Cambodia's Orphanage Business

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hf_snNO9X8

06/21/2012
Juliana Ruhfus
Al Jazeera

Juliana Ruhfus investigated the growth of the global commercial volunteering industry and found volunteers' hopes exploited and Cambodian children needlessly placed in orphanages.

Susan Rosas is a young American social worker based in Cambodia. When I met her at the Harvard University Global Mental Health Program last year she told me about a surprising phenomenon: in spite of the fact that Cambodia had managed to overcome decades of conflict, famine and an AIDS epidemic, the number of orphanages around the country had doubled over the past decade. This, she said, was not based on the needs of the children but the growth of the global volunteering industry, which was hungry for placements.

Over 70% of the Cambodian "orphans" have at least one living parent, Susan said, but families were lured into giving up their children by the promise of Western education.

I started to research. "Voluntourism" has been described as the fastest growing sector of one of the fastest growing industries in the world. According to David Clemmons, founder of www.voluntourism.org, an estimated 11 million people traveled to volunteer in 2011 alone, proving that voluntourism has become a "multi-billion dollar expression of travelers' desires to find meaning and to make the world a better place."

Orphan Voluntourism: Who Does it Benefit?

Source:  http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca

04/02/2012 - Child welfare workers are tackling a debate in international development caused by the mixing of the volunteer sector and tourism industry in response to an "orphan crisis."

The lines between the tourism industry and voluntary sector have become blurred, leaving child welfare and protection workers to navigate the two according to the best interests of the child.

With international travel increasingly accessible to both younger generations and global citizenship likewise on the rise, “voluntourism” has become a popular way of spending vacation time.

Very few people participating in volunteer tours begin their trip with malice in their hearts or an intention to exploit vulnerable youngsters. Rather, they are looking for a way to give back to communities or, perhaps, gain new experiences outside their comfort zones.

So, how could such admirable goals go awry?

In 2010, Linda Richter of the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa and Amy Norman of the University of London explored this question in an article published in the journal, Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies.

Cambodian child-rights NGO pioneers 'voluntourism'

June 16, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

It carries the intials of one of the world's richest companies but the Big Heart Project is anything but.

It was created by a young couple from the Australian city of Melbourne, as a grass roots not for profit organisation with a partial focus on what's now known as "voluntourism" or volunteer vacations.

Two years on, the couple aided by locals and volunteers are caring for orphaned and abused children and are teaching English to more than 400 young Cambodians.

Presenter: Claudette Werden

Speaker: Adrian Trout, Big Heart Project; Cameron Sar, MyCambodiaTV; "Joshua", volunteer

Click here to listen: to the audio program (Windows Media)

WERDEN: It was two years of travelling in southeast Asia , that prompted Adrian Trout to, as he says, open his heart.

TROUT: It was from that experience of travelling and seeing a lot of suffering, just a very different take on the world to what I've been brought up with in Australia and reading a lot of books as well when I was travelling on things like sex slavery and a lot of the horrors that we often don't like to face up to and realising that this is reality for a lot of people and I didn't feel like I could walk away from that reality and go back into my bubble in Australia.

WERDEN: The Big Heart project is run from a modest house in a sleepy rural village in the southern province of Takeo. Cameron Sar, a Cambodian refugee who fled to Australia when he was 7, visited the project earlier this year.

Culture shock hits hard in Cambodia

A typical slum village in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (All PHOTOS FROM BETSY BAEHR / SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER)
Sunset in Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia.
A little boy I met at a river slum village in Phnom Penh.
This beautiful little girl lives in a slum village built on stilts over two feet of floating garbage.

August 30, 2009
By BETSY BAEHR
Special to the DesMoines Register (Iowa, USA)

"The other side of the world" is an impossible phrase to comprehend until you're actually on the other side of the world. Within 15 minutes of my arrival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the culture shock hit hard. Within a few short minutes, that simple phrase had a whole new meaning.

