Join GVI and discover Cambodia, where students will explore and participate in community development projects. By doing this students will contribute towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. GVI Cambodia has four focus areas: teaching, childcare, healthcare, and women’s empowerment. Volunteers will have the opportunity to lead a variety of workshops including developing computer skills, CV writing, access to resources for victims of domestic abuse, preventing the spread of HIV & AIDS, and understanding parental rights. Workshop topics can be chosen based on the university students’ specific skill sets and the interests and needs identified by community members. While participants will be working as a team, there will be numerous opportunities for students to hone their leadership skills and to take point on various aspects of the program.
The program will be a combination of exploring the culture, politics, and religion of Cambodia whilst also completing volunteer work, interacting with local community members, and participating in adventure and cultural activities. Free time and optional excursions will be built into the schedule, depending on the school’s wishes.
Experience Cambodia’s stunningly beautiful temples and wats. Upon arrival at Phnom Penh, students are encouraged to take some time to acclimatise to the humidity and heat of this tropical capital city. The students will also enjoy an orientation tour of the surrounding area led by a GVI staff member or local guide, as they spend the first day in Cambodia exploring the Royal Palace and the local food markets.
Students will then journey to the Cardamom Mountains. From this lush location, students will trek through glistening rice fields, into the jungle, passing cascading waterfalls. In the evening they will spend the night listening to the jungle sounds whilst resting in their hammocks. The trek is led by experienced local guides who will also help the group to learn about jungle wildlife species, survival techniques, and the art of how to safely cook a meal over an open fire.
The group will then return to Phnom Penh and tour two of the capital city’s most important historic sites, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Prison S21) and the Choeung Ek Center, which are both well worth the visit to understand Cambodia’s history.
The team will travel to Siem Reap to support and assist in our English classes or get involved in interactive activities that support students to learn English. Students may lead village clean-ups, activities, events, workshops, and sports days. They will be involved in a whole host of interactive learning and activities with local children of all ages. Students will have free time to experience local food as well as day trips to local villages and temples.
No trip to Cambodia would be complete without a visit to the spectacular Angkor Wat, an ancient and well-preserved structure, and the single largest religious monument in the world, covering over 400 acres of land and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is in this stunning location that students will end their journey and say their goodbyes.
*This overview is an example of the activities and project work that students might get involved in on this program. More specific details of the program are finalised several months before each start date and can be discussed further with your GVI Programme Coordinator. The overview shown here has been followed by our staff and student groups in the past.
General | Groups |
---|---|
A rest and relaxation activity/excursion | |
24/7 backup and support | |
A dedicated trip co-ordinator | |
Access to local medical facilities | |
Comprehensive health and safety procedures (Emergency Action Plans and Risk Assessments) | |
First aid equipment | |
All meals | |
Group leader and teacher | |
Highly experienced and well qualified GVI field staff | |
In-country transport is arranged | |
Pre-departure information | |
Up-to-date safety and country information |
Not included | Groups |
---|---|
Pre-departure withdrawal insurance | |
Travel insurance - unless otherwise stipulated | |
Medical insurance - unless otherwise stipulated (medical aid details will need to be provided) | |
Flights - unless otherwise stipulated | |
Personal kit | |
Visas | |
Vaccinations | |
Additional spending money |
‘If only every student could do this. It changes your life in all the right ways,’ says Chris Heritage, parent of Luke Heritage, one of our teen volunteers who has participated on two GVI programs, one in Costa Rica and another in South Africa.
We are a parent-run organisation that is incredibly serious about health and safety, and increasing the impact, as well as the long-term career benefits of our programs. Our programs help young people develop the skills to select a career path that is personally fulfilling, and live a life aligned to the well-being of our planet and the global community.
GVI is a proud member of the Gap Year Association.
Ken and Linda Jeffrey, whose son Sam volunteered with GVI in Thailand, talk about how the experience affected Sam. He also went on to volunteer with GVI again in South Africa. ‘I know it sounds like a cliche but in a sense, he did go away as a boy and he came back as a young man. Both of us could recommend GVI without any hesitation to any other parent thinking about exploring an opportunity for their children to explore the world and to see different parts of it.’
Download the Parent Pack and learn more about:
Our staff: All our projects are run by staff, selected, vetted, trained, and managed by our central office.
Health and safety: Our safety practices include a child and vulnerable adult protection policy and high participant ratios.
Staying in touch: See what’s happening on base, by following a hub’s dedicated Facebook page.
Free parent consultations: We would love to talk to you about exciting opportunities available for your child.
We won’t sugarcoat it — traveling abroad is usually a complex process that carries an element of risk. But this is exactly why we’re passionate about providing extensive support throughout the process as well as the highest safety standards during the in-country phase. We believe that volunteering abroad should not only be impactful, but an enjoyable experience that carries as little risk as possible. This is exactly how we’ve been able to maintain our reputation as the most highly respected volunteering organisations in the sector over the past two decades.
All of our programs have short-, mid- and long-term objectives that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This enables us to report on our collaborative impact across the world in a streamlined manner, measuring which UN SDGs we are making a substantial contribution to. Furthermore, this will help our local partners and communities measure and visualise their contribution to the UN SDGs.
