Written by Kate Smyth
I have just returned from a 5 day volunteer program with FCm and Habitat for Humanity. We worked within a small community about 1 hour outside of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. These families previously lived in slums but have been relocated to this area and given a small piece of land by the Government. Most of them live in small shacks made of scrap metal and wood and some share their home with up to 10 other family members. Only a few of them have a house made of bricks and mortar.
Our team was involved with helping the local contractors, we got stuck into brick laying, cement mixing and shovelling sand! We moved literally a truckload of rocks into the house to create the foundation. We compacted sand, cement and rocks into the base and bashed them in with a handmade compactor made of a tree stump and 2 wooden poles. All the tools were very basic and manual, they don’t have the luxury of power tools!
We were lucky enough to interact with the families and all the kids in the village. Everyday they would follow us to lunch and we would play together, take photos and communicate without words! The highlight of the trip would be the day that we took 22 kids to the local water park. Most of them hadn’t even been outside of their village, let alone in a bus – nor had they ever seen 4 brightly coloured water-slides, a wave pool or water fountains! This was the opportunity of a lifetime and it was such an amazing gift to see their eyes light up as they ran towards the water-slides and splashed in the pools.
The week ended with a house dedication ceremony where we all took part in cutting the ribbon on the home and handing it over to the home owner. We were able to invite the whole village and they joined us in this very emotional, moving ceremony. It was a very proud moment and I felt extremely fortunate to be a part of it. The home owners were ecstatic and they couldn’t thank us enough, they were hugging us and wiping the tears from our faces, laughing and smiling and shaking our hands. It was just amazing.
I would encourage anyone interested in getting involved to go for it. It was by far the best experience I’ve had. It was fantastic getting involved with the people, seeing how they live, learning about their culture. Things that you can’t touch or buy. This trip has been really special to me and the memories will be with me for a long time. I would go back and do it again in a heartbeat.
