Away from its pristine environment and temple treasures, many locals are still struggling to cope with Cambodia’s turbulent past.

Play a small part in a very large and ongoing mission to help develop this confounding kingdom and provide much needed care and attention to young children on this exciting project. You’ll help to create an educational and fun environment for the local children of Phnom Penh, as well as supporting the children’s nutrition and health.

Trip Highlights:

Itinerary

Day 1 (Saturday): Arrive into Phnom Penh International Airport (airport code PNH)

Welcome to Cambodia! Upon arrival into Phnom Penh airport, you’ll be met by a member of staff holding an i-to-i sign. The journey from the airport to your accommodation should take around 30 minutes so you will be able to have a look at your new surroundings. After you have settled in you will have the rest of the day to relax and enjoy your surroundings as well as meeting your fellow travellers.

If you aren’t able to arrange a flight to get you into Phnom Penh on the designated arrival day then we’d recommend you fly in a day early. We can arrange an early airport pick-up for you including one night’s accommodation for an additional fee, please call us for more information.

Day 2 (Sunday): Orientation Day

Today you will have an orientation with your coordinator where you will get a good insight into Cambodia, the culture, things to do and see, what to do in case of emergency and much more! It’s also a good way to meet your fellow travellers and also ask any questions that you have not had answered yet.

Day 3 (Monday): Introduction to project

Today you’ll be introduced to your fellow staff and taken through the steps of how to become a responsible volunteer and a great role model for the children to look up to. The i-to-i team will introduce you to the coordinators who will be your day-to-day contacts, you will then spend the rest of the day learning the ropes and getting to know the basics.

Days 4 to 7 (Tuesday to Friday): Volunteer work!

Throughout the week, you’ll be involved with the general day to day care of the children, including washing, preparing food, feeding, organizing fun activities, playing games and singing songs.

Your typical working hours will be from 8am to 5pm.

Days 8 and 9 (Saturday and Sunday): Weekend

During the weekends, you can venture out and explore the land of Cambodia! If you’ve got the energy, visit some of its infamous tourist attractions or if you’re in need of some relaxation, why not chill out on one of its fabulous white sand beaches, maybe Sihanoukville or Kep.

Following weeks

Your next week(s) will follow a similar pattern of spending time with the children Monday to Friday. It will be amazing how quickly you will settle in and develop your own skills as well as see the children develop theirs. Your weekends will be free to spend as you wish.

Your Last Day (Saturday)

It’s time to say goodbye to Cambodia and bid farewell to your new friends and board you flight.

Project

What does the project do?

Primarily set up as a library to help motivate street children to read and write, the project has also set up a day care centre nearby that provides young and disadvantaged children with nutritional food and support to help them towards to a brighter future.

Through research, the project has found that many families are either too busy working to properly care for their children or they are large families becoming poorer as they are unable to go to work as they look after their children. With lack of caring, the children end up playing around on the streets picking things up off the street to eat, playing in polluted waters and relieving themselves anywhere, etc. The project therefore decided to help these families by not only providing a care centre but also supporting and pushing the children towards a good education and healthy future.

What’s the project like?

With the aim to provide care and education for young disadvantaged children, you’ll generally take care of the children and help feed them, play with them, sing songs and may even have the opportunity to take the children outside the urban area and show them flowers, grass, nature and have a great day trip with them which not many will have experienced before. The children at this project are 5 years old and younger, so you can imagine that there will be many smiling faces demanding your attention!

Why does the project need volunteers?

It is recognised that volunteers from other countries bring lots of new ideas to help support the project and make learning much more fun!

Activities and schedule

Your typical working hours on this project will be 5 days a week, Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm. No previous experience of work is required, but you must be able to show patience and understanding when dealing with young children.

Where the project is based

The project is located in Phnom Penh and is around a 15 minute journey by tuk tuk from the accommodation.

Project resources and advice

Many of our volunteers make the decision to bring gifts and resources from home to Cambodia. Whilst all that the project really needs is you, full of motivation and ideas, if you wanted to bring resources from home the project is in need of educational toys. Most items can be purchased in Cambodia, which saves luggage space for you and helps the local economy.

Please note that you will need to come to Cambodia with an open mind and be prepared to be flexible as in Cambodia things can change from day to day.

Please note that a copy of your CV is required upon booking.

What exactly do i-to-i provide?

It may seem like a strange concept to pay for your volunteer experience. You'd be right if you think you shouldn't and the truth is you actually don't! Your placement is free; it's the benefits around it that you pay for. It's important to note that i-to-i is a travel company and not a charity. We provide a professional travel service. We are responsible for finding and assessing worthwhile projects across the world, preparing you for the volunteering experience and supporting you whilst you're there.

Here’s some more information about what your placement fee covers….

Project sourcing and assessment

We work with hundreds of locally run partner projects around the world and are constantly sourcing new opportunities. We visit all projects to check that they are worthwhile and legitimate and we also conduct a thorough safety assessment before we'll send volunteers there. More

Expert help-desk

Almost everyone who works for i-to-i has traveled extensively or worked overseas. This means we're a goldmine of information; we're always available to offer support and guidance before, during and after your trip.

Thorough project briefing materials

Once you book on to a project you'll receive an online account that contains loads of general information about volunteering, about your chosen country and how to have fun and stay safe. We'll also give you advice on visas and inoculations.

