Caring for Cambodia Inc

Caring for Cambodia is an excellent, transparent, life changing charitable organization that I am so proud to be a very small part of, as a volunteer. Together, we can all make a difference and help educate the children and also help them give themselves a bright future ahead, as well as making friends and widening our horizons. The team have been amazing and really welcomed me on board with open arms and I can't thank them enough.
I first found out about CFC when I was on a flight to Siem Reap and saw a school trip from Tanglin all in their orange CFC t-shirts going out to do a project in a CFC school. I was so impressed that when I saw an advertisement on 'Expat Giving' for Volunteers for this organisation, I jumped at the chance! I am now their Fairs Coordinator and use the wonderful opportunity to participate in various trade fairs in Singapore to raise awareness about who we are and what we do.

Caring for Cambodia is unique among NGOs in education in Cambodia. First, CFC partners with the government, so that all schools are free to the students and the curriculum is Cambodia's own. CFC does not establish a private, tuition-charging system but works with the system already in place. Second, CFC invests in people! The teacher training program draws on international best practices, that are shared with Cambodian teachers by practicing teachers and researchers from Singapore, the US, Canada and beyond. I have heard Cambodian teachers describing their new hands-on skills in the classroom with delight - and they are definitely delighted by the results: students who are totally engaged with learning, and are scoring well on exams. Third - CFC is almost entirely volunteer-run! People from all around the globe contribute time and their professional expertise, usually because they have travelled to Cambodia, seen the need, and are moved to action. Finally, CFC works to remove barriers to education. If a child cannot go to school because the family can't afford a uniform, CFC will provide it. Two nutritious meals a day at school means that families want children to go, to eat and to learn. There are many other ways in which CFC supports Cambodian teachers and students in their quest to learn 21st century skills and achieve. I hope others will be motivated to learn more about this nonprofit, and become involved.

I have been volunteering with CFC for 6 years. This NGO is making a significant difference in the lives of thousands of Cambodian children and their families. CFC helps both the individual child by providing eye glasses, when needed, potable water, access to healthcare, highly trained teachers and social workers, but them also has an impact on all the children in Cambodia in their capacity as the Model School for Cambodia, training administrators and teachers across the entire country.

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CFC works hard to be transparent, to focus on capacity building of local staff, and to think of the sustainable end game of replication and handover, and they achieve at a high level on all of these points. They make a huge, lasting impact on all the students who go through their schools, but their greatest legacy will be all the students country-wide who will benefit from CFC techniques and programs eventually being integrated into the broader system.

Worthwhile and transparent organization that supports the educational needs of over 6,000 kids in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Been a donor/volunteer for 6+ years. Have encouraged many of my friends to get involved as well.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to visit Caring for Cambodia in Siem Reap twice. I am so impressed with this organization and the amazing work they do. Not only do they provide an outstanding educational opportunity for these children, they also take a holistic approach to helping the students and their families. Most impressive to me was their Food for Thought program, which offers two warm meals a day to the children, which ensures a healthy start each day. The opportunity to serve CFC with their Make A Difference trips is heartwarming and life changing. I encourage others to reach out to help, it will change you forever.

When I visited Cambodia years ago, my excitement about the grandeur of the ruins in Angkor was tempered by the vast amount of impoverished children begging for money to fund a day of school. It was two years after this trip that Caring for Cambodia (CFC) was brought to my attention. I had an opportunity to discuss the organization's goals and objectives with leadership and knew instantly that this organization was different. This group had a clear focus: sustainable change. They were not simply putting a band-aid on a larger issue, they were proactively educating educators and preparing the local people to implement life-changing education for years to come. Their story is powerful, their work impressive and their results undeniable. Driven by a desire to enhance the lives of Cambodian children through learning, CFC leaves no stone unturned. They have faced numerous challenges and implemented unique services to support this commitment to education. For example, children were not eating a sustainable amount of food outside of school. CFC decided to provide multiple meals for the children throughout the day. Their innovative approach to sustainable change continues to lead Cambodia toward a brighter future.

The Don Bosco vocational center in Kep is a place, where you have to be. In Oktober/November 2012 I was there and taught students radio journalism. It was a great event and a great experience for me. During teaching I learnt a lot about the aims of the Salesians and I was very impressed. Kep is a place of education, of responsibility, of solidarity with the poorest, and also a place of humour and friendship. By the way , Cambodia came nearer, the culture of the country, his history. I think, this has to do with the philosophy of the Salesians. They don`t want do dominate people, they want, to understand people and to help them with education and more knowledge. So I am very thankful, personally Father Albeiro, and i wish him, now far away from Kep in the rainy and cold Berlin, success for his plan, to found a cultural radio station. A great idea and very helpful for the development of Cambodia and also for the people, who lives around the Don Bosco Vocational Center in Kep.
In friendship Wolfgang Bauernfeind and Uti Hennecke

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I am continually amazed by the work done by CFC. What particularly inspires me in my work with CFC, is that so much is done by Cambodians themselves. The mission of CFC is go give a hand up, not a hand out, and this mission is demonstrated every day in Siem Reap. You see teachers working hard for their students, parents making sacrifices so that their children can attend the schools, and most importantly students who are so grateful for the opportunity to attend school. This was clearly demonstrated during flood season when parents, teachers, students and volunteers ALL worked together to get things cleaned up so that kids could back to school quickly.

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As the volunteer coordinator for CFC in Singapore, I have the opportunity to meet almost all of our volunteers. They are all hard working people who are dedicated to changing the template for education in Cambodia. There are so many different ways to volunteer and to make a difference. The reason CFC works is that CFC works directly with the government to emphasize the importance of effective teacher training as a means of improving education. When you visit their schools, you see that they have not simply built a school and walked away, like many NGOs, but they have provided long term support and training for the Cambodian teachers, who are then able to train other teachers. Our volunteers see this, and they are motivated to keep helping.

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I have high praise for the work that CFC does, not only in Cambodia but around the world. I visited a CFC school five years ago and from the time my feet touched the soil on that school site, the children of Cambodia touched my heart. I was so smitten with the people and impressed by this NGO I ended up working with CFC in Cambodia as the Director of Teacher Training. We do not have smart offices, we do not sit at computers we work at grass root level with the teachers in their classrooms. We work alongside the Ministry of Education in Cambodia to help delvier a curriculum that is already in place. We train teachers to deliver this curriculum in a Child Friendly Classroom / School. When approaching training in this way we empower the Cambodian teachers to learn and reach out to their own people. Hand in hand with this teacher training comes training for the mothers in the vilages and their preschool children, focusing on Health and Hygiene but also on "The Whle Child". Caring For Cambodia is made up of a huge number of people around the whole who were touched by the plight of the people in Cambodia and who simply want to give them a Hand Up. The success of this NGO is glaringly apparent when you visit the schools and observe in classrooms. The future of the next generation is in the hands of these dedicated teachers of Cambodia.

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