Lily’s Volunteering Experience
July 28, 2023
As a first-time volunteer, I connected with IVHQ and decided I would like to return to Cambodia, not as a tourist, but to see if I could be helpful in a much more authentic setting. I was given a choice of working in Siem Reap or Battambang and I jumped at the chance to come to Battambang precisely because I thought there would be fewer tourists. As it turned out, working at PTD has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life.
The only volunteer teaching opportunities I was able to find seemed to be limited to teaching English. While I am a native speaker and took a course online to become TEFL certified prior to my arrival in Cambodia, I had forty years of experience teaching mathematics, and various administrative jobs over those years. I was thrilled to find out that the director, Bun Tityarith (Rith), had actually read my resume and asked me to help PTD using my areas of expertise to teach mathematics, share my own insights on teaching mathematics with their teachers, and work on curriculum projects that were needed by the school. He had made the effort to become aware of my skills and experience to our mutual benefit. He made me feel valued and motivated to help as much as I could.
As I got to know Rith, his staff, and the children, I came to truly understand how much more PTD is than a wonderful school dedicated to the education of its students. Students living in poverty, including special needs students, receiving tuition scholarships, school supplies, books, and uniforms are being given an opportunity to improve their lives, and their family’s lives, and raise their hopes for the future. Local parents work at the school to provide this life-changing experience for their own children. Volunteers are trained so that they can become teachers themselves and improve their families lives.
Projects building new facilities and water filtration systems provide employment during the building process and provide job training for young people after the construction is complete. Everything, every project, and every idea for improvement are conceived by local people who know what their real needs are.
One of these projects, the PTD Scholarship for Higher Education, is designed to help girls in the countryside who have had to quit their schooling because they cannot afford to attend high school as the school is too far away and the cost of safe transportation is too much to overcome. Girls who have somehow completed high school often cannot afford to go on to university. If the girls could finish high school and go on to train to become teachers, they could go back to their villages to teach and help other girls to finish their schooling.
When I found out that Rith was trying to find matching funds for the PTD Scholarship for Higher Education to help an initial group of ten girls participate in this project, I felt it was something I could do to help. I also felt it was a way to honor the selfless work and dedication to improving lives in Battambang, Cambodia which is the hallmark of PTD.
Volunteering at PTD combines an opportunity to provide help that really matters with a chance to get to know the people, their sincere friendliness, and their remarkable generosity of spirit.