Airport pickup

It can be pretty daunting arriving in a different country for the first time - especially after a long flight! If you arrive on your project start date, there'll be a welcoming face at the airport to pick you up and take you to your accommodation.

Arrival orientation

Soon after you arrive you will attend a thorough orientation with our in-country team. This is to cover important safety and security information. You'll also get some tips about sight-seeing options for your time off and maybe even learn some of the local lingo!

Accommodation and meals

Accommodation is included with all projects and meals are even included with some. We only use locally-owned and operated accommodation so that part of your placement fee is filtering back into the local economy. Most projects offer homestay, guesthouse or shared volunteer houses as standard accommodation, but some offer the chance to upgrade to a more comfortable living standard. More

Local in-country coordinators

Your in-country team will arrange a pick-up for you at the airport and will conduct your orientation upon arrival. All coordination teams are English speaking and are locals of your destination country. They won't be at your project every day, but will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week if you need them. More

24/7 emergency support

Aside from the local support from your in-country team you'll be given access to a 24/7 emergency phone line manned by our response team in case any problem should arise while you're overseas. We also hire crisis management professionals to be on hand in case of a situation that requires additional expert support. More

Ongoing training

The safety and security of our volunteers is paramount. For this reason we provide ongoing crisis management and emergency response training to our local teams around the world. We also fly in our in-country coordinators to the UK regularly for thorough training to help them offer the best safety to the thousands of volunteers they support each year. More

Supporting our projects

We don't fund our projects directly from the project fee that you pay us. Instead we choose to support a number of projects through our Big Giving initiative to provide resources to those projects that really need it.

Recruiting people like you

We make no secrets of the fact that part of your placement fee is reinvested in to recruiting volunteers just like you! The volunteers recruited in one week will typically deliver over 2000 man-days of service. The difference this makes to projects overseas is immeasurable. Many of our overseas projects rely on assistance from international volunteers, so it's necessary for us to put together brochures and websites to find the people who can support them. This recruitment process is vital to ensure programs have a constant stream of reliable volunteers.

The intangible benefits

Volunteering through a company like i-to-i has a lot of intangible benefits to developing overseas communities and the individual projects that we work with. To find out more about our placements. click here

Next Steps

What we will do after you've booked:

Orientation Information

After arrival you will be taken to the Narin 1 Guesthouse (see contact details below) where you will have the first day/night to recover from your flight. It is located within walking distance of some shops, just ask staff for directions.

You will be staying at Narin 1 Guesthouse for the duration of your project. The projects are located between 2km to 9km from the guesthouse.

You will have a group orientation meeting with the overseas team in Phnom Penh on the morning after your arrival (Sunday.)

Narin 1 Guesthouse
No 50 St 125

Songkat Veal Vong

Khan 7 Makara

Phnom Penh

Cambodia


(Near Orussei Market)
T. +855 (0) 99881133 (Mr Narin Touch) 

Flights & Insurance

Insurance

It's important that you get adequate travel insurance for your i-to-i experience and as many of you will be working this often means standard policies won’t work. The good news is that no matter where your coming from we have already found a policy to suit you.

The best time to get your insurance is when you book your project as this means you can get a fully tailored policy exclusive to i-to-i, just ask your consultant for further details at the time of booking.

EU Customers – find out more here >>

Australian customers - find out more here >>

All other customers - find out more here >>

Flights

As with insurance we advise you get these booked as early as possible to avoid high prices and to make sure you arrive on the right day. The i-to-i team is right up to date with the best deals no matter where you’re flying from; their insider knowledge could save you some time and money.

Accommodation

What type of accommodation will I be in?

You will be staying in a guesthouse in Phnom Penh with other volunteers. Food is not included, however is available at the restaurant or nearby restaurants.

Accommodation facilities

The guesthouse has 26 rooms with accommodation based on shared rooms with up to 3 people in a room with a fan and are also equipped with cable TV. There is a shower and a western style toilet. Volunteers are able to use the guesthouse laundry service for which there is a fee payable locally. A restaurant is available at the guesthouse and a safety box can be requested by volunteers from reception. A mosquito net is not required. Internet is available at the guesthouse free of charge but does tend to be quite slow, internet is also available nearby at approximately USD0.375 per hour and is faster! Pure drinking water can be refilled for free at the guesthouse and there is a small charge of US$1-2 per day for hot water.

Things to bring from home

Please respect the local culture and wear modest clothes while at the project. You should bring cotton clothes (not transparent) and you may also want to bring some clothes for your evenings out. Remember that you will need to be respectful of the local culture and keep arms and legs covered, but 3 quarter length trousers and T-shirts will be fine.
Don’t forget to bring books, music, cards and games too for your free time.

Where is the accommodation?

The guesthouse is located near Orussei Market and is approximately 1.5kms from the Cambodia in country team office. Distance to projects are between 2kms and 9kms.

Banks are 250m away and there is a modern hospital with good facilities 1 km away.

It is very easy to get a local SIM card which is advisable. Please make sure your mobile is 'unblocked' before you arrive so that the local SIM cards will work.

How far is it from my project?

Please budget around US$30 per week for transport to and from the project, it will take approximately 30 minutes by motorbike and 45 minutes by tuk tuk.