VSO Cambodia

International Youth Day-VSO/ICS 2014 (ទិវាយុវជនអន…: http://youtu.be/Plw8bav9xSg

Community Action Day-VSO/ICS Cambodia

សកម្មភាពរបស់យុវជនស្ម័គ្រចិត្តរបស់​VSO/ICS Cambodia: http://youtu.be/2j8bFjSuRsE

VSO/ ICS Cambodia-Stung Treng Team

VSO/ICS programme

After a week training, on 25 July 2014 our group left Phnom Penh to Stung Treng and Ratanakiry province where we are going to work for three months. A day after we arrived, in the morning the team had a meeting in order to set up team contract and team committees (MPR, CAD,Debrief, M&E, Social, Media and communication). At the night time, the team prepared some stuffs to welcome our host families who we are going to live with. Welcoming pictures drawn by UK counterparts as they are at the first time in Cambodia, yet they could do it well, like how to bow when we meet old people. In the morning, before we met our host family, we traveled by tuk tuk to see where our NGO is which we base and to see some places in the town of Stung Treng. Around 10 am we arrived at the guest house where we temporarily stayed to meet our host families. We waited them around 2 hours, th

en at 11.30 am our host families arrived, however, we had not known who are our host family.  Host families arrived we said the welcoming words to surprise them; they were happy. The first thing, the team was given a game in order to play before knowing our host family.  After playing game, my UK counterpart also another national were provided a piece of paper which was written fingers on it and so did our host family. We did not know who our host family, we called them host dad/mom, unless we found those who had the same sign. Spending a few minutes to find our host dad/mom then we found our host brother, he does not have wife so we call him host brother, he is handsome, friendly, and he also has his own small business whose name is Guitar Milk; it seemed that we were very lucky to live in this host family. We talked, shared some knowledge and introduced to each other; my host brother can also speak English well, so we did not have any difficulty in conversation with him and my UK counterpart. After talking we had lunch together at that guest house with the other host families before going to our host home. Lunch time was gone, we all were sent to our host family separately. Arriving at the host home, we felt very excited to be at this host home.

My host home in which i live during this programme.

First day here, we were welcomed by host family and the best thing is that we were provided a free of green tea for each. In the evening we had dinner with host family and seemed that we have known each other and talked happily.

My UK counterpart and another national volunteer had dinner with the host family together .

International Youth Day ICS 2014 (ទិវាយុវជនអន្ដរជាតិ​------0- -202014- 2014-ICS)

hhttps://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=rZ-sE2VRrbk&video_referrer=watch

VSO/ICS Cambodia

VSO Cambodia/International Citizen Service program (ICS)

A short brief of VSO-Cambodia/International Citizen Service program (ICS):

VSO/International Citizen Service (ICS) is a volunteering experience for young people who want to make a real difference in some of the world’s poorest communities. In Cambodia, ICS runs projects in the North-eastern part of the country. Twelve Cambodian youths will spend three months working alongside twelve youths from the United Kingdom (UK) in a team to tackle issues that really matter to the local community (for this circle we are working at Stung Treng and Ratanakiry province. (Source from VSO’s page)

For more information about how to apply this program:

http://www.eurocham-cambodia.org/index.php?option=com_jobboard&view=job&id=33&catid=1

Or

https://www.facebook.com/304557379666133/photos/a.334094906712380.1073741827.304557379666133/557161661072369/?type=1&theater

 This is my experiences during the ICS for the second cycle (started from July 18^th, 2014 to October 08^th, 2014) in Stung Treng province, however, for those who went to Ratanakiry is the third cycle. The training from July 18th, 2014 to July 18^{th 2014} for Cambodian and Uk’s volunteers. The first day, Cambodian volunteers prepared stuffs to welcome UK counterparts for their arrival in Cambodia. We, Khmer volunteers, sang Khmer song, danced, we did a great job, to welcome them and UK volunteers were very excited, yet UK volunteers said Khmer words, Chom Reab Sur, means how do you do to Khmer volunteers; we, Khmer, also excited for their their speaking Khmer words! --A day after, both Khmer and UK counterparts were trained together in the Karitas's office, in Phnom Penh, for a week. During this training we did learn many things about ICS program, learned how to adopt the other culture. Khmer-UK volunteers learned how to live with indigenous, community people. Being told that some host families could not even speak Khmer or English (some families are Kreung, Jaray, Tom Poun...), we still felt well with these challenges. We also had many activities such as energizing to break our bad feeling that we felt sleepy because of the long days training, some were exhausted, and some got sick. Yet, we enjoyed it. For breaking time, either Khmer or UK talked to each other about its culture, studying, and experiences and so on. After a week training, on July 25^th, 2014 we, except me, leaved Phnom Penh to Stung Treng(2nd cycle) and Ratanakiry province (3rd cycle)  to know our host family in which we live, NGO which we will be working with to start our project on Awareness Raising in Stung Treng and Training in Ratanakiry.  

Welcoming UK volunteers arrival 

Activities during In Country  Training days (ICT)