This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity began in 2023 when I applied for a position on the first-ever All Saints College Cambodia service trip. The whole process was extremely exciting. I was forced to be independent and confident in myself. After being selected for this service trip we began fundraising, we were not fundraising for people to pay for the flights or the accommodation however we were fundraising for a local school as well as for the resources to build a house for a family in need. I was involved in many fundraisers such as bake sales, a Bunnings sausage sizzle, a Go-fund me, a Car wash, and we even organised a book fair across the college, along with various other fundraisers. Together we raised around 20 thousand dollars an incredible number to be proud of.

Once the fundraising was completed it was on to the adventure! While in Cambodia we were exposed to and educated on major historic events and landmarks such as the killing fields as well as the main religious practices, this allowed us to be able to understand and empathise with the locals as we were now made aware of what this country has been through so recently and we had a deeper understanding of their way of life.

Acts of service

The House Build

Before we began the building of a house for a family in need we briefly met the family and heard about their story. The mother was ill and could no longer work leaving the father to earn all of the money for the family, which included, both parents as well as two daughters all living off of one income. Their house was around 2 meters by 4 meters and was simply split in half by a piece of wood dividing the kitchen from the sleeping space that was a little bit of elevated wood so that if it flooded they would not get wet when sleeping. This was one eye-opening experience and for me, it made working hard in the heat extremely easy when you would look over at the family sitting on the floor. I learnt so many skills while helping to provide a house for this family and for many generations to come. While we were building, the children from the community would come and play with us offering us presents such as hair clips and little toys, we had to take them as through our learning about Cambodian culture we discovered that it was considered polite to accept gifts rather than say no.

After 2 days of hard labour we were done with the building and it was time to have the house blessed by the Monks as well as hand it over to the family. This was an extremely emotional time and you could feel the thanks and gratitude of the family radiating around the space. Many close family members from the village came down to see the house and celebrate this new beginning with the family. The opportunity to raise funds to be able to dedicate time to a family in need was so rewarding and is something that I would do again in a heartbeat.

Water Filters

During this service trip, one act of service was building and installing water filters for families in local villages. We installed and built 20 filters with the help of a local NGO called Water for Cambodia. Due to 18% of Siem Reap not having access to clean and drinkable water these water filters that last around 10 – 15 years make a huge difference to Cambodian families and their health.

When helping to build these filters we de-moulded some of the filters previously made in order to fill the mould back up again with the concrete that we mixed, we also cleaned bucket loads of sand in order to create an ecosystem in the filter that can clean the water. Once we had prepared each component of the filter we travelled into a village to install the filters to families. The installation process was more than just giving the families the filter and hoping for the best, we had to make sure the levels were all correct and the man from Water for Cambodia would be back in a few weeks to make sure it was in working order, but this step also included interactions with the locals, I can remember finding frogs under sheets of metal with one group of kids in the village as this was one game they played to have fun as well.

Free The Bears

The day that we spent at Free the Bears was an extremely fun day, I definitely got to fulfil my love for animals. Although we helped out this service group by assisting and preparing the animal’s meals, this out of all of the service acts was more of a fun one that allowed us the opportunity to be educated on why the animals were kept at this facility and also ensuring that the endangered sun and moon bears are all receiving the correct nutrition. The correct nutrition that I found was right for these animals was guava, and I do not think that I will ever have to cut as much guava as I did on that day.

The experience at Free The Bears Cambodia was extremely interesting, we learnt that the Sun and Moon bears were often milked for their bile and kept as pets both of which are extremely unethical practices. We were allowed the opportunity to enter the bear’s enclosure and hide the food that we had prepared. We were treated to a lovely lunch cooked by the team and then this was followed by a tour of this facility, we got to see all of the other animals such as leopards, monkeys, snakes, otters, elephants with prosthetic legs and other animals alike, that had either been harmed and are in need of rehabilitation of they are simply endangered and are apart of a program at Free The Bears.

Treak Community School

We were also blessed with the opportunity to provide our time and energy to be able to bring light to some of the students at Treak. The Treak Community School is run by an English man who fell in love with Cambodia and wanted to help the children want to go to school. The School is a place of both education and fun but is mostly based on giving students basic reading and writing skills in order for them to get a job. This positive environment instils essential values in the students and allows them a space to go to get fed a healthy meal, be educated and be with friends and others who care.

When we were at the School we were able to make a mural that said “Empathy” one of our college values, the director of Treak expressed how he wanted to teach the children about empathy and with All Saints’ close tie to this value these two days of service spent at Treak almost felt perfect. We also were able to spend some time making bricks out of concrete mixed with recycled plastic waste that the school had collected. The overall time spent at Treak was heartwarming and fun.

All that has been written in the post above is just a little bit of what I am so privileged and grateful to have experienced with such incredible people by my side. So many memories were made and so many new friends, I feel so honoured and grateful to have had this opportunity to pour my heart and soul into helping people live life with just a little more ease and joy. I hope that all of the families that we were able to help are doing well and I hope to head back one day when I am a little older and be in contact with some of the people that we impacted.