Eighteen months ago, as a student at Oral Roberts University, I attended a seminar on the growing problem of child trafficking and prostitution in southeast Asia. I realized that I was rather naive to the topic. I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around this worlds-away issue, and I was immediately intrigued and interested to learn more.
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In 2004, Citipointe Church in Brisbane, Australia, started a child rescue home in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. They house 15 girls, ages 3-16. Once I learned of the shocking statistics of child prostitution in Cambodia, and the hope and life Citipointe was bringing, I was both heartbroken and captivated to learn more and to see this country for myself.

I spent June 27 through July 10 in Cambodia with a group from the church's rescue home, and it was one of the greatest experiences I have encountered. Breaking out of the "American bubble" was exhilarating.

I visited the "killing fields" and was floored that the mass killings by the Khmer Rouge happened just 30 years ago.

Outwardly, the Cambodian people are unlike any group I have seen. They are absolutely, unknowingly stunning. Everywhere you look is a photo waiting to be taken. Some Cambodian clothing stores only offer one size since the people there are so small and lean — talk about culture shock.

The overarching language barrier was difficult since there was so much I wanted to learn from them. But the fact that I, a Westerner, was there only to hang out in orphanages and slums, to offer hugs, shampoo, rice and lollypops, visibly resonated with them.

When visiting the slum villages and the rescue home in Phnom Penh, the contrast between the startling and numbing experiences these children had been through and their cheerful attitudes, was striking. The children in the slums and rescue homes were vibrant, loving and lively.

Our group also visited the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is primarily known for its ancient temples. The only other location with similar ancient temples is Egypt, in the Nile Valley. The temples were beautifully aged, elaborate and breathtaking. Built in the early 12th century, Angkor Wat is the most famous of the temples and appears on the Cambodian flag.

Understanding and experiencing "the other side of the world," is an irreplaceable, unexplainable gift. It cannot be truly grasped through textbooks, documentaries or Wikipedia. There is beauty in authenticity and the need to see with your own eyes.

Hard work - but what a great holiday

"It looked easy, but keeping the mortar on the brick was no mean feat - most of it ended up on my boots" (Photo: Thierry Falise/OnAsia/ActionAid)
A local worker unloads bricks from a truck by sliding them on a wooden plank (Photo: Thierry Falise/OnAsia/ActionAid)
Linda Hill, a member of the Cambodia community challenge team, carries soil on the Soksan building site (Photo: Thierry Falise/OnAsia/ActionAid)
Helen Walker, challenge events manager, finds out how heavy the water buckets are at the Soksan building site (Photo: Thierry Falise/OnAsia/ActionAid)

04/04/2008
Alexandra Ferguson
The Telegraph (UK)

Alexandra Ferguson helps locals to build a new community centre in Cambodia with ActionAid.

Danger! Mines! Beyond the skull-and-crossbones sign, the red and white tapes fanned out through the long grass. In the still heat of the afternoon, chickens scratched beneath a banana palm, a woman filled a jerrycan at a well and two children creaked past on an oversized bicycle.

Kim Sros splashed water into the makeshift hollow and we dragged our shovels back and forth, mixing the sand and cement. On the scaffolding behind us, two villagers added a row of bricks to a side wall, while two volunteers, Graham and Sally, rendered the front elevation in sweeping arcs.

We stopped to stretch. "The community centre will make a real difference to Soksan," 19-year-old Kim, the village's representative, said through an interpreter.

"Before, we had nowhere to meet. Sometimes we would go to the pagoda, but in the rainy season we always got wet. Now we will have a place to teach pre-school children and hold health checks and training workshops. We are very excited."

I was in Cambodia with the charity ActionAid, working on a building project shared between local villagers and volunteers from Britain.

Banteay Meanchey province, on the Thai border, was one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge, whose regime was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in slave-labour camps and torture centres in the late 1970s. Although the regime fell in 1979, fighting continued here until 1998.

