GVI, Ethical Impact: Volunteer in Cambodia

I’m just about to finish volunteering for GVI Cambodia and what an amazing experience it has been. It felt like a true family from the start. From the moment you get picked up from the airport, to the last moments you get dropped off, you feel absolutely comforted. Everyone from the GVI staff and the guest house are truly the most wonderful people, so there wasn’t a single moment I didn’t feel at home. You’ll create lifelong friendships and memories you will cherish forever all while making a positive impact on the local community! I ended up loving this organization so much I applied for GVI jobs all over the world! If you’re thinking about coming to GVI Cambodia, I 1000% recommend! The only thing I regretted was not extending and staying for longer!

I volunteered with GVI Cambodia for two months. Throughout my time here I feel I have developed skills that I can carry with my into te future. There is never a dull moment on base, with field staff always on hand to provide assistance and guidance. The staff are very friendly and approachable and work hard to ensure you have the best time possible. On project, I have a great time teaching English to members of the community and also carrying out a community development internship. I have found this very beneficial and will never forget the amazing memories I have created in this incredible place. I recommend GVI highly as during the application process I felt supported and was well informed about my project and what I will be doing here. GVI Cambodia is still a new hub and it's so exciting to see it developing and growing by the week. Working with local partners and educating members of the community enables you to really become immersed in the Cambodian culture and get to know the people you are working with.

My name is Myrna, I am 20 years old, I am from Indonesia, I study at Industrial Engineering at Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya Jakarta. The program that I live here with GVI is research, program development, and some training.

I started to be interested in volunteering since junior high school because I felt when we could still help why not. I joined this activity with Gvi because I and my friends won the PIPE SDG competition in Indonesia. During this volunteer I became more grateful, more open to his thoughts and got very much new knowledge

From GVI I learned happily that it could not only be achieved through just walking but also by helping people.The training that has been received so far is very interesting, especially the activity of activating what we learn after the training is finished, making it easier for us to better understand it. All of you should try to do activities with GVI because all the activities are interesting and fun.

I feel very happy and very interested in all the activities here. I feel very happy because I got a lot of new experiences. The part that I like most during this activity is the activity of meeting children in the cheung kok area. During this activity I learned to be grateful for my life and learned to patiently run everything. During this activity I felt safe and always got support from staff and friends. From this activity also changed my mindset so that it became more open and could be an added value when I wanted to do the next activity.

We are acquainted with GVI, an international NGO that focuses on improving education at the location of their programs in 20 countries, one of them in Cambodia. We also got the first training to teach English. I also learned about Global Development with lilies, development strategies and several theories related to Global Development. After that, we got training to create NGOs that will be implemented in Kampong Champ based on issues that exist in the village of Cham.

The NGO I made is Super 2030 focusing on young people and children. The aim is to build awareness and concern for young people to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and provide SDGs values to children. So that young people here are ready to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs development goals.

After that we also got the task to make programs related to traffic issues in Cambodia. Before developing the program, Diamond and I conducted a small research on this issue. we interviewed some Cambodian residents regarding the transportation system here. The result is that the average Cambodian does not like to use a helmet, there are no specific rules for riding a motorcycle, such as SIM cards and others and on average in the family each family member gets a motorcycle. Through the results of this survey we created a program that is a happy traffic campaign with #Helmetismystyle.

We also visited one of the NGOs in Kampong Champ, BSDA. There we learned a lot about their programs, program development strategies and problem analysis and risk management in running programs. Many program developments are carried out by BSDA, starting from the education, economic and community empowerment sectors.

We also conducted research related to the importance of learning English, caring for health and empowering women to the community of champ champ. We

got 17 respondents, from them we came to the conclusion that most Cambodian people said it was important to learn English in the tourism sector, and also women's empowerment was also very important. Now we are working on a program for the results of the research that we have done

I am very enthusiastic to volunteer overseas because I want to learn how to volunteer activities in other countries. The things I want to learn are education and culture in Cambodia. I learned how GVI contributes in the education sector by teaching children.

For me volunteering is very fun, not only adding new experiences but also adding new friends. Of course when we make new friends, we also get new stories like where they come from, their culture, etc.

During my training at GVI, I learned about many things. Starting from international development, Cambodian culture, Khmer language, healthcare situation in Cambodia, environment, tourism, education, making presentations, conducting surveys with Cambodians, developing ideas for making a program, visiting OBT, BSDA, ChungKock until we learn to write blog. The experience given by GVI made me learn to continue to improve myself, to continue to learn and do useful things. I am also happy to be able to give advice on the development of tourism here and of course all the learning that I get will be developed in my organization.

Every day has their favorite parts, all of which are very good moments for me. I like to do surveys because I can talk to Cambodians. I also like when I visit OBT, BSDA and ChungKock, because I learn how these organizations manage their programs. I also like to do assignments from Lili and Avi, because I feel like a student.

it was an amazing experience. an amazing training. The presentation, the material, the deliverd, are so nice. I will apply it in to my social project in Indonesia.
The most favourite presentation for me was about International Development, i learnt about what the different about a big country and a small country. Why the other country has a develop, and why the other's dont.
And we also do some surveys to the community, we were looking an information about how is important English for them, how is important Healtcare for them, and also how important Women Empowerement to them.
And after the surveys, we managed the data, and according to the data, we make some programs who can be implemented in Kampong Cham to solve thes problems.

We do training everyday, but its not be bored. Because after you finished one training, you'll be curious about what would happend tomorrow. It such an amazing experiences.

I joined volunteering in Kampong Cham, Cambodia with GVI. I started looking for volunteering opportunity abroad because I love joining volunteering activities in Indonesia and I want to learn how social project run in other countries. And joining volunteering in Cambodia has been very exciting and inspiring. The staffs were very kind and friendly and they gave various interesting training from TEFL, khmer lesson, international development, etc. These training super interesting and encouraging.
Beside joining several training, I also visited several fascinating local tourism spot in Cambodia. But, my favourite part of volunteering in Cambodia was visiting several local NGO and teaching monks. Here I learned how a NGO develop and implement their project and helping the local community despite many challenge. I also learned how a local NGO can survive by running social entrepreneurship project.
Despite my short period of volunteering in Cambodia with GVI, the experience I get has improved not only my knowledge and my soft skills but also my cultural sensitivity. These experiences will be very important for me in the future.
I would recommend people who want to make a change to start volunteering. Dare to be a volunteer, dare to change the world!

If you want to have sosial activities and holiday too.. Lets join to gvi program.. I am very happy to be able to find beautiful things here, many things get here, starting from finding new friends, new lessons and of course new tourist attractions. the gvi team always provides assistance and support while in Cambodia, and many things can never be forgotten, frangipani is the most beautiful experience in my life. here I learned how to make people smile with simple things. I'm sure the future of the world is in our hands, we just have to continue to care and continue workIf you want to have sosial activities and holiday too.. Lets join to gvi program.. I am very happy to be able to find beautiful things here, many things get here, starting from finding new friends, new lessons and of course new tourist attractions. the gvi team always provides assistance and support while in Cambodia, and many things can never be forgotten, frangipani is the most beautiful experience in my life. here I learned how to make people smile with simple things. I'm sure the future of the world is in our hands, we just have to continue to care and continue work