Volunteering in Cambodia

I have been volunteering with SHE Rescue since 2015, and can honestly attest that it can be an amazing, life changing experience. Every role you can have, or task given to you during your time spent there is important and really goes towards improving these girls' quality of life one way or another. My own specific roles included teaching English to the younger girls, heading up photography for the home, helping out in the kitchen, preparing craft time, decorating the classroom, and much more. But volunteering with SHE includes much more than just your tasks, but also brings with it opportunities to bond with the staff (who welcome you like they've known you forever!), taking the initiative and proposing changes here and there within the workplace, getting involved in the community, and even exploring the culture.

You're also afforded those rare moments which are truly priceless and precious, that are truly unique. One day I accompanied the girls to their swimming lessons, and while they were busy, started to collect fallen Plumeria flowers for each one. After they finished up, I handed one to each girl just for fun. One young 8-year old girl had never actually smelled one before and found the scent so lovely that she treasured and protected the flower for the next 2 days until it finally wilted away. Those are the moments that remind you how precious these girls truly are, and how very important it is sometimes just to be present in the moment. That it's not always our role that can fix the problems, but just being ourselves and being there can make the most difference.

Overall, I would certainly recommend volunteering with SHE Rescue, as at the very least it will be refining and character building, and at the most, absolutely life-changing!

I volunteered with SHE the summer of 2016. It was amazing to see the work that God is using this organization to do and I was blessed to be a small part of it. As a volunteer, I had a variety of roles, including reading English with the girls, cleaning, preparing meals, running crafts and other activities, leading devotions, helping with office work, and working in the store for fundraising. My favorite parts were probably playing soccer with the girls and seeing them advance in their confidence with reading. There were girls at the beginning of the trip who were very shy, and to see them come out of their shell and try to read a harder book or do a new craft was really rewarding. The ministry staff has several English speaking foreigners (Australian and American while I was there). The rest of the staff was made up of local Khmer, who were so friendly and fun. Many of them are still learning English, so they enjoyed practicing English with us, and we enjoyed learning about their culture from them. I highly recommend this trip. What you do will make a difference, and you will be impacted also. We also had opportunities to take breaks and see some of the tourist attractions in Cambodia while we were there. I hope you decide to go!