Maria Alaguru, 35, is from Penang, Malaysia and is a media and education professional. She studied and worked in three continents, enjoys outdoors, community service, world cinema and spending time with friends and family.
She volunteered at Learn4Life Cambodia between April and June 2014.
I had visited Cambodia several times in the past as a tourist and been moved by its history and present development and social challenges.
I wanted to give something back that I knew would be valuable to the Khmer people.
As an experienced ESL teacher familiar with the format of a private language center, it was a good fit for me professionally and personally.
I was also taking a break from work and looking for a drastic change in lifestyle and environment.
I believe that the best improvements are consistent and incremental, the kind of positive change that happens without you noticing and without there being any shocks to current systems.
As such, I cannot claim to have made any radical impact but I can confidently say that I was part of a long-term effort of community education, focusing on talented people who have the power and ability to be the real game-changers in their society. I feel happy that in the final exams, my students had made progress and that it was reflected in their results.
That I would not have needed to bring so much stuff with me. Siem Reap had most everything I needed and more.
Learn4Life's principal, David Scotcher had told me to just show up. He wasn't kidding. When I think about it, I really could have hopped on a plane with whatever I was wearing, my passport, boarding pass, some money and shown up.
Everything from clothes, groceries to toiletries were accessible within 5 minutes' walking distance from the learning centre, cheap and cheerful.
Kimthet was in my Elementary 2 class. When Learn4Life organized a cycling outing to visit a village school to distribute donations of stationery and uniforms, we had stopped for lunch by the French Bridge in Siem Reap.
We found the place littered with a lot of rubbish. Kimthet had been a volunteer teacher himself in the past at another school but was now preparing to become a tour guide and was learning French and English.
He came up to me towards the end of the lunch break and said: "Teacher, there are about 30 people here. If we each spent five minutes picking up some rubbish and collecting it in a heap, we can leave this place better than when we got here."
The group got together and five minutes turned into a satisfying, volunteered 20-minute clean-up. Here was yet another example of the power of one.
Professionally, I now have experience in teaching in Cambodia, which enriches my teaching and volunteer experience.
Personally, I have been inspired by the people I met while volunteering at Learn4Life - individuals who make the most of what they have to achieve their goals, who initiate simple change, who encourage and help each other with patience, and who share what little they have with generosity, show kindness and love to visitors, and who value and enjoy the company of friends and coworkers.