Life at Save Children in Asia (SCAO) is slowly evolving. The children are enjoying many activities that the center now offers thanks to your generous donations. We now have a computer room a soccer team and official school uniforms. Our new location conveniently located next to the, Khmer Culture Center.

We are still looking for volunteers to participate in the program and reside on campus and assist us with the many tasks that are needed at the center. Please feel free to contact us anytime or you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter for more news on the SCAO

Photos by Alice McGuckian

The SCAO cookbook will feature pictures of the kids along with images of daily life at SCAO. The cookbook will be available for purchase with 100% the profits going directly towards the NGO organization. Don’t miss out on getting this amazing cookbook! It will bring back a lot of great memories of SCAO!

Follow us on Facebook or on twitter for more information on SCAO activities.

Ecoteer is a unique volunteer agency offering a directory of cheap volunteer work opportunities, jobs abroad and working holidays. Volunteer opportunities are very reasonable. Ecoteer is leading the way in a new type of volunteer work abroad benefiting the volunteer project.

When traveling abroad, most people go to relax, explore new places, or learn about new cultures. However, these stereotypes have been expanding and a lot more people are going abroad to volunteer. It’s a great way to gain valuable experience, and for many, it can be a life changing experience.

Travel website, “Ecoteer,” provides travelers with information about affordable volunteer work abroad. Recently, SCAO has made its debut on the website, which gives it increased visibility for volunteers interested in visiting Cambodia. If you know anyone that may want to volunteer near the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, it’s a terrific opportunity that will be life changing and rewarding.

About SCAO

Save Children in Asia is a not-for-profit home and learning center for Cambodian children. Our organization is comprised of three projects. We have a center which is home to 18 Cambodian kids from disadvantaged backgrounds and two schools, at which teach English to around 550 students a day.

Our schools and center are located 7km and 22km outside Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

The center is run by a local family – the father and director was orphaned during the Khmer Rouge and simply wants the lives of poor children to be different to what he experienced when he was growing up. This passion drove him to open the centre, providing the children that live and learn there the opportunity to escape poverty and isolation and to be cared for and educated for a self sustainable future. Since its creation our organization has developed into a wonderful home environment where children and volunteers live as one big family. We welcome volunteers to live with us at both the centre and the school.

Our two free English schools are for children living in the local areas surrounding the schools. We run classes four times a day (generally two classes at a time) at each school and cater for students with a range of abilities and of all ages.

The classes are taught by Cambodian teachers (who are older kids living at the center) and volunteers from all around the world.

The children are eager to learn from and play with volunteers and each other. Whether it be reading books from our small library, playing a tune on the guitar or folding some origami. We welcome you to be part of a brighter future for Cambodian children and a part of our family. Like a home away from home.

Payment covers living costs, including three meals a day, electricity, water, internet connection and bicycles.

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We are very pleased with the great response from the children and SCAO volunteers.

Here are some of the post from the Children of SCAO.

Ngorl Lion
Hi! I’m lion. I’m also live in SCAO too! So I’m enjoy here so much, I love Everyone here like my family and also I keep SCAO is my house already! I’m in high school now and I’m finish in this year for high school, so I’m also help teaching kids too, I love them I’m enjoy with them and volunteers we been really friendly and we’re keep like in one family, by the way I love SCAO and I hope all volunteers be back, all the best from lion…:)

Lim Sreyla
I see all of you look so kind I feel relaxed when I hear your sound !!Thanks for helping Cambodia people!!!

Som Hom
I was of the kid who live in SCAO that the center help me to continue my study and now I’m ready to go to the third year at University and now I’m still live in the center and I can help for the English class at the center too. Many thanks for the volunteers that they spent there at SCAO:):):)

It is amazing how well the children speak and write English. Your continued support makes all of this possible. Please join our Facebook Group and come and visit our SCAO family in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We look forward to seeing you soon.

We have a new addition to the family, a puppy called Kin. The rainy season is starting and it’s a refreshing change to the heat. Today we had a great time playing in the rain. But our biggest news is that we have been very busy since October building a second school and it’s almost finished!

The school will give the children of many families access to free English, drama and art classes and provide community education by working with families to improve their living standards. We expect this to have a large, lasting impact on the futures of around 350 children and their families.

On Sunday May 22nd, SCAO invited 127 families from the local area to an opening party for the new school with some of our volunteers.  Accompanied by community leaders from the surrounding villages, we were introduced to the families in the area, when we visited their homes and invited them to the party. The families shared with us their living circumstances, which for many of them are very difficult.

In July we will open the school with a party. At the party SCAO will give these families a bag of rice, some soy sauce and fish sauce to show them the spirit of SCAO. We will also talk to the families about the intentions of SCAO and invite them to join us to learn at the center. We believe that the families in the countryside will talk to each other, encouraging more and more children and families to attend our new school.

So far the school is almost finished and excitement is building. As you can see from the photos, it’s looking fantastic and will be a great learning atmosphere. Before we can open the school we need to finish building it. This means we need funding for some more desks, a gate, some doors, some more tiles for the floor inside and outside the school, another water tank, some fans and whiteboards and other furnishings. If you are able to help us make this happen it will make a huge difference to the future of the many children that SCAO will be able to reach. You can make donations through the website by clicking the donations tab.

We have also recently put new photos on our facebook community page, so be sure have a look at those as well. Sending out lots of good thoughts to all of you. Hope you are all going very well. Keep in touch and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support. SCAO would couldn’t carry on without it!

