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.
There have been some exciting new developments at SCAO from the arrival of two new girls, trips to the dentist, a new promotional video and an exciting new Volunteer page!
SCAO’s mission is to give all our children the best possible start in life. Their education, overall welfare, health and safety are our primary concerns. We are proud to welcome into our community two beautiful local girls into our care. They will quickly integrate into our daily routines and all the children are very excited to have them. They are already starting classes and will start learning English with our wonderful volunteers.
We just created a Facebook Group so that all volunteers and children that live and work at the day care center can share their thoughts experiences at Save Children in Asia. It seems fitting since most people that travel to the Far East use Facebook to communicate with their friends.
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.
Last week was an extra busy and fun filled week at S.C.A.O, with the arrival of pen pal letters from a school in Melbourne called Eltham College.
A few months ago children from S.C.A.O wrote pen pal letters to children at Eltham College. The Australian kids received their letters and were inspired to do some fund raising for their new friends and their school in Cambodia. They came up with the idea of running a cake stall and a free dress day, through which they raised enough money to buy many of the items on a wish list of things for the S.C.A.O kids and their school.
We have some very exciting news to share with you. After several months of hard work, the construction of our new school is finally complete! We are well on our way to giving our students a great education and a wonderful place to learn and grow. We will celebrate this grand accomplishment with an opening party on July 18. At this party we plan to give approximately 130 disadvantaged families living near the school 10kgs of rice, fish sauce, and soy sauce, as a welcoming gesture.
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!