The displaced population ekes out a living from farming rice in fields riddled with landmines; there is little infrastructure; and the average family survives on less than 50p a day.

ActionAid has been working with local NGOs to combat poor health, land loss and illiteracy since 1999. Cambodia has about 40,000 amputees and the highest HIV rates in Asia. Malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and dengue fever are additional concerns in Banteay Meanchey.

The sale of land to fund health care is common and the lack of formal land titles makes the poor vulnerable to land grab. With no source of food or income, people cross the border to find work and more than half of all school-age children work to supplement the family income. Child trafficking and domestic violence are other pressing problems.

Chantara Kimsan, an ActionAid programme officer, was working with the team at Soksan. "Often it is hard to see the results of our work because we are passing on knowledge," he said. "But this is how change begins. We are looking for long-term solutions and this centre will be used by about 400 people."

Two further centres – funded by the volunteers – were under way in the nearby villages of Koh Snuol and Santepheap, although heavy rain had halted work at the latter.

The extra British muscle was welcome and our lack of building skills no obstacle. Among the 21 volunteers, aged from 21 to 69, only Seb – a brickie from Bristol – had any professional expertise. Everyone here had raised at least £3,300 to take part: a minimum of £1,855 for the centres, plus £1,445 to cover flights and ground costs.

Unlike the average charity trek, this project had the volunteers working alongside the people benefiting from their sponsorship and we could see how the cash was being spent. After the building work, a sightseeing trip to the temples of Angkor was in prospect.

Poipet, our base for the five-day build, was a dusty border town an hour from the building sites. Run-down hotels and market stalls lined a central square dominated by a Khmer statue. A few yards farther on the asphalt petered out and the potholes – big enough to swallow an elephant – began.

Our hotel receptionist was overwhelmed by the influx of guests, as was the plumbing. Later that evening, in varying states of cleanliness, we talked about our fundraising efforts.

The past few months had been a whirl of car-boot sales, garden fêtes, sponsored runs and tombolas. "I was up at 7am every day, baking scones," said Elizabeth, an assistant postmistress. Gordon, a professor of education, strong-armed friends with the tag line "Stobart finally does something practical", while Susan, a BA flight supervisor, had won The Weakest Link.

What was it about this project that had caught their imagination? Ryan, a health worker, said he had always wanted to visit Cambodia, "and this seemed like a great opportunity to help people and see the sights".

"I love being outdoors, working with my hands," said Andrew from London. "ActionAid has the right approach, getting the locals involved and keeping them central to everything."

The first day had left a big impression: "You're not encountering anything that you do not already know on an intellectual level," said Barbara, a publisher. "But seeing it – the real subsistence, the precariousness of their lives – is something else." Her words returned to me the next morning when I joined the other half of the group, bound for Koh Snuol.

Having left what passes for the main highway, we bounced down a rutted track through paddy fields and dense pampas grass. It was late November – harvest time – and men and women toiled in the fields.

Children played beside bamboo shacks patched with sacking and corrugated iron; a young amputee laboured through the dust on home-made crutches. We came to a slow-moving creek hemmed by stilt homes; rubbish littered its banks. We inched across the rickety wooden bridge, scattering loose planks, and pushed deeper into the bush, skirting a squat schoolhouse ringed by bicycles before pulling into a clearing.

Unlike the building at Soksan, the two-storey centre at Koh Snuol was little more than a skeleton of concrete posts and bare timbers.

The locals were already hard at work. Our building manager, Anthony, consulted the foreman – a slight, muscular man in flip-flops – while we donned hard hats and steel-capped boots. The floors had to be laid and, after safety briefings, we began the laborious business of shifting several tons of hardcore by hand in baskets. A stream of local men, women and children swelled our numbers.