On Sunday May 22nd, SCAO invited families from the local area to an opening party for the new school with some of our volunteers.  Accompanied by community leaders from the surrounding villages, we were introduced to the families in the area, when we visited their homes and invited them to the party. The families shared with us their living circumstances, which for many of them are very difficult.

One mother has an incurable disease in her stomach and many children who she cannot afford to send to school. A father with one leg has 7 children to support, so his children sell vegetables picked from the lake at the market during the day. There are many similar stories which remind us why this school will be so important for changing the future prospects of these children.

In July we will open the school with a party. At the party SCAO will give these families a bag of rice, some soy sauce and fish sauce to show the families the spirit of SCAO. We will also talk to the families about the intentions of SCAO and invite them to join us to learn at the centre. We believe that the families in the countryside will talk to each other about the good intentions SCAO has for the community, encouraging more and more children and families to attend our new school.

So far the school is almost finished and excitement is building. As you can see from the photos, it’s looking fantastic and will be a great learning atmosphere. Before we can open the school we need to finish building it. This means we need funding for some more desks, a gate, some doors, some more tiles for the floor inside and outside the school, another water tank, some fans and whiteboards and other furnishings. If you are able to help us make this happen it will make a huge difference to the future of the many children that SCAO will be able to reach. You can make donations through the website by clicking the donations tab.

Thank you for your continued support.

Visit our Facebook Community Page to view some more photos of recent times at SCAO. We took a trip to Odong mountain and to the national museum. We also celebrated Chon Long and Britta’s (a volunteer) birthdays with lots of singing and dancing.

View our photo gallery on Facebook

There are also some photos of the new school we are currently building to provide education to even more Cambodian children. We are hoping the school will be finished in about a month and a half depending if we have enough funding.

We want to thank you for all the support you have given us this year and to all the volunteers.

We have had a great year at SCAO, thank you for everything.

Please stay in contact and don’t forget to look at our website and Facebook page to keep up with SCAO.

Happy Khmer New Year from everyone at SCAO!

And as you can see in the photo below, the younger students love their computers too.

Educating our children is of the utmost importance. We are extremely thankful for our volunteers who donate books and work as teachers. Check out our students reading and learning about body parts!

We recently updated the S.C.A.O. donations page to make it easier for you to support these wonderful children. Donations are the lifeblood of S.C.A.O. and we appreciate your generosity. Donations made for the “Bricks for S.C.A.O.” initiative will help us build our new school. A $25 dollar donation will buy 5 bricks. All other donations will go directly to the children and will be used to house, feed, and educate them.

Visit the S.C.A.O. Donations page if you would like to make a donation or go to the S.C.A.O. Volunteer page to learn about volunteer opportunities.

Thank you so much for your support! Come back often to learn about the new and exciting projects we are working on!

Everyone at SCAO was so anxious and excited to send us pictures of the new school’s location. All of the SCAO’s faculty and volunteers have been busy building and prepping the site for the past couple of months. The visit to the site was extremely special, because it was the first time many of the children were able to see, explore and roam the grounds of where there brand new school is going to be!

It was a beautiful day, and the children had so much fun watching (and sometimes helping) the faculty get the school “classroom ready.” The children were eager to volunteer their thoughts of where school supplies, desks and chairs should be placed.

Education is very important for the children. The new school will help so many local youngsters on their path to a better future. In just a few more weeks, the new school is up, running and ready for business, and everyone at SCAO could not be happier. A special thanks to everyone who made this dream a reality for us. This new school is going to bring new memories, new change and new opportunities for us all!

Your Donations Make A Difference

Please visit our blog for future updates on our progress in making all the new SCAO initiatives become a reality. Your donations are always appreciated, no matter the amount. It takes a village to raise a child in Cambodia, and we plan on helping as many of our beautiful children as possible. 100% of your donations go entirely to benefit our children and to the construction of the new center. Thank you for your generosity.

Free Education to Help More Children

Of course fundraising activities will begin immediately so this project can help more Cambodian children needing the very basics in education and opportunity and who presently live in isolated and impoverished conditions. The people in this village community are very friendly and the local chief welcomes the support of SCAO as an active NGO (non-governmental agency) for this area. The project is planned in three construction phases: a first, second and third floor will be built according to donations that flow in. The free education can begin immediately upon completion of phase one.

SCAO New Building

Building Better Lives

Mr. Samith, the SCAO Director, purchased the land with the severance pay from his former job as a forest administrator and other savings years ago very inexpensively. The estimated cost for the three-story building with all the necessary facilities and using the most cost effective building material (cement) is around $32,000 US. The new education center will still be easily accessible to volunteers as it is only 35 minutes by motorbike from Phnom Penh. The center would attract more volunteers, especially those who want to experience the real countryside of Cambodia. Volunteers can also have the option of staying overnight at the new center.

Management and control can be handled and coordinated by Mr. Samith, Hom and Srey Lat from the mother center. A housekeeper, a cook and a guard for the new education center will be hired from among the local villagers and adequately compensated for their work.

Your Donations Will Make the Center a Reality

Please visit our blog often for future updates as to our progress in making the new SCAO Education Center a reality. Your donations are always appreciated, no matter the amount. It takes a village to raise a child in Cambodia, and we plan on helping as many of our beautiful children as possible. 100% of your donations go entirely to benefit our children and to the construction of the new center. Thank you for your generosity.