Cambodia
Focus: Public Health & Poverty Reduction
Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Languages: English, Japanese & Khmer with translation.
Housing: Single & shared residences
Costs & Credits:
Check our application section for details.
Course Requirements: Check the syllabus.
How many ads have you seen featuring big eyed children pleading for your money? How many times have you wished you could do more than just write a check? Have you ever dreamed that you could actually do something to help -- you, personally? Well, if you have ever wondered, “could I change a child’s life?”, then Global PACT Cambodia is for you.
Global PACT Cambodia is about learning how to build organizations that will keep children off the streets and provide safe havens for kids who are on the streets. This is not a volunteer vacation. This is not about cooing over cribs. This is not for-credit tourism.
Global PACT will will put you at the very center of things – at the Center for Children’s Happiness (CCH) – home to 150 children found working as rubbish pickers at Steung Meanchey landfill in Phnom Penh. Your partners will be CCH “alums” and young NGO workers from around Phnom Penh. Together you will create real projects to improve the lives of Cambodia’s poorest children. You will be at CCH not as tourists, not as visitors, not as consultants, but as partners in a “full-contact” cross-cultural immersion, problem-solving program that is like nothing else you have ever done. The project that you and your team organize will change kids’ lives. For real.
In addition to project work, you will also have the opportunity to explore Phnom Penh, the Cambodian countryside and one of the wonders of the world, Angkor Wat. You will begin your visit with a tour of Phnom Penh from its infamous dump, slums and sweat shops to its glorious temples and the gracious cafes on the banks of the Mekong. We will take three one-day excursions with CCH into the countryside to visit villages, NGOs and development projects. The cultural high point of our program will be a two-day trip to Angkor Wat, the fantastic complex of temples in Siem Reap five hours north of the capital.
A Typical Day
The workshop portion of the training program will be conducted in English with translation into Japanese and Khmer. Many of the Japanese and Cambodian participants speak some English and will be very happy to converse with you. They will also be able to manage at least some of the translation necessary for action research out and around in the city.
During a typical day, you will receive six hours of Global PACT classroom instruction -- three in the morning and three in the afternoon. You will listen to lectures, interact with instructors as a class, and work one-to-one with a small, multi-national group and Global PACT trainers. You and your team members will make frequent class presentations to the large group. On some days you will travel around the city conducting research for your project, and on the final day your group will conduct a live press conference to introduce your project to the Cambodian press. After class, you will be free to hang out with your classmates, although some project work will require you to work with your team after classroom hours are over.
