Tabea says 

I learned about Cambodian culture and Buddhist religion 
what broaden my horizon a lot.

Name: Tabea Schaarschmidt

Date of report: 30.07.2012

Work place/community at SCC: Head Office Phnom Penh, SCC schools

Position/function: English teacher, office assistant

Education: job training as retailer in a natural health store

Years of post-graduation work experience: -

Work experience abroad: 10 months in Vancouver, Canada

Duration of voluntary service: 1 year

Accommodations during voluntary service: apartment (self-arranged)

My activities at SCC: 
teaching English, editing reports and emails, updating SCC facebook page

Feedback:

I am happy about my volunteering with SCC who became my Cambodian family. They helped me to learn about Cambodian culture and Buddhist religion what broaden my horizon a lot. It was interesting to work in a very different work environment as I knew so far and I learned socializing is really important to my Cambodian colleagues and I was really overwhelmed by their friendliness and felt welcome all the time.

Even if it was sometimes challenging for me to teach – as I never taught before – I learned so much about my student's daily sorrows and joys and I got so much happiness back from them. Beside of teaching I provided information on our SCC facebook page, edited reports and emails of my colleagues. Furthermore I created students profiles in English and organized a handicraft workshop. I joined SCC events such as rice-, school material and school uniform contribution what gave me a deeper view into SCC's work. It was really joyful to join SCC meetings, meditation and the annual staff retreat in Sihanoukville. I was able to visit the other SCC branches in Siem Reap and Battambong and SCC partners what was very informative to me. Moreover, I assisted in finding a suitable school for a disabled student of SCC school and financial support which covers the transportation to his new school. 
 
Overall, my experiences are positive and I felt very pleased to live and work in the bustling city Phnom Penh.

Robyn says

My time with the students would have to be one of the 

most rewarding and satisfying times of my life.  

Name: Robyn Donaldson                                           

Date of report: 17^th February 2012

Work place/community at SCC: SCC school, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

Position/function: English teacher

Education: High School & various college courses

Years of post-graduation work experience: 30+ in Australia

Work experience abroad: This is my first time working abroad

Duration of voluntary service: Two months in Phnom Penh, one month in Siem Reap                    

Accommodations during voluntary service: Projects Abroad apartment 

My activities at SCC:

Teaching English – grammar and spelling rules; English conversation; map reading

Feedback:

I loved working with the students….they were enthusiastic about learning, and listened to what I was teaching them. It was such a pleasure to teach.  It was satisfying to see their confidence grow as they learnt more English rules & conversation each week.  I loved that they would practice their English conversation on a daily basis with me, and each other.  They were lots of fun and respectful also.  This experience is a major highlight of my life. The teachers are also very special and I now consider them my friends. I was treated with great respect.

I also thank SCC for supporting my suggestion of a day trip to Phnom Tamao.  We all had such a wonderful day, and I will always remember the happiness on the faces of the students as we visited the animals and relaxed over lunch. 

I’m also very happy that Projects Abroad organized supported my request to paint the classrooms in Phnom Penh – it gave the volunteers such great pleasure to brighten up the rooms.

I would like to come back one day and hopefully do more volunteering with SCC.

Natsu says

the most rewarding experience in volunteering with SCC was the support and 
friendliness that I received from the SCC staff

 

Name: Natsu Fujita
Date of report: 26 Jan 2012
Work place/community at SCC: Phnom Penh office, Samrong Meanchey, 

                                               and Beoung Kak
Position/function: Health teaching volunteer in the communities, and assisted 

                            in the office as necessary
Education: BSN
Years of post-graduation work experience: 6 years 

Work experience abroad: 6 years in Canada
Duration of voluntary service: 3 months
Accommodations during voluntary service: apartment (self-arranged)

My activities at SCC:

- teaching school aged children in the communities about healthy behaviors.
- creating and preparing teaching materials and additional resources for the CBE in 
   Phnom Penh.
- assisting the office staff in writing their English emails and the SCC annual report.
- assisted with data entry of the SCC annual report

Throughout my time at SCC, I was able to participate in writing the draft of the SCC annual survey, which was beneficial in increasing my knowledge about NGOs and development work. I also felt that I was able to create some teaching material which could be used by the teachers in the future. Through my interaction and bonding with the SCC community staff I was able to share my knowledge and experience about various health issues as well.

It was a difficult transition at first in a very different work environment from what I was used to, but I was received warmly by the SCC staff and by the end of my 3 months I was satisfied with my whole experience at SCC.

