Whilst having dinner at a local tapas restaurant, we made arrangements with Lara and Aline to go with them the next morning to a school in a remote village called Prasat Char, where ‘Helping Hands Cambodia’ has been assisting the locals for more than 6 years.  ‘Helping Hands’ was founded in 2005 by Deborah Groves, a Sunshine Coast wedding photographer, who first came to Cambodia the year before on an Intrepid Travel tour, fell in love with the country and decided to move here the following year.

Her vision for the grass roots aid organisation was to empower Cambodians living in poverty to help them help themselves. Some of the assistance over the last few years has included agricultural training and irrigation systems, rebuilding thatched huts for families, building the local school (which included the first proper toilet in the village) and providing school uniforms for the village children.  They also sponsor the school teacher to attend university. In this way, the local villagers are given a ‘hands up’ rather than straight charity.

We departed our guesthouse early and briefly stopped to collect Aline, some art supplies, a box of donated story books and the school teacher who was raised in the same village. Our tuk-tuk followed Lara and Teddy’s tuk-tuk in convoy out of Siem Reap for approx 20kms. After about 10km, we turned off the sealed road onto the rich red fertile dirt tracks until we reached a small concrete bridge (constructed with Helping Hands assistance) over the creek. We waited wait for a ‘tractor’ and cart from the village to take us the remaining 3-4kms to the village school as the road was too rough for the tuk-tuks. The  tractor turned out to be a two wheeled Kubota power tiller pulling a timber cart. We chugged at a steady walking pace the rest of the way along a muddy track to the school, where the children greeted us enthusiastically.

Although it is a busy time in the village with rice planting in full swing, a good number of students turned up to the ‘Helping Hands’ School- Iqbal. There is also a government school in the village (currently on recess for two weeks) and the children are allowed to attend this school only if they are enrolled in the government school.  The curriculum is designed to complement, not replace, the education provided by the government schools and as Cambodian children only attend government school for half a day, it means the students are free to attend this school during the other half of the day.

The ‘Helping Hands School’ consists of a simple timber framed building with thatched walls, tin roof, and a lockable storage room in a back corner. The children sit at old style timber desks in pairs, the seats and writing desks all one piece. We introduced ourselves with Phoebe and Immi stating their names and age and where they were from, then each student took turns at standing and giving their name, age, and number of siblings. Ages ranged from 6 to 16 and we were surprised to hear some have up to seven brothers and sisters. Malnutrition is evident with a number of the children having discoloured teeth and lighter hair colour. Although naturally a small race of people, Phoebe stood as tall as some of the 13 year olds!

A simple well and hand pump outside and to the rear of the classroom provides plenty of water which the children are encouraged to drink regularly. A smaller classroom structure also stands within the school yard and serves as the kindergarten.

Phoebe was keen to help again and handed out a blank half A4 page to each student where they were asked to draw a picture of their choice and it was explained that Aline was taking the pictures back to France to a French art teacher and her students. Blunt colouring pencils were plentiful but the school did not seem to have a working pencil sharpener (we would have bought a dozen if we’d known!), so I spend some time with my pocket knife sharpening the worst of them. Some beautiful artwork is produced, and 2 hours later the children head for home.

The other volunteers remained at the school to conduct art class with the afternoon group of students and although the girls were eager to stay on it would have meant a four hour wait before the next class started hence a late arrival back into Siem Reap after dark so after a drive through the village we headed back down the dusty road toward our tuk-tuk and felt humbled and grateful about returning to the comparative luxury of our guesthouse.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”  (Melodie Beattie)