Some of the group turned to bricklaying; others mixed cement. The simplicity of our tasks allowed us to chat and even try out a few words of Khmer on the bemused Cambodians. They had never met Westerners before and our size intrigued them. John – the tallest at 6ft 5in – drew shy glances. We plastered on sunscreen and insect repellent, even though there was a cool breeze. By midday the heat was intense and we retreated to the shade.

After lunch, Seb gave me a lesson in the art of bricklaying. Having applied the mortar with two deft strokes, he grounded the brick with a swift wiggle and tap of the trowel handle. It looked easy, but keeping the mortar on the brick was no mean feat – most of it ended up on my boots. After a few false starts, I was soon worrying about my perps – perpendiculars – and horizontals, following the guide string in concentration.

Gordon applied himself with equal gusto to the adjacent wall. He had already completed several rows. He stood back to survey his handiwork: "I've got a bit of a Gaudí effect going on here," he chuckled. "Lots of wavy lines!" His horizontals looked fine to me.

Behind us, the others levelled the floor. A length of hosepipe stretched along the perimeter acted as a rudimentary spirit level, the water marking the incline below the raised cut ends. The hi-tech tamping tools were logs mounted on two slender branches.

The dull thud of wood on stone kept time as the sun scorched a path through the sky and at 4.30pm we downed tools for the day.

With so many pairs of hands, we had made good progress. The first-floor women's refuge still required a little imagination, but the ground-floor layout – with separate rooms for literacy classes and Aids awareness, a women's clinic and village meetings – was clear.

I met Chheang Eang, a women's health worker, at her modest home the next day. Chosen by her peers, she had received six weeks' training from ActionAid.

Encouraging women to seek help was her first task, because, culturally, they are very shy. Having a dedicated, private room in the centre would help and simple health education – especially about HIV and Aids – would save lives.

"Before, I did not know how to protect my own and my daughter's health," she told me. "Now I do, and I can help other women, too."

The wall chart behind her was a stark reminder of the continuing threat from landmines: they come in all shapes and sizes, all devastating. Since the area was cleared the number of incidents had fallen, but their legacy remained: the widow raising a family of seven, the farmer who had lost a leg, the village elder blinded by shrapnel.

But this community is looking to the future with a real sense of hope and purpose and, as the week progressed, and the walls at Koh Snuol grew higher, our conviction deepened. Fitness levels varied, so we set our own pace and selected our tasks. Our language skills did not improve much, but there was a great deal of laughter. Somehow it worked: we became a team.

The same seemed to be true at the Soksan site. In the evenings we traded stories over steaming bowls of noodles and obscure local beers. The bricklaying was complete at the first site, the rendering almost finished and work had started on a retaining wall.

At Koh Snuol, there was still much to do, but we had made great strides. The villagers of Santepheap would have to wait for the ground to dry out before building could resume, but funding was secure. ActionAid is committed to overseeing the community centres for the next seven years and each village will elect a management committee.

As the build drew to a close, it was hard to know who had gained more from the experience: the locals or the volunteers. "It's the best thing I've ever done!" Ryan said. "It has been physically strenuous but working with the local people has been really special."

Barbara summed it up: "You can make a significant physical contribution. Who'd have thought that 21 people who had never done this before could achieve so much?"

On the final afternoon, we gathered for farewells. The village elders thanked us and the children presented us with drawings. A little girl with huge almond eyes pressed her palms together in silent greeting and handed me a piece of paper.

The centre was there in bright crayon strokes. There were no landmines or crutches, just flowers and a family and a purple rabbit. Above it all was a smiling sun.

• ActionAid's next Cambodia community challenge will take place in November. It is also planning community builds in Nepal and South Africa in 2009. To join, a registration fee of £300 is needed plus a minimum sponsorship target.
• For further information on ActionAid's community challenges, see www.actionaid.org.uk/adventures

Volunteer force

Hands Up Holidays (www.handsupholidays.com) combines holidays with volunteering projects. Catering for groups of up to 12 people on trips of up to three weeks, projects include building and environmental projects, and teaching English in local communities in 23 destinations. Each volunteering experience accounts for around a third of the trip. Prices range from £500, for eight days in Northern Vietnam teaching English, to £3,500. Prices include accommodation but not flights.

