Our first day in Cambodia....
The flight to Cambodia took us about around 3-4 hours. It's tiring but the moment we reached the airport, our tiredness is gone. We came to Cambodia with one objective which is to help the children there-to give them hope and all of us know we must achieve this objective.
We were welcomed by a group of warm hearted people of Cambodia =)
There were few from Mekong University students.
It feels great to be greeted by them. They are so nice...
What are we doing at Cambodia and how we helped them?
All of us went to Cambodia to help the children of course and we went there to do some culture sharing, getting to know their culture, get to know the university's students and do some survey of the children's situation there.
As you scroll down, the pictures taken will explain what we've did at Cambodia...
That's all of us. Taken at the airport. We were warmly welcomed by the people there. As you can see, there were other volunteers and the Mekong University students were there too.
Picture taken during a conference conducted at the Mekong University. Attended by a lot of the university's student. SEACCC had the honour to present infront of the crowd about our community. The crowd were amazed by us as they never expect students from other university, furthermore from other country will be willing to fly over to their country to help their children. The student there showed positive response to our existence and they would like to keep in touch with us. Even the university's Vice Canceler is very supportive in our activities.
Getting positive feedback from the people there means alot to all of us. This mean that we manage to give impact to the people there. Making them to realize that there are lots of children out there need our help and support.
Picture taken after the conference.
Like mentioned earlier, we want to help the children there. We visited to two school there and we helped them to build another new classroom for them. We also bought some books, stationary, food and drinks for the children.
As you can see from the picture above, there's a girl who actually do not wear any shirt to school. It's a very sad thing to know that this situation is still exist here in our neighboring contry.
SEACCC also donated some of the money we've raised from the Cultural Performance Charity Dinner in buying t-shirt for them.
It's very hot there. All of us do not mind working hard under the sun as we all know what we are doing. We are doing something meaningful for the children, for their future.
Even the school children are helping us to carry the sand (used to build a proper road for them). We never expect them to help us. But the children's spirit really amazed us. They came to us and helped us. Even tho the children there do not understand well English, they will use their body language to communicate with us. They will grab our hands if they want to show us something.
In this picture, you can see that the children do not wear any shoes at all. They walked around bare footed. Some of them who are more affordable, they have shoes to wear. But how about those who are less fortunate?
Children are special. They have a very pure heart and they need love and care.
While we were helping them to build a new road for them, some of the children sit at a corner and just watched us. They might be afraid of us...or shy as we are strangers to them.
But we took the initiative to approach them. Trying to talk to them. Some of the children are really shy, they ran away when we approached them.
Picture with the children of the school. The name of the school is Phnom Perik Ring.
The situation of the school is seriously not that good. Or can we say it's bad. They do not have fan, do not have enough tables and chairs, the blackboard are in a worn out condition and there's much more basic facilities they do not have.
Compared to our children, they are much unfortunate. Right after we came back from Cambodia, we look our children and the thought of how lucky our children are compared to the Cambodia's children will automatically appeared on our mind.
This picture is taken at Mekong University, Cambodia. As mentioned earlier, we attended a conference at Mekong University. We had the chance to visit around the university and the situation there is far behind our local universities. Looking at our own university, we had wireless, a lot of computer lab (every faculty had computer lab), air conditioned lecturer hall, nice foods and much more. But there? They don't have the opportunity to enjoy what we have here.
Picture of us with the Mekong University students.
That's Marty. One of the volunteer who joined us for this C.A.R.E @ Cambodia's Children. He's a great person and he had thought us alot and shared his experience with us. By the way, he's from America and he's working with the United Nations (UN).
Meeting people from diverse background is one of the chances we had in joining this kind of activities. People from different country, different profession but we had the same mission-to help the unfortunate children.
We also went to visit some of Cambodia's historical places which had bring back alot of black memories for the Cambodians.
Here's some of the pictures we've taken during our visitation:
Overall, this project had brought alot of memories for us..thought us the meaning of appreciating everything we had and to help the others who are unfortunate whichever you can help.
Giving a helping hand does not mean you need to give our your money. There are lots more way we can help these unfortunate children.
People nowaday are being carried away by the fast-paced world, forgetting those who are left behind. Everyone is busy chasing something which is more realistic and being more selfish.
What will happen to our children if we keep on living like this? Have you ever thought of this?
It's time for us to change.
"Together We Share"