Sina says

my overall experience of living and working in Cambodia has been very positive and attractive

Name: Sina Brod

Date of report: 24/07/11       

Work place/community at SCC: head office, Phnom Penh

Position/function: HR & Media Advisor

Education: BA culture & management, MA cultural sciences

Years of post-graduation work experience: -

Work experience abroad: 1 year

Duration of voluntary service: 1 year                                          

Accommodations during voluntary service: apartment (self-arranged)   

Feedback

It has been about eleven months since I arrived in Cambodia and started living and working in Phnom Penh. SCC staff became a family to me, with whom it is really nice to work with, go on trips and to share daily life issues. My area of work switched from Public Relations to the field of Human Resource back again to Public Relations. For Public Relations purposes I designed a folder with Photoshop to give to donors or partners in order to keep promotion material or even reports. Further I assisted in the organization and conduction of a workshop on HIV/AIDS sustainability including other NGOs of SCC's network. I also organized and accompanied the production of film footage with a local film crew of the Royal University Phnom Penh (RUPP) and SCC at our children basic education centers in Phnom Penh and Somroang Mean Chey as requested by our British donor CAFOD. 

I also wrote a welcome map for new volunteers working with SCC and experiencing the huzz and buzz of Phnom Penh and Cambodia ;)  Additionally Lalin and I gave presentations about SCC’s work and the situation of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia for VAC volunteers at STAR Kampuchea. I also worked together with Lalin on his time management in order to development a guide for staff appraisals and renewal of contracts and so on. Moreover one of my continuous tasks are to edit guidelines, reports or letters for my colleagues, to follow up on the media updates such as the homepage and the social network like facebook and the blog for volunteers. 

I have occasionally visited the communities in Phnom Penh and teach English to my colleagues three times a week. My English lessons run well with a firm number of students. This makes me feel happy and satisfied as I experience mutual respect from SCC staff towards me as a teacher, as a colleague and as friend. Concerning my work at SCC, I recently got a deeper insight in structural development of an NGO, such as working on a strategy, evaluating programs according to the objectives and looking for the enhancement of staff capacity together with the line managers. Our director Mr. Thoeun shared his point of view in terms of strategic planning and the enhancement of SCC. This is basically to constantly develop sustainable projects for the beneficiaries in order to improve our services and help the beneficiaries  become self-reliable. Further it is important to keep in mind the broad picture and objectives of the NGO and follow these in line with international trends in development work in the Kingdom of Cambodia and the region. Therefore networking with local authorities, other non-profit organizations and international non-government organizations plays a key role, too. 

On account of the enjoyable time at work and the common leisure activities with colleagues I feel very comfortable working and living in Phnom Penh and would like to continue staying here.

Mara says

 

working with the children was extremely rewarding, and the support network was very helpful

Name: Mara Budgen

Date of report: 18/07/11       

Work place/community at SCC: Boeung Kak Centre

Position/function: English teacher

Education: High school diploma, second year undergraduate studies

Years of post-graduation work experience: -

Work experience abroad: -

Duration of voluntary service: 1 month                                            

Accommodations during voluntary service: guesthouse (self-arranged)     

Feedback:

My role was to teach English to Primary and Elementary school children every day at the Boeung Kak Community Based Education center. Although I didn’t receive a lot of information prior to my arrival about the organization or the children’s level of English, I was able to adapt adequately to this challenge. Working with these children was very rewarding and I was extremely satisfied with my experience, also the teachers at the school were very helpful and supportive.

Although it is hard to measure what I achieved, as a lot of the work done will emerge later in the children’s lives, I am very satisfied with what they have learnt. In terms of personal growth, I learnt a lot about teaching children (something I’d never done). I was able to structure my lessons by adapting the work day by day, as a consequence to the children’s response to the work done.

The challenges I faced during my volunteering were related to the teaching, per se. In particular, in the Primary class, some children are very young, and have a difficult time concentrating, and absorbing information. They would be better suited for a class with a younger age-focus. However, I realize that this may be impracticable, and in any case, I am confident that the things learned will show themselves in later life.

What I found most rewarding about my experience volunteering with SCC is that I grew so close to the children, and contributed to their academic achievements.

By Jennifer and Carolin

It was the experience we were looking for!

