Home of Hope is one of orphanage which have cooperated with Projects Abroad Cambodia. We need to spend about 40 minute by tuk tuk to arrive at the placement, it is quite far from the apartment but we still eager to help re-painting the wall of the orphanage as it looked quite dirty. With 12 volunteers, we spend a day to paint the front wall at the orphanage.

The director of placement and Projects Abroad really appreciated for your contribution to make it newJ.

Thank everyone.

It is a social dinner party and a farewell dinner party for some volunteers who finished their project. With about 50 volunteers and 10 team member from Projects Abroad, we celebrated the Social Dinner party at Khmer Thai restaurant on 22^nd July 2011.

Believe that you liked it and enjoyedJ.

MOC stands for Maranatha Orphanage of Cambodia. It is a local, non-profitable, non-governmental organization which was established on 5^th January 2006. The organization and Projects Abroad in Cambodia have cooperated since 2010, mainly the placement for Care project. During a time, to fulfill their necessary need, Projects Abroad has always donated to MOC and also allocated volunteers to work there.

On Tuesday this week, Projects Abroad has donated two sacks of rice to MOC. The director of MOC, Meng Bopha, really appreciate and would like to faithfully thank to Projects Abroad for the donation and hope to welcome more volunteers in the next future.

It had been almost a year and a half since my last trip to Cambodia when I returned this June. As always it was great to catch up with the local staff, many of whom have been involved for four or five years now. Unfortunately I missed Vattey, who was due to go on maternity leave the day after I arrived; however, her baby girl couldn’t wait and was born early! Huge congratulations to Vattey and her husband and I hope to see you all next time!

It was also great to meet and do some training with new staff, Bunroen and Kanika - welcome to the team!

I enjoyed having the chance to spend some time outside the office on the monthly Dirty Day. This month it was at UNACAS orphanage, where myself, many of the local staff and about 10 volunteers spent the day digging holes, planting trees, moving rocks and earth and playing with the children.

The transformation by the time I left was very impressive, with a new flower bed area, and several larger trees planted round the edge of the land, with protective fences being added around the trees. The day definitely lived up to its ‘dirty’ reputation; I was covered in mud, by the end of the day.

Despite adverse weather warnings, I also made it out to the island to visit the Conservation project. This year has been a record year for this project, with over 60 volunteers joining the project in the first 6 months of 2011. We have also welcomed our first medical volunteer, who ran and helped to develop the village clinic. Several of our staff on this project are now previous volunteers who have stayed on to take on staff roles.

Thanks to all the staff in Phnom Penh and on the Conservation project, who as always gave up their evenings and weekends and took time out of their busy days to accommodate me.

Suzi Lamb

International Development Manager

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I used to visit several places in Thailand such as Bangkok, Phuket and Cha-am and Hua Hin. But those trips were because there was an old airport in Bangkok, not the current Sovanmaphumi Airport. I haven’t visited Thailand for a while and I almost forgot about the terminal of airport in Thailand and the new system of visa-free for Cambodians visiting Thailand – but it was very easy in the end.

I’ve just visited it again for a few days in June 2011. Though it was a short visit it was a meaningful trip. Many things have changed in Thailand over the past years. My impression of Thailand this time is the road systems which are mostly two lanes of roads for the main road even though Krabi is one of Thailand provinces. The Tuk Tuk looks different to the Tuk Tuks we have in Cambodia and also the government school are well equipped and the children are in nice uniforms. Thailand is a fast developed country even on the island there are concrete roads all over the place. Another interesting fact about one of the islands in Krabi is every house has bird(s) as their pet and they have bird competitions every week.

Saying about Projects Abroad in Thailand, I’m impressed with the staff who are always friendly.  They have a good team to take care of volunteers. On top of that I did learn the way that they arrange for volunteers to stay with host families for the Teaching and Care Projects volunteers, which is the main purpose of my trip. All the host families are very nice and friendly and everything is well set up for making volunteers feel welcome and have a worthwhile experience. Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to the Thailand team for all their hospitality and for making my trip worthwhile.

Written on 27^th June 2011 - Pises Mao from Cambodia!

Many Thank to our volunteers, Nicolle Savoie and Sara Gingold that they have sent the package for donate to kids of their placement CUCO and Rivekids.

Sara Gingolg has sent coloring book and a lot of post card and coloring for her kids while Nicolle Savoie has sent the package of clothes and post card to CUCO's kids.

CUCO's kids have recieved the stuff yesterday, thank to Chamroeun for taking it to the placement. And the package from Sara will be son delivered to Riverkids.

We really appreciated for your support and the kids are happy.

No plan last weekend, we did not know what to do, where to go. After having lunch we made a desicion to do something in the afternoon. It was going for a massage at U and Me spa especially for relaxation before start working on Monday again.

There are many options for choosing such as foot, hand, head or body massage or for all, and the price it

according to what we choose, but it starts from 7US dollars for an hour.

Next time, we go together while you are in Phnom Penh-Cambodia.

Advantage of Medical Outreach, in my view, is not only for the community villagers but also for our volunteers. Group of threes, Ross, Kath and Christ, and the other individual medical volunteers had actively participated in the First Medical Outreach that was organized by Projects Abroad Cambodia in cooperated with Home of Hope.

Definitely, it had been a challenging time for all of them because there were a hundred of patients in the queue for health checking. The checking was specifically for blood pressure, breath, eyes, leg, and arm. Once our volunteers had checked, they wrote down the record in a piece of paper, and then the patient had to carry the paper to the master doctors who was able to prescribe medication for the patients. The four medical volunteers are not being able to prescribe as they do not complete the whole course.

During the checking process, we faced some difficulties, because the volunteers could not directly ask to the patient, so need time for interpreting from patient to them and we have two interpreters for helps.

Finally, it resulted in a great experience and a successful day of the First Medical Outreach in Projects Abroad Cambodia. :-).

Starting rainy season in Cambodia is a best time for planting trees especially the area which is insufficient of water. For Dirty Weekend in June 2011, we decided to do it at Mek Chheu which is the third time that the Dirty Weekend event was done at there, two times in 2010 and one in 2011,

Spending about 40 minutes in 25 kilometers from Phnom Penh, we reached at Mek Chheu one of our placement which we planned to planting the trees. Well, with 10 volunteers, 4 staff and a lot of adult kids at the placement, we successfully met what we had planned. First, we started to dig the soil in about 0.5 meters for planting mongo and coconut trees, while some of us mixed the fertilizer, soil for fulfill in the hold. As the land was not completely flat in some part so we needed to flatten it before planting. After trees planting, we stopped a little bit for having lunch. Not long from after having lunch, we started to complete the activities and planted the flower.

A day was not enough, after planting; for sure we need to take care of it. And we got an initiative from the kids that they will take care of it regularly. We were happy from the beginning until the end – saying good bye.

I would like to thank to all volunteers, kids and staff for putting your effort to make it happened. Moreover, I would like thank to Suzi Lamb, our International Development manager that she spent her mission time to participate in this event happily.