volunteer in cambodia
Volunteering in Cambodia requires a passion and commitment to effective and ethical action against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. If you would like to use your skills to empower and up-skill local Cambodian staff, consider applying for a volunteer position at the SHE Rescue Home field office in Phnom Penh Cambodia. Together we can partner to provide quality services to survivors of trafficking, rape and prostitution.
Each year the SHE Rescue Home, one of our Projects, offers a variety of volunteer options.
We have several 6 month or longer commitments where you would apply for a specific volunteer position. The SHE Rescue Home is looking for qualified and dedicated people to fulfil the following unpaid volunteer positions.
BACHELOR/UNIVERSITY DEGREE OR RESPECTIVE TRAINING REQUIRED
Teacher
Social Work Support
Counselling Support
Production Manager
Sewing trainer
Information Technology
Social Media Content Creator
NON BACHELOR/UNIVERSITY DEGREE REQUIRED
Office Assistant
Action and Awareness Team Leader
We also have short-term office based opportunities with intakes on the first Monday of February, June, August and December each year. This position would be for people wanting to volunteer for 2–5 months. This role does not involve contact with the girls of the SHE Rescue Home but has you working with our staff in our office. However your role does include organising and running reintegration and birthday parties in the home.
Finally every year, we have a month-long opportunity where you spend a week partaking in an awareness and action program and then stay on for another three weeks to join our volunteer team and volunteer in the office and home.
Please be advised that volunteers are required to pay a volunteer fee that covers in-country living. This fee varies depending on your length of stay and necessary inclusions. The fee covers costs associated with administration, accomodation (including rates, electricity, linen and internet), bike hire and repairs, sim card, lunches on work days, cooking water and tea/coffee/drinking water at the office. This fee does not include flights, insurance, visas, medical expenses, spending money and food (with the exception of work lunches).
For more information or to apply for a volunteer position, fill out this form and we’ll be in contact with you soon.
Testimonials from Volunteers
Danielle
- Truly Amazing
I have volunteered with SHE Rescue for a year in 2015, and can honestly attest that it can be an amazing, life changing experience. Every role you can have, or task given to you during your time spent there is important and really goes towards improving these girls' quality of life one way or another. My own specific roles included teaching English to the younger girls, heading up photography for the home, helping out in the kitchen, preparing craft time, decorating the classroom, and much more. But volunteering with SHE includes much more than just your tasks, but also brings with it opportunities to bond with the staff (who welcome you like they've known you forever!), taking the initiative and proposing changes here and there within the workplace, getting involved in the community, and even exploring the culture.
You're also afforded those rare moments which are truly priceless and precious, that are truly unique. One day I accompanied the girls to their swimming lessons, and while they were busy, started to collect fallen Plumeria flowers for each one. After they finished up, I handed one to each girl just for fun. One young 8-year old girl had never actually smelled one before and found the scent so lovely that she treasured and protected the flower for the next 2 days until it finally wilted away. Those are the moments that remind you how precious these girls truly are, and how very important it is sometimes just to be present in the moment. That it's not always our role that can fix the problems, but just being ourselves and being there can make the most difference.
Overall, I would certainly recommend volunteering with SHE Rescue, as at the very least it will be refining and character building, and at the most, absolutely life-changing!
Elisabeth
- I haven’t regretted it once
When I first heard about human trafficking and sexual exploitation it truly broke my heart. I knew I just had to do something. I decided to advocate and fundraise for SHE Rescue within my sphere of influence before I eventually started to volunteer in Cambodia. And I haven’t regretted it once.
Being able to be hands on is an incredible privilege. Day after day you see the love and care the house mothers give to the girls. You witness the diligence and determination of the counsellors, social workers and other staff members. As a volunteer you get the opportunity to be a part of this team, bringing with you your area of expertise, abilities, passions and a serving heart. In this team we all play our part to make a change in each of the girls’ lives, their families and communities.
As I keep engaging with the girls and the staff, I have come to realise that the change we long to see is happening every day in the details and in the quiet. It’s happening when a girl challenges herself to try something new after being hesitant for a while, when a girl learns how to read, when we see the girls pray with each other and when the house mothers and the girls sing and dance together. These are the moments that will profoundly change you and inspire you to keep fighting for the one instead of succumbing to the enormity of the problem.
Lauren
- More Than I Imagined!
I volunteered with SHE the summer of 2016. It was amazing to see the work that God is using this organization to do and I was blessed to be a small part of it. As a volunteer, I had a variety of roles, including reading English with the girls, cleaning, preparing meals, running crafts and other activities, leading devotions, helping with office work, and working in the store for fundraising. My favorite parts were probably playing soccer with the girls and seeing them advance in their confidence with reading. There were girls at the beginning of the trip who were very shy, and to see them come out of their shell and try to read a harder book or do a new craft was really rewarding. The staff has several English speaking foreigners (Australian and American while I was there). The rest of the staff was made up of local Khmer, who were so friendly and fun. Many of them are still learning English, so they enjoyed practicing English with us, and we enjoyed learning about their culture from them. I highly recommend this trip. What you do will make a difference, and you will be impacted also. We also had opportunities to take breaks and see some of the tourist attractions in Cambodia while we were there. I hope you decide to go!
Alana
- expectations were exceeded!
Any expectations I may have had were exceeded! I didn’t have much experience travelling or living abroad but I was welcomed and looked after beyond what I could have hoped for. I have always felt safe, valued and cared about.
My goals are simply to serve as best I can in alignment to what’s needed and requested and I have never been more fulfilled as I continue to put God and others as the reason for doing it. It doesn’t matter what I can help with, it matters what for. By speaking up, stepping out and doing something for these girls proves to them and her community that what we say is true: ‘she is valued, loved and she matters’. By stepping out and serving, it not only broadens your own comfort zone but also encourages others around you, even the girls in the Home, to be brave and to dream again.
What you give and what you take from your experiences is the beginning of change both for those you served and in your life advocating for those without a voice.
For me, before I left, I knew it was the right time because ‘’you can always get more money but you can never get more time’’. ;P
