We are a Cambodian training organisation in Kep. This is written from inside, and it is not a pitch.
The orphanage problem
Start here, because it is the biggest one.
Cambodia has far more residential "orphanages" than its number of orphans can explain. Most children in them have at least one living parent. They are there because institutions attract foreign money, and foreign money attracts children — families are persuaded to give them up on the promise of schooling.
Short-term foreign volunteers are the engine of that economy. A stream of strangers who arrive, bond with a child for two weeks and leave, teaches children that affection is temporary and makes them a fundraising asset.
Do not volunteer at a residential orphanage. Do not visit one. Do not donate to one. If an organisation lets untrained strangers spend unsupervised time with children, that is a safeguarding failure, not an opportunity.
The harder question about skills
The second problem is quieter. If a job can be done by an untrained foreigner who does not speak Khmer, it can be done better by a Cambodian who does — and who needs the work.
Painting a school, teaching a class, building a wall: these are jobs. Paying a foreigner's way to do them for free takes income out of the local economy, and the foreigner usually isn't very good at them.
That is not an argument against coming. It is an argument for being honest about what you are actually bringing.
What tends to work
- Genuine specialist skills, given over months rather than days — a physiotherapist, an accountant, a trained teacher training other teachers
- Paying for things. Unglamorous and enormously more useful. A plumber's wages for a year costs less than most volunteer placements
- Spending money locally — eating in training restaurants, buying from workshops, staying in places that employ and train local people
- Buying the output. Woodwork, textiles, coffee. A purchase is a wage
What we do, and what we don't
Khmer Hands trains young Cambodians in hospitality, cooking, English, carpentry and sewing. The cafés, the workshop and the bungalows you can stay in are the training ground — real customers, real orders, real standards.
That model is deliberate. The trainees are not beneficiaries being observed; they are staff learning a trade, and what you spend pays for it.
So do we take volunteers?
Yes, and we are glad of the people who come.
Our primary business is guests, and that shapes the honest answer. The bungalows, the cafés and the workshop are what pay for the training, and they do it directly: a room booked is a week of someone's apprenticeship, with no administration in between.
Volunteering works best here when it brings something we cannot do ourselves and there is time to pass it on properly — a trade, a professional qualification, teacher training. Given over months rather than days, that leaves something behind after you go, which is the whole point.
So:
- If that sounds like you — write to us. Tell us what you do and how long you
can stay, and we would be glad to talk
- If you mainly want to be useful and are not sure how — come and stay. Eat where the kitchen is
a classroom. Buy from the workshop. It is less romantic and it does more good
We know the second answer sounds convenient coming from a guesthouse. We think it is true anyway, for the reason set out above: a wage paid is a skill learned, and that outlasts a visit.
If you want to help and aren't sure how
The simplest honest answer: come as a visitor, and choose where your money goes. Stay somewhere that trains people. Eat where the kitchen is a classroom. Buy from the workshop rather than the airport.
It is less romantic than a placement. It does considerably more good.
Questions worth asking any organisation
Before you commit time or money anywhere in Cambodia:
- Does it put foreigners in unsupervised contact with children? (If yes, walk away.)
- Would a local person be paid to do the job you'd be doing for free?
- How long is the minimum commitment? Short placements usually serve the volunteer, not the work
- Can you see accounts, and do local staff hold senior roles?
- What happens to the work when you leave?
Coming to see us
A week on the south coast sets out a route through this part of the country. If you want to talk about any of the above honestly, including whether we are the right fit, write to us.