodia and it’s a searing 40C. We are crammed into a tiny, non-air conditioned make-shift classroom in Phnom Penh. I’m trying desperately to keep their attention as they want to go and play.

A young student gets to grips with fruit and veg: The charity Riverkids offers children at risk of being trafficked or sold into prostitution a free education

Thankfully it works. By the time I add a pig, cow and horse, they start chanting the animal noises.

I manage to make it to the end of the lesson – sweat running down my back. I’m in the country’s capital city for three weeks as part of a volunteer project, helping the charity Riverkids, which offers children at risk of being trafficked or sold into prostitution, a free education.

And, as thousands of students across the country receive their A-level results this week, they’ll be thinking of heading off abroad to volunteer as well. The brochures bill it as ‘rewarding’ and a chance to ‘give something back’. What they don’t prepare you for is the hard work that goes with it.

On my first day, I’m taken to the slums where many of the children studying at Riverkids live. The scenes are heartbreaking. The tiny, wooden shacks balance around mud paths. There are dirty, naked toddlers wandering aimlessly.

We see some women working, cooking meals, while most of the men are lying down, watching TV. Many of them have drink and drug problems.

Young Cambodians at this school in Phnom Penh experience a merry-go-round of teachers as volunteers like Carol (centre of image on right) offer their skills

The children look helpless. It’s easy to see how celebrities such as Madonna and Angela Jolie think they’re helping communities by adopting children. But it’s charities such as Riverkids that are really stopping the cycle of poverty.

Back in the classroom, volunteers prepare their own lessons. It means the children are at a disadvantage, as no one really knows what the previous teacher has taught. My first class is a group of nine to 15-year-olds and I’m armed with flashcards and basic-English books.

As I walk into the classroom, the students stand and chant, ‘Good morning teacher’ in Khmer and then English, as they clasp their hands together in the traditional respectful greeting.

After English is computer studies – but, as Riverkids doesn’t have the resources to buy an electricity generator, and there’s a power cut every day, the lessons are always cut short.

With no electricity, there are also no fans, and the intense heat makes it increasingly difficult to concentrate.

Thankful task: Teachers who join the Riverkids project leave with invaluable life experience, says Carol

My day ends with art and singing classes for children as young as three – some of whom have no English skills at all so communicating with them is almost impossible. I spend the hour running around, clearing up spilt water, helping children who have difficulty drawing.

At the end of the lesson, the children playfully smear colours down each other’s faces and in one another’s hair.

I shrug my shoulders and laugh as the kids line up at the small sink to wash their hands and faces before going home. Exhausted, I head back to my guesthouse where I meet the other volunteers to talk about how difficult our days were.

As I pull a text book from my bag and a note slips out: ‘I love you teacher from Srey Mai.’ It’s then I realise why ‘voluntourism’ is so popular.

While it’s ultimately aimed at improving the lives of the young students, I can’t help think it’s them - with their robust attitudes and uncertain futures – who teach the volunteers the greater lesson. And that’s why it’s so rewarding.

Travel facts

Help Teach and Care for Children in Cambodia costs from £749 for three weeks with

i-to-i Meaningful Travel. Call 0871 011 1156 or visit www.i-to-i.com.

Fly to Cambodia via Bangkok with Qantas from £929, www.quantas.com.

Follow Carol's travels on Twitter: @caroldtravels