My husband and I visited Save Children in Asia in 2009. My daughter had volunteered at the center and she strongly advised us to stop by and visit the children. She told us it would be a life changing experience.
So taking her advice we set out to visit the day care center with a bag of rice and some toys for the children. After meeting Mr Samith and the kids we walked away inspired and vowing to help in any way we can. We own an online marketing agency in Los Angeles, California and it proved to be the perfect vehicle to help promote SCAO. When traveling through Southeast Asia we noticed that Facebook seemed to be the communication tool of choice for young students traveling the world. With the help of a brand new website, a Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages we started to promote Save Children in Asia to everyone we know, including our clients.
Today in 2012 we are still actively helping SCAO and we recommend that anyone traveling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia make volunteering at the center a priority. Visiting Mr Samith and watching his devotion to the community, to the children and to education is a noteworthy experience.
Right now the center is going through a bit of a downtime. They urgently need volunteers to keep the center running effectively, so please, if you are visiting Phnom Penh, Cambodia in the near future, stop by Save Children in Asia for a month or even a few days. I can promise you, you will not regret this at all on the contrary, once you see the children it will be a life changing experience.
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
For the first time, SCAO will soon be creating its own cookbook! The cookbook will include many native Cambodian recipes that will feature everything from coconut curry, spicy curry, to sweet sticky rice, spring rolls, and pumpkin dishes. If you know of any Khmer recipes that you would like to include or have good photos of Khmer food, please email amcguckian@gmail.com.
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.
You can now book a working holiday with SCAO on Ecoteer.com
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.
We are happy to inform you that the SCAO football team is now dressed for success with new uniforms! Volunteer Alice McGuckian’s father made a kind donation that helped us make uniforms for the boys, as well as t-shirts to sell (which will help raise money for the center). You can see pictures of the boys practicing in their uniforms for their first games (which they won) by visiting the SCAO Facebook Page. Way to go, boys!
SCAO volunteers are extremely important for our organization and non-profit organizations not just in Cambodia, but around the globe. They work day-in and day-out to give our kids a better future through education and by being outstanding role models. We are extremely thankful for all of their hard work.
Students who want to volunteer abroad, or are specifically looking for volunteer opportunities in Cambodia, especially during their gap year, have a wonderful opportunity to make a difference by coming to Phnom Penh and working with SCAO. For more information on how to be a SCAO volunteer, visit the Volunteers page of our website. If you cannot come to Phnom Penh as a volunteer, we kindly remind you that we accept monetary donations. Every donation is very much appreciated and will be used to provide SCAO children with access to education materials, food, and shelter. Thank you for all of your support! Take care!
We hope you are all safe, happy and healthy. Here at SCAO everything is going very well and we thought it was time we gave you all an update on the latest news. The kids are going well at school, studying hard and moving up in school and university. Srey Lat is keeping busy at English school and studying business at university and Hom is studying to be a vet at uni, they are both also teaching classes at SCAO. Nita, Chan and Lion are working hard at high school and Ly, Lim, Leap, Sey Ma, Srey Hoy, Pon, Vireak, Srey Lia, Li and Lee Mai are all at the Primary school next door to the centre. Sey Ha and Ra have jobs at a motorbike shop and Din is working as the security guard at the new school.
As many of you may know SCAO, with the help of the SCOOP foundation and other private donations, is building a second school in the countryside near Phnom Penh. 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.
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.
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.
We are excited to tell you the children now have access to computers and the Internet. This is a big step for S.C.A.O. and we are confident it will help us in our education efforts. Some of the older students have created Facebook profiles for themselves and are discovering the wonderful world of social media. Connect with Srey Lat on Facebook and say hello to Mr. Samith on his Facebook page while you’re at it!
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!
How are you? It has been quite awhile since we last updated you on the new developments at S.C.A.O. As you can see in or latest posted pictures that we have been very busy building the new school.
