General Info
However, many "orphans" still have parents or relatives they may visit sometimes. Orphanage work ranges from cooking, administration, cleaning, painting, singing and sports to assisting with homework, feeding, caring for children and teaching. Alongside teaching, volunteers help with general work and will normally work 4-8 hours a day depending on the placement. The 2 hour lunch break can be spent at the orphanage or at home gathering energy for the rest of the day. You may also work in an orphanage or Center for HIV infected or disabled children, where the focus is less on teaching and more on childcare. Volunteers help to dress, feed and wash the children who are always happy to simply get your attention as in Cambodian society, disabled people are often rejected. In all our placements the children are attending the relevant public schools. Most orphanages also have fixed weekly activities, focusing mainly on education such as Khmer literacy classes, English language classes or more general teaching. Topics such as morality, hygiene or Khmer traditions are also discussed with the children. Many orphanages support creative activities like painting, drawing, origami or Apsara dancing (Khmer Traditional dance), and some orphanages organize visits to the beach or to villages. The majority of orphanage placements are in Phnom Penh, however we also have a number of placements throughout Cambodia (Pursat, Battambang and Kampong Speu) we use when we have large numbers of volunteers in country. There is a possibility if our orphanages in Phnom Penh are full you may be placed in another town outside of Phnom Penh.
IVHQ PLACEMENT: House of Family
This is a Slovak Organization established in 2003 with the aim to provide medical and social care to HIV-positive orphans or semi-orphans living in Cambodia. One of the orphanages is situated in Phnom Penh. Currently there are around 80 "indoor" children and 30 "outdoor" children, i.e. staying with the family but coming regularly for medical checks. The children are aged from 2 to 18 years, and often abandoned and discriminated by their community because they are HIV-positive. They are helped with getting education in local public schools, vocational training on special skills and learning English at the centre. The centre also provides them with some "extra" skills in comparison to their HIV-negative Cambodian peers. NB This is only an example placement which is one of many offered by IVHQ in Cambodia and not necessarily the one you will be working at.
