There are many forms of Volunteering – Where do you fit in?

Volunteering can take on many shapes and forms in modern society and it is not always required that the volunteer needs to invest large amounts of time and money to travel to be a volunteer. Using todays technology, virtual volunteering is now possible and helps to bridge some of the expertise gaps that Tuk Tuk for Children faces without requiring an expert to fly over to Cambodia to help. Of course traditional volunteering in person is just as important as it has always been and is still a large requirement for Tuk Tuk for Children.

Volunteer in Pursat Cambodia

Money might make the world go around but it is predominately used to get the people to actually make it happen. Volunteering with TT4C is for people that have 2 weeks or longer time available. A volunteer here for 2 weeks will typically help with Tuk Tuk Theatre and work in arts projects or co-teaching English etc. However, anyone wanting to get their teeth stuck into a project will need a minimum of 2 months but can stay as long as they wish… well forever really!

All of our volunteering is free however we do ask 2 things from our volunteers;

• Please stay at the Tukqwarters while you are volunteering. Our prices are reasonable and you have to pay for accommodation somewhere right? Your rent is a really big help in covering the basic costs of running our organisation.
• Join in our Tuk Tuk Theatre program. TTT is all about bringing different experiences to the kids of Cambodia. We rely on our volunteers varied backgrounds to provide interesting and different activities to keep the kids excited.

Volunteers are not just restricted to Tuk Tuk for Children projects!

We are here to help and we don’t want volunteers feeling that perhaps they don’t have the skill set needed for our organisation. In fact, our Tuk Tuk Theatre project really is for everyone and is not just a full time position by itself as we do work closely with other organisations in Pursat. In this way we hope to ensure that volunteers are placed in a role that works for them. You can see the other organisations that we work with here…

Volunteering in Pursat could include but is not limited to the following;

• Tuk Tuk Theatre – Here you will need to have on you best fun face as we travel to 6 villages every 2 weeks. Volunteers will give a quick 5 minute presentation to introduce themselves to the kids and to tell them something interesting about themselves. You can find more info on TTT here…
• Helping to write and illustrate children’s books. We mean basic children’s books that are focussed on Cambodian scenery and culture. For those of you who may be less artistic we also need for example, to make giant story books with some colorful paper and a heap of glue
• As well we are creating teacher resources for the mobile library such as oragami, activities, craft ideas, games and songs or putting actions to the songs plus more.
• Art or construction projects at the Tukqwarters or one of the other organisations in Pursat. This can be literally anything from a mural on a wall to painting snakes and ladders on the ground, building a hand wash station or making a rubbish storage area. The Tuk Tuk could always use some new game ideas incorporated into the design. I imagine a James Bond like tuk tuk where basket ball hoops appear out of concealed compartments or a giant score board folds up from the roof. The options are limited only by your skills and imagination.
• Photography and social media creation. We need a wide audienceof people to know about what we do and maybe you have the skills to help us here. Perhaps you just have basic skills but would love to give it a go anyway. We need everything from a few photos taken and blog posts written to video creation and viral posts to get our name out there.
• Teaching Teachers – Our partner, Building Bridges for Children is a school teaching English who would love support from qualified teachers to help their teaching staff to teach a more varied curriculum. Depending on your level of expertise, you could be working one on one with the teachers or coaching the principal and staff to improve this great school even more.
• Not a qualified teacher? No worries. We need co-teachers that can support our teachers in the class room at BBC allowing the kids to hear native English speaking. You don’t need any special skills for this and you don’t even need to be fluent in English for some of the younger classes.
• Physiotherapy, Occupational therapy or similar professions are hugely in need here. Working with DDSP, a school for special needs students, you can put your skills to work directly with local Cambodian professionals and clients alike. Do as much or as little as you are comfortable with and all the time under direct supervision from friendly and appreciative local Cambodian staff to ensure that you are familiar with local culture and practices.

This is mainly the type of work that we do, however if you think that you have a special skill to offer that is not covered, let us know and we will see what we can do to facilitate it for you. For more details on specific projects head over to our volunteer opportunities to find more details.

Virtual Volunteering

Tuk Tuk for children are extremely fortunate to have generous people who are willing and able to travel to Cambodia and assist us in the work that we do in making a difference to the lives of children. There is however another group of people who contact us saying that they would love to support us but with the restraints of their personal lives ( such as family, work, finance) they cannot at this time manage a trip to Cambodia.

The possibilities are endless and we would love to talk to you about how you can help from home. For example ;

• perhaps you have skills in the digital world and would be willing to spend a few hours in assisting us with things such as website updates or social media marketing.
• perhaps you are literate in the Khmer language and could help with the translation of children’s books.
• perhaps you are a kindergarten teacher in your home country and can help with lesson and game ideas that can be introduced into Cambodia
• perhaps you are a hands on person or part of a group who would be able to make simple learning toys from scrap materials that you may be able to have shipped to us.
• perhaps you have digital artistic skills and would be able to create images that may compliment the programs we are running.
• perhaps you would be interested in conducting a local fundraising event for a specific project. (None of our volunteers receive any payment. The only salaries are for locally employed Khmer workers)

You may have ideas of ways that you could help that we have not yet thought of. We would love to explore the possibilities and have a conversation with you. Your rewards can be enormous… what value can you put on a thousand smiles?

You can find more information on available volunteering positions here…