By Janette Speyer

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

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.

Follow us on Facebook for volunteer updates

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.

Recently some of our children paid a visit to the dentist. Believe it or not, they were very enthusiastic about their trip to get a dental check up, X-rays and a cleaning. Now their smiles are even brighter. They left the dentist with a few goodies, like a toothbrush and toothpaste and promises to use them daily to maintain their beautiful teeth.

I encourage you to view the new SCAO promotional video that is featured on YouTube. Mr Samith, the director, offers a welcome introduction and you can view the new center and the children at school, at play and living there. The video also shows the fantastic volunteers interacting with the children. For those of you that want more information on volunteering in Phnom Penh, please contact the center and Mr. Samith.

SCAO is now on Google Maps. The center is located just 7 km from the heart of the city. The children were very excited to see their home on such an important website as Google.

For the most current news about SCAO, please friend us on Facebook and watch our children grow and progress. SCAO also has a new Volunteer Group now very active on Facebook. Jump in and join in the conversation.

On a final note, a special thanks to our friends at Eltham College and their Pen Pal Program. Boxes of letters arrive and it is like Christmas for the children. It is a great way to stay in touch with people outside of Cambodia that truly care about the children and it gives each child practice in writing English!

Thank you for all you interest and concern for the welfare of our SCAO children.

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.

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.

Miranda and Justin (friends of a volunteer at S.C.A.O named Alice) are teachers at Eltham College. They spent the week at, S.C.A.O bringing with them books, toys and funds donated and raised by the Australian school, it’s students and their families.

The children at S.C.A.O were delighted to receive their letters from their pen pals, and to watch the movie they had made about themselves. They couldn’t believe the children had baked all the wonderful looking cakes by themselves and were very excited to find out more about them and see their photos and drawings.

The week at English school (S.C.A.O) was spent reading and writing back to their letters, filming oral presentations about themselves and the school to send over to Australia, making and decorating envelopes, drawing pictures and reading books donated by Eltham College.

The money raised by the children at Eltham College was used to buy many bags of rice, fans for the school, sporting equipment, fruit and bread, a water filter, toys, a new set of clothes and shoes for every child living at the centre, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, dishwashing liquid, laundry powder and medicine and have a 15^th birthday party for Li.

Now the S.C.A.O children’s beautiful pen pal letters are on their way over to Australia and the children are already thinking about the next letters they will send. With the enthusiasm shared by the children here and in Australia we hope this could be the beginning of some long and lasting friendships and a strong partnership between two great schools. It has certainly shown us the power of children and the differences they can make in the world, which thanks to some passionate kids is now feeling like a much smaller place.

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.

Thank you to our volunteers and everyone who helped make the construction of our new school possible! We are thrilled that it is built and we are working diligently to furnish it. Without your help, we wouldn’t be able to provide SCAO children with the resources they need to succeed. If you would like to help us in the furnishing process, please read the list of items below. We also need help getting food for the opening party and we’ve listed the items below as well. The quantity we hope to receive is listed next to each item. Any help is much appreciated and we thank you in advance for your generosity!

Food for the Opening Party
- 50kg Bags of Rice (26 Bags)
- Oil (160 Bottles)
- Fish Sauce

Items for the New School and Accommodating Volunteers
- Whiteboards (3)
- Ceiling fans (15)
- Clocks (3)
- Shelving for library
- Writing books and pens for 320 students
- Whiteboard marker refills
- Gas cookers (2)
- Beds and mattresses (10)
- Mosquito nets (10)
- Water filter
- Kitchen utensils (folks, plates, cups, cooking equipment)
- Desk and chair for the office (still inquiring on the price)
- Table for eating meals
- Plastic chairs (12)
- Curtains for 21 windows
- Keys (4)

Students who are interested in volunteering opportunities abroad in Phnom Phen, Cambodia during their gap year can certainly accomplish their goals at the new SCAO school. Visit the “volunteers” page on our website to find out how. We hope to hear from you soon!

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!