Gap Guru (0800 032 3350, www.gapguru.com) runs volunteering trips across India in areas including Bangalore, New Delhi and Calcutta, which include community and teaching projects, allowing volunteers to work with underprivileged children, or aid Tsunami victims and disabled people. Trips range from four weeks to six months, with costs starting at £990 (including homestay accommodation and meals but excluding flights).

Global Volunteer Projects (0191 222 0404, www.globalvolunteerprojects.org) organises medical placements, teaching projects, HIV awareness projects, journalism placements and conservation projects around the world. A month-long journalism project in China costs from £1,095.

Outreach International (01458 274957, www.outreachinternational.co.uk): volunteer projects in Central and South America, Sri Lanka and the Galapagos Islands of up to six months. From £1,300, including flights, insurance, language training and full board.

STA Travel (0871 230 8512, www.statravel.co.uk) has launched a range of new "voluntourism" trips. These include orangutan conservation in Borneo, where volunteers work at the orangutan rehabililtation centres of Sarawak, and reforestation projects in the Peruvian Andes, where volunteers help with tree planting and assisting the local community to implement a sustainable reforestation programme. Prices from £1,500 including flights, accommodation and meals.

For more information on volunteering projects, visit Worldwide Volunteering (www.worldwidevolunteering.org.uk) which has a database of more than 1,600 volunteer organisations and 1.1 million placements in 214 countries worldwide.

Giving back to society

Dr. Robert E. Kalb, a University at Buffalo dermatology professor, volunteered to spend some time in Cambodia treating patients at the country’s only hospital that provides free care.

Sunday Profile /Dr. Robert E. Kalb

02/03/08
By Louise Continelli
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
The Buffalo News (New York, USA)

He calls it a “life-changing experience” where poverty is rampant.

It is the second straight year Dr. Robert E. Kalb, his wife, son and daughter spent much of their holiday season volunteering — this time at a hospital clinic and elementary school in Cambodia.

After his 17 1/2-hour flight to Cambodia, and equipped with books and medical samples, the Amherst dermatologist treated some 50 patients a day — many with severe skin problems and fighting nutritional deficiencies and with no access to medication that would help their conditions.

Some Cambodians journeyed long distances on bikes, waiting days to be treated at the Sihanouk Hospital Center for Hope, the only hospital that provides free care in the country.

Kalb, his wife, Marlisa, and daughter, Elisa, 19, left for Cambodia the day after Christmas, stopping first in Thailand, where son, Ryan, 22, teaches English at Assumption University. They then went to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, where Marlisa, Elisa and Ryan spent weeks teaching English to 45 grade-school kids at the Goldstone School. Both the hospital and school are sponsored by HOPE International, a faith-based organization focused on alleviating poverty. Kalb grew up in a family of nine.

“I was the first to attend college,” said Kalb, a clinical associate professor in the Dermatology Department of the University at Buffalo’s School of Medicine and chairman of the Buffalo Medical Group’s Dermatology Department.

“I’ve always felt fortunate to have been able to attend college, medical school and a dermatology training program,” he said. “An open door to education is what allowed me to achieve my professional success. I’ve always had a desire to volunteer.”

An opportunity through the National Dermatology Organization and Health Volunteers Overseas led him to Cambodia. During the two-week session in Cambodia, he worked with other doctors, medical students and dermatology trainees.

“There are some more unusual problems because of the poverty and climate, such as nutritional deficiencies and leprosy,” he said. “In general, [many] of the skin problems are very severe examples of more common conditions such as psoriasis or eczema. Unfortunately, significant poverty prevents access to most of the treatments that would be available in more developed countries. Simple problems become major.”

His family was “a tremendous support,” Kalb said.