Name: Jennifer and Carolin                                                              

Date of report: March 28, 2011

Work place/community at SCC: Battambang

Position/function: HIV/ Aids program volunteer

Education: examined nurse

Years of post-graduation work experience: 5 years

Work experience abroad: -

Duration of voluntary service: 7 months                                           

Accommodations during voluntary service: apartment house

Feedback:

We started working every day at 8 o´clock and met the SCC staff in the office at the Norea Pagoda. We discussed the day and which people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) we have to visit. Afterwards we went to the homes of the PLHIV. We checked the health of the PLHIV and treated small opportunistic diseases like headache, stomach ache, skin disease or diarrhea. Further we took part at support group meetings for HIV infected people together with the monks and nuns in the pagoda. When we had some time we conducted an education in hygiene or we went together with the PLHIV to the hospital to pick up new boxes of medicine and to check the CD4 count. 

As we were the first long term volunteers, we did not receive that much of information beforehand, but working with SCC was the experience we were looking for. We caught a deeper view into the Khmer culture than we ever imagined in advance. Fortunately we received support in every situation, both at work and in our free time. Besides the volunteer work we also created a circle of donors in Germany. By creating our own donor circle we could start some income generations for PLHIV, build houses, buy several bicycles for the poorest HIV affected children and a lot of other things.

Moreover we organized a “Happy Happy program”-trip with up to 50 OVCs. We also made Mr Bunchhen learn 20 English words and he was able to forget 30! 

Although we experienced a cultural and a language barrier in the beginning, we made a lot of new friends and Cambodia became like a second home for us. It is like having a second family abroad.

To us SCC is the most honest organization we ever met. We were amazed by the professionalism of their work and the Buddhist approach and philosophy throughout SCC.

 

Please have a look at the J&C Foundation that was founded by the two young ladies to raise funds for the SCC's programs.www.jc-foundation.de

Johanna says

I got a deeper insight into the culture and the life of great 

and lovely Cambodian kids!

Name: Johanna Rock                                                            

Date of report: 31.01.2011

Work place/community at SCC: Samrong Meanchey

Position/function: English and computer teacher

Education:  
Higher technical college for computing and business management

Years of post-graduation work experience: -

Work experience abroad: -

Duration of voluntary service: three months                                               

Accommodations during voluntary service:    
Tattoo Guesthouse / Guest Family  

Feedback:      

Teacher for grade 5 and 6 in Samrong Meanchey  for English (thrice weekly) and computer (twice weekly) lessons. The volunteering at SCC and the school in Samrong Meanchey was a great experience and a chance for me to get a deeper insight into the culture and the life of great and lovely Cambodian kids as well as to reveal the problems of this country.  Furthermore I got to know and work with the incredibly nice staff of SCC and spent many lunch breaks with them (listening to the for me incomprehensible language).

My personal achievements were surely to get known the culture and the people in Cambodia, also it was a great chance to improve my own English skills. Furthermore it also was very important for me to help people and mostly children (who really need the education) with my work, I think this worked out well.

The most rewarding about my volunteering is for me not only the personal expand of horizon but also the feeling I helped my kids just a little bit with obtaining education to have the chance of a better life.

Surely the biggest challenge of all was the country itself, there are so many new things you have to get used to and the poverty you get confronted with. Also it was a challenge for me to teach students with such a enormous difference of standard of knowledge in one class.

Thank you for everything =)

HIV/AIDS in Cambodia

Cambodia is one of the countries in Asia most severely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with an estimated adult (15-49 years) prevalence rate of approximately 0.8% (UNAIDS 2007). Currently, it is estimated that Cambodia has over 75,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, among those more than 4,400 are children (0-14 years). Around6,900 people are dying due to AIDS. (UNAIDS 2007) About one out of twelve children in Cambodia has lost one or both parents to AIDS. (UNICEF 2007). 

A brief history of SCC

When SCC was founded in 1994 by the current director Prum Thoeun and his co-partner Mork Sovanhang, the founder were sitting in the shade of an old tree near a Stupa because they had no other workplace. SCC was only an ambitious idea in those days, and it took a long way to walk to become the strong, acknowledged and professional organization as it is nowadays. Among the 75 staff members in Phnom Penh, Siem reap and Battambang, SCC currently employs 9 monks and 3 nuns.

www.scc.org.kh 

Volunteer with SCC

Welcome to SCC volunteers' page!

This blog aims to collect the stories of volunteers working with SCC in Cambodia. Further SCC wishes that former and new volunteers use this blog to connect with each other.

We are happy that you are interested to read about individual experiences.

For further information please have a look on our homepage www.scc.org.kh or contact SCC directly Lalin@scc.org.kh