Forbes Magazine
It’s the end of your three week vacation in Southeast Asia. You did
good. You managed to hit all the locations on the backpacker’s circuit;
lounging on the tropical Islands off the Thai Peninsula, experiencing
the street food of Bangkok, exploring the temples of Siem Reap, and
shopping on the floating markets of the Mekong River. Now, with just a
few days left before your flight home, you’d like to do something
selfless, something worthwhile. You decide to volunteer in one of
Cambodia’s orphanages.
The problem is finding one that isn’t a scam.
Since 2005, Cambodia has seen a 75 percent increase in its number of
orphanages. It’s no coincidence that the growth matches the explosion of
tourism in the country; foreign arrivals have increased 250% in the
same period. The orphanages run on foreign volunteers and dollars.
Yet of the two million tourists who will pass through Cambodia this
year, many aren’t aware that 71% percent of children in its orphanages
still have living parents. They aren’t orphans in fact, but have been
recruited by the centers with promises to parents for better education
and care. “So what we have is this huge discrepancy between supply and
demand,” explains Sean Looney, director of SISHA – an organization that
investigates human trafficking and living conditions in residential care
centers. “Such a proliferation of orphanages in Cambodia makes you
wonder, what’s the missing variable here? It’s Money.”
The money trail has sprung an entire industry around child care
centers. While Cambodia still has many legitimate NGO’s and orphanages
working in the best interests of children, just trying to find one in
tourist areas such as Phnom Penh and Siem Reap can be a challenge. Our
own search for a reputable institution in Phnom Penh was a comedy of
errors.
The Tuk tuk drivers outside our guesthouse were the first to spring
for our business. They were eager. Most of them receive commissions from
orphanages that bring tourists to the centers, and some get them by
stopping at specific markets on the way so that you can buy school
supplies for the kids. The most entrepreneurial organize daily orphanage
tours. A tuk tuk driver named Manny told us he could take us to five
centers in a single afternoon for $20 – lunch included!
These are not the places you want to volunteer with; we heard that
most orphanages commissioning tuk tuk drivers are scams. We made a note
of their recommendations and scratched them off our list.
The next place we looked was at a hostel called Monkey Bar. Upon
hearing the word “orphanage,” the waitress behind the bar pulled out a
binder of “adventure activities” the hostel organizes for its guests. On
the third page, we found a brochure for a day trip to an orphanage for
$30 a person. Activities included: teaching children English, playing
games, singing songs, and making friends. The bus left at 9 in the
morning and returned in time for happy hour. But the advertisement made
no mention of what kind of material donations the center needed, or if a
volunteer could stay longer than a day. It also said the kids performed
costumed aspara dances for guests on Saturdays and Sundays. It sounded sketchy.
So we turned to the internet, coming up with a few names but little
information on them. There is no easy to find directory of orphanages
because many aren’t registered. The reason is corruption. One center’s
director told us he paid over $1000 to government officials and police
officers to register his orphanage, and hundreds more to keep an
inspector’s mouth shut.
With little else to go off, we decided to check out the orphanages that came up on our Google Maps search of Phnom Penh.
The first, called Light House Orphanage, invited us through the front
gate with no appoint, no questions asked, and no hesitation to let us
tour the kids’ bedrooms. Then, before asking us what kind of skills we
could provide, they pulled out a price list and discussed how much money
we would pay to volunteer there. $15 dollars a day, each. Preferably
cash.
These fees are common, and generate healthy margins for the
orphanages since all they provide to volunteers is electricity and a
couple of meals, mostly rice. They also exclude the donations that often
come at the end of a volunteer’s stay – running anywhere from one
hundred to a thousand dollars.
The second place we visited, called the “Children’s Center to
Happiness,” wasn’t much better. They didn’t have any adult supervisors
when we were there. Instead, the children flocked around us and started
hugging our arms. We asked the kids when the staff might return, and
they said that evening. When we came back hours later, there was still
no one to look after them.
Finally though, we did find a legitimate place. On our third try we
discovered SCAO, which despite its unfortunate name “Save the Poor
Children in Asia Organization,” turned out to have a well-intentioned
staff and a solid team of a dozen volunteers from around the world. We
ended up volunteering there a week.
In our search, we learned that even among the scams and corruption
and ancillary businesses created by Cambodia’s orphanage boom, a
volunteer can find a worthy organization if they practice due diligence.
The two important things to consider are: how trustworthy is the
organization I’m volunteering for, and how will I impact the lives of
the children once I’m there?
Even after finding a proper orphanage, it’s important remember to that children are not tourist attractions.
To learn how you can best help in Cambodia’s orphanages, please refer to ChildSafe’s recommendations for volunteers.
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