“I specifically volunteered in early January so my college-aged children could accompany us on both occasions. They taught English to the fifthand sixth-graders, and then the following year to the sixth- and seventhgraders.”

Have an idea about a local person whose life would make a good profile or a neighborhood issue worth exploring? Write to: Louise Continelli, The Buffalo News, P.O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240, or e-mail lcontinelli@buffnews.com

Voluntourism on the rise

Volunteer tourism on the rise

December 28, 2007
KATELYN JOHN
Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania (Australia)

ON a six-month backpacking trip around Asia last year, 27-year-old Sydneysider Ainslie Bartlett met two Cambodian monks who ran a local school for poverty-stricken children in Siem Reap.

Through these contacts Ainslie ended up as a volunteer teaching English at a school for the children.

Ainslie worked closely with the monks, staying in a guest house next to the monastery, eating with them and doing day trips on their Sundays off.

For six days a week she helped teach English to the school's 200 children from the surrounding communities.

Ainslie says her personal involvement not only gave her a unique travelling experience but changed her outlook on life.

"Ever since I came back I've felt like a different and better person," she says.

Ainslie is an example of the growing number of Australians choosing to give something back to countries they visit, rather than being what can be seen as stereotypical tourists who care more about five-star hotels than the people, culture and environments they experience.

The 27-year-old insurance underwriter "just by chance stumbled across the school", but travel agencies and volunteer organisations all offer a wealth of options for those interested in travelling with a conscience.

How about taking a wildlife conservation expedition to the Amazon? Participating for a water conservation project in Kenya? Or lending your skills to help study climate change in the Arctic?

And volunteering as an English teacher will take you to just about every corner of the world.

The World Bank, which monitors ecotourism and cultural tourism, says these are the fastest-growing segments of the global travel industry.

"What we find is people return a third time, a fourth time, a 15th time. They realise this kind of travel is how you really get to see the world and experience more of the food, the culture, the camaraderie," World Bank director Kristalina Georgieva says.

Australian Volunteers International says the 700 or more Australians that choose to volunteer with them worked for 4000 hours on 420 assignments last financial year, foregoing $18 million dollars of earning to work overseas.

Australian Volunteers International (AVI), which has volunteer options in more than 36 countries, specialises in organising career-specific volunteer trips to places which that are in need of professionals with particular skills, such as accountants, social workers and project officers.

STA Travel offers a range of eco and cultural tourism packages, including teaching English in countries like Ghana and Sri Lanka, conservation work in Equador and turtle conservation in Costa Rica. It and even offers travellers a chance to carbon offset their trip.

But volunteer holidays don't always come cheap.

Some agency-organised trips can set Good Samaritans back thousands of dollars – much more than the cost of travelling around the country on your own.

Travellers can be asked to pay not only for their own airfare and accommodation costs, but the opportunity to volunteer.

Some travellers, like Ainslie, are concerned that their money may not be going towards the places they visit.

She says she'd rather find her own volunteer project and invest her money straight into the community.

"I always wanted to do volunteer work or charity work, but when I looked into it there was always a lot of cost involved and it was always in groups and really organised. I just thought it seemed a bit impersonal, not to mention expensive," Ainslie says.

"So I just thought I'd go over there and see what I could do.

"It's easy to pick up (volunteer work) over there, if it's something you really want to do."

Zayne D'Crus from AVI says trips like Ainslie's can go well, but if they go wrong it pays to be with a volunteer organisation.

"We definitely do encourage people who are travelling to try and find volunteer options, and in some cases that works out very well for them," he says.

"But I suppose one of the reasons people go through agencies – whether it's ourselves or STA or wherever – is that you have the security of knowing that you're going to be looked after and supported through your assignment if something goes wrong."

Because AVI is funded through the Australian Government's overseas aid program people who volunteer through that program have airfares and accommodation costs looked after. They also receive a living allowance and insurance on a job-by-job basis.