Prior to your arrival on base, you will be educated about the UN SDGs. Then once you arrive on base, you’ll learn about the specific goals we have in this particular location, our various objectives, and also clarification of how your personal, shorter-term involvement contributes to these.
Our aim is to educate you on local and global issues, so that you continue to be an active global citizen after your program, helping to fulfil our mission of building a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference.
In Cambodia, we work in collaboration with our local partners on various community development and educational initiatives, where we aim to support their existing endeavours. Providing the community with English education enables students to access a broader range of employment opportunities. In Siem Reap, if you’re able to speak English, you have a much better chance of gaining employment in the tourism sector. Working in this sector usually means that community members have the opportunity to be promoted, earn a higher income, and improve their economic status, which is what many local residents aspire to do.
Our initiatives not only allow us to offer support to the community and our local partners, but also to address many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being, Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption & Production and Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals.
GVI Siem Reap long-term objectives:
1. To provide English education to the local community of Siem Reap, which will improve their employment and financial prospects.
2. To strengthen bonds with our current partners and develop new partnerships with local organisations in order to broaden our scope and the number of communities that we work within.
3. To empower local women and girls through education and training, and to raise awareness on gender equality in the local community.
4. To improve awareness around health and well-being, and provide basic tools and knowledge for maintaining hygiene and the prevention of NTD (neglected tropical diseases). Not currently.
5. To improve awareness and understanding of important environmental issues, and increase community participation in efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.
Below is a list of core ethics and best practices we believe are essential to the operation of high quality, ethical volunteer and sustainable development programs. We believe that all responsible volunteer and sustainable development operations should focus upon these principles. If you are considering volunteering, these are some of the key considerations you should question, to ensure that your time and money contributes towards positive change.
We want to constantly develop our own understanding of ethical best practice. In so doing, we aim to provide an exemplary industry standard for other education institutions, international development organisations, and social enterprises. Our Badge of Ethics stands for the drive to always do good, better. Find out more, click on the Badge below.
We aim to design all our projects in collaboration with local organizations and communities and ensure that they are locally driven.
We aim to clearly define short-, mid-, and long-term objectives with sustainable outcomes for all our projects.
We aim to track, record, and publish the impact of each of our projects.
We aim to build in-country capacity by assisting local organizations in becoming self-sustaining.
For each local organization we work with, we aim to have a plan in place for withdrawing support responsibly.
We aim to ensure that every participant is assigned a clear role and that they are fully trained and supported to carry out their work by specialized staff.
In all our actions we aim to respect the skills and efforts of all and seek to protect the rights, culture and dignity of everyone who engages with GVI.
We work to ensure that credit for the results of any project, along with any data collected, research conducted, or Intellectual Property developed, remains the property of local organizations.
We do not condone and aim to withdraw support of orphanages and residential care centers.
We will live by our Child Protection and Vulnerable Adult policies.
As an organization, GVI is committed to striving toward best practice, and to educating both our potential participants, our partners, and the world at large about them. Both the volunteering and sustainable development sectors are increasingly, and rightly, under scrutiny. Many recent local and global articles highlight poor practices and questionable ethics. GVI is widely recognized for striving to apply global best practice in the volunteering, education and sustainable development sectors throughout our operations by reputable organizations such as ChildSafe.
However, global best practice is always evolving and we dedicate both time and resources to engage with internationally respected experts and learn from the latest research to ensure our programs both fulfil their potential to create maximum positive impact, and minimise their potential to create unintentional negative impact. Along with and as part of the sustainable development and volunteering community, we are constantly learning and applying this learning to practice. We do not always get everything right, but we seek feedback from our community members, partners, participants and our staff, and react accordingly. We know are already doing a great job, and feedback we have received confirms this, but we aim to do even better and are continuously refining our operations to improve upon our already excellent reputation.
We don’t support the use of wild animals for entertainment purposes. This includes riding animals, having them perform tricks, feeding or bathing them or getting close to them to take photos
We don’t encourage, support or allow the rearing of “orphaned” wild baby animals kept at a “sanctuary”. The conservation value of these types of programs is negligent and would only ethically be used in extremely rare cases
When wild animals are restricted for conservation purposes we follow the guidelines of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), approved by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
We ensure that the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare are followed. These include the freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from distress, discomfort, hunger, thirst, fear, pain, injury or disease.
We ensure that conservation efforts are also always locally led, that community needs are front-and centre of any conservation effort and that our participants, projects and partners work to increase local community engagement in local conservation efforts.
We don’t offer any veterinary programs or animal rescue and rehabilitation programs. We don’t allow participants to do any work they would not be able to do in their home country.
If you’d like to find out what the experience of joining a GVI project is really like, simply contact us and we’ll put you in touch with one of our many Alumni.
We’ll try to match you to an Alum based on your location, nationality, age, stage of academic career, gender, and program interests. This allows you to gain insights into the experience that is most relevant to you.
Depending on your location you might be able to speak to an Alum over the phone or online, or meet up with them face-to-face at a coffee shop nearby. We also run a series of small events around the world where you can speak to GVI Alumni, Ambassadors and staff members.