Build Your Future Today Orphanage

As part of my travelling, an important part of my itinerary was to include some sort of charity work / volunteering.

We were extremely fortunate to stay at the nicest guesthouse, Bun Kao Guesthouse. If anyone is going to Siem Reap, I'd highly recommened this guesthouse. The owner, Bun kao, genuinely one of the nicest people I've ever met, so much so I now call him uncle Bun Kao, previously worked for BFT for 10 years, an organisation that helps with orphans left from the wars that have torn Cambodia apart.


http://www.bunkaoguesthouse.com/

We had an informal meeting with Sedtha, the director of the organisation to get some information and background of the company. There are lots of orphanage charities in Cambodia and not all are genuine so it was good to have a talk with Sedtha and for him to explain how he came about setting up the orphanage.

BFT originally started out as an orphanage for those who had lost their parents during the time of the Khmer Rouge and war with Vietnam, but it soon turned into more than this. It now also helps with community projects and schools outside of siem reap. My first taste of volunteering came in the form of teaching English, not my strongest subject by all means, but I said to myself to give anything a go. 


I got plunged straight into the deep end, I was teaching a range of kids aged 13-17 and the lesson was about past and present tense.... I almost froze!! They had formulas on how the tenses worked and I was completely baffled! It was a huge struggle but managed to scrape through with some dignity, I had learnt that teaching English was definitely not one of my strong points, let's hope the kids are better off with my advice and not worse off!

The following days volunteering was even more rewarding than the first day. The children at school had just returned from a 3 month holiday and at the beginning of each new school year the children's BMI is measured to keep an eye on their health and if there are any signs malnutrition. It was an early start of 630 and a 2 hour drive in the back of a pick up truck through some of the roughest and remote roads out of siem reap.


Crossing potholes like this....

We arrived at a school of about 150 children and after having a spot of lunch, we began measuring their height, weighing them and measuring their arms. The children were very happy to see new faces at the school and there was an immediate soft spot for all of them! An extremely rewarding day, and something to pursue in the future if I'm in Siem Reap again.

http://www.center-bft.org/