AVI's Zayne D'Crus acknowledges that volunteering can be expensive but much of this goes towards administration.

"The agencies that put them together often have to do a lot of work initially in setting up the projects, in making sure the organisations that people work for overseas are being adequately supported for the expense of having the volunteers with them," he says.

STA says the money goes to the communities and administrative costs for recruiting and organising volunteers.

"(The cost) usually includes the accommodation, transfers, most meals, materials for the project, 24-hour support and reps on the ground to ensure all is co-ordinated correctly."

But Ainslie has put her money where her mouth is. Before leaving Cambodia, she raised $700 from her family which paid for new school buildings.

They now have three bamboo-thatch classrooms with concrete slabs as floor – and there's enough money to build a toilet block as well. There is now room for 500 at the school.

Knowing it takes $5000 a year to run the school, Ainslie is currently fundraising to support it after the death of the school's director, monk Rathana in a tuk tuk vehicle accident earlier this year.

Now back in Cambodia, she handed over $4400 – raised by a sponsored fun run and a mufti day at a local school, where she gave a talk on the work the school was doing.

"I always promised when I left that I'd return and that I'd always help. And I couldn't not help after the experience I had there," she says.

Student has lessons to share from Cambodia

Thu, Aug. 23, 2007
KIRSTEN VALLE
The Charlotte Observer (North Carolina, USA)

"We're worried about gas prices, and people have no idea what's going on in Cambodia. We're worrying about the wrong things" - Tremone Jackson

Steele Creek --For a week in Cambodia, Tremone Jackson bathed with baby wipes because his tub was full of rainwater, mosquitoes and lizards.

He saw homes made of corn husks, families crowded into tiny shelters. He taught English to children who only knew how to ask American tourists for money.

And after nearly a month in the country, Jackson, a 17-year-old senior at Olympic High's School of International Studies & Global Economics, is back in Steele Creek with some lessons to share.

"It was a breathtaking experience for me," he said. "I was shocked, and I still am shocked."

The trip was organized by the East-West Center, an education and research organization established by Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations between the United States and Asia.

Jackson has always been interested in community service, leading an AIDS relief fundraiser last school year, for instance, but he'd never been involved in such efforts abroad.

He applied for the trip earlier this year after his principal, Matthew Hayes, suggested it. Olympic had worked with the East-West Center before, and Hayes thought the experience would be good for Jackson.

"I knew he'd be a good figure for us to send as a representation of what young American men should be," Hayes said.

Olympic paid $2,500 for the trip, using grant money. And Jackson and 20 other high schoolers from across the country set off July 1.

The group spent a week in Hawaii learning the basics of the language and culture.

And then it was off to the Third World country, where students visited villages, taught English to local kids and collected footage for a documentary, which is in the editing process.

Jackson said his weeklong stay with a Cambodian family was the most memorable part of the trip.

When he arrived at the family's home, he found that no one knew English. His bath was full of rainwater and bugs, and he awoke to chickens at 4 a.m.

"That night, I was just laying in my bed hoping that this week would be over with," Jackson said.

Eventually, a family friend who knew English came to help, and Jackson bonded with his hosts.

"The family was so nice," he said. "Once they got to know me, they were very nice."

Jackson formed similar friendships with the children he taught and people he met, he said.

"It was a simple life," he said. "The conditions were really poor. But I felt so bad the day I left. I just wanted to be there."

In early October, Jackson will make a presentation about the trip to his classmates and teachers. He also hopes to launch a fundraiser for the villages he visited.

When the documentary is finished, Jackson and other East-West Center students will show it to their communities.

And someday, Jackson will go back to Cambodia, he said.

For now, he just wants his classmates to know there's more to life than what many of them see.

"Why are we complaining about simple stuff here in America?" Jackson said. "We're worried about gas prices, and people have no idea what's going on in Cambodia. We're worrying about the wrong things."

Reach Kirsten Valle at 704-358-6043.