I am going to make a final conclusion and share some info of my volunteering experiences with the organization we went with- Riverkids. As I mentioned before we didn't really did much as we headed to their main office a couple of time in search of "someone" who was to let us know what we were supposed to do. Even that "someone" seemed lost and didn't know what to let us do. Shouldn't there be some liaison from the Singapore office in advance?

If you are with them on long term engagement for a month all so, I believed it will be a different story, perhaps better.

We were quite sad and dejected in the end that we didn't contribute much but rather, more towards monetary terms- like giving them gifts, which we could have easily done it via donations. Anyway Riverkids is not the organization to join for short term volunteering. It would be better for well-wishers to simply make donations to them instead of being physically there. Language barrier made us 'redundant' despite the local teacher's best effort to rope us in for their class lessons, still it was not easy. We made our best to play with them, nothing educationally beneficial I would say.

 That say, do continue contributing and supporting their causes via donations as this would make a better choice.

I have since discover Singapore International Foundation and I am so glad I got to know of them, or else I wouldn't know how to get started with overseas volunteering stints forever . It's so hard to find a volunteering organization you can joined in once out of school and SIF is a saviour! Best of all, you don't have to form your own humongous group ( of 10 pax and above? as with YEP or Habitat for Humanity) and can go solo or with even just 1 friend! I regretted not knowing them earlier and wasted so many years, but late is better than NEVER!  The difference between them is huge. SIF is so organized and throughout, making sure volunteers are prepared for the trip by giving pre-departure briefings packed with information and you can be sure you will be there physically contributing. I am confident our upcoming trip with SIF this coming Monday will be a fulfilling one.

YES! I will share more about my experience with SIF when I am back.

 Keep a lookout for my future posts~~ ^-^

Riverkids: http://www.riverkidsproject.org/

Singapore International Foundation: http://www.sif.org.sg/

Riverkids Volunteering

For now let me just post some photos of the schools we went to back then, last year in March, with Riverkids.

I love the hospitality and friendly of Cambodians and as usual, they welcomed us with great enthusiasm. The children were great and adorable as usual. We took it as an experience and strived to be better next time!!

They have 4 centres in all in different parts of Phnom Penh and 'Blum Project' took us about 45min-1hr worth of travelling on tuk tuk from our hotel in the city centre. 

  Here we were at the school and greeted by happy-go-lucky children who were always ready with a smile. 

Each class lasted 45mins or so. Lower Primary followed by Upper Primary, after-which came a 2-3 hrs lunch break. Being in the middle of the village, we had no transportation out ( as we wanted to stay the whole day in the school) and though we did pack lunch but we were really bored with nothing to do while waiting for afternoon class to commence. 

The very kind teacher-in-charge who knows English well and translated for us.

We took some photos and gave them polaroids as a gift.

Us with the kids

 Boys, being boys were fascinated with our iphones... 

 Love this pair of obedient sisters 

 This sweet little boy is SAVA, hard at work...

                         This school focuses on computing classes and schooling for younger children below 6, toddlers and infants.