Cambodia 2019

St Paul’s Catholic College is running an immersion opportunity for a small number of boys from Year 11 to visit Cambodia for 12 days in July 2019. The dates are from Wednesday July 3rd 2019 and return on Monday July 15^th . This forms a part of our social justice obligations and fits in with the Edmund Rice charism of developing positive relationships with people and communities in impoverished parts of the world.

These types of immersions and the forming of partnerships provide excellent opportunities for our school community to develop relationships of solidarity across borders and learn about global justice issues. The boys in Year 11 are given first preference in attending but each year there are places available for boys from Year 10.

As per the 2018 immersion, we have been offered the opportunity to work in an orphanage for children who are HIV positive. The orphanage is called New Hope for Cambodian Children http://newhopeforcambodianchildren.org. The orphanage and school is located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Largely through the Clinton Foundation, NHCC sponsors the anti retrovirals for around 1400 children through to young adults. Of these, around 220 live at the orphanage as a result of both parents dying from an AIDS related illness or other circumstances leaving them homeless.

Whilst there, St Paul’s boys will be mainly working as Teachers aides and helping with basic Mathematics and English for the first week of the immersion. There will be some labouring involved in gardens and or small construction projects within the village. The emphasis of the trip is on community service with limited tourism. The orphanage operates its school program 6 days a week. On our day off we will be visiting the The Tom Dy Centre in Phnom Penh for rescued trafficked girls through Project Futures https://projectfutures.com/. Aside from this we are essentially on site at the orphanage every day until we leave for Phnom Penh.

After leaving the orphanage we generally also spend a half day with the Sisters of Charity in Phnom Penh doing volunteer work and a day visiting the Killing fields of Choeung EK and S21 (Tuol Sleng, genocide museum. There will be some time to relax and visit the central markets of Phnom Penh and hopefully visit the head office of Tabitha https://tabitha-cambodia.org/ to buy some souvenirs and or do a day of building with Tabitha. Tabitha are also constructing the Nkor Tep woman’s hospital which St Paul’s has been contributing to, through our Cambodia immersions, for over a decade. https://www.nokor-tep.net/ .

The latter part of the trip will see the group travel to Siem Reap by bus where we may spend a day at Opening Doors Cambodia school https://openingdoorscambodia.com/ where we will volunteer our services. The school is located on the outskirts of Siem Reap and are for children from the surrounding villages. Opening Doors Cambodia is a much newer and more impoverished school. We also visit the world renowned Angkor Wat temples and do a half day river cruise on the Tonle Sap.

In Phnom Penh and not staying at the orphanage, our tour groups stay at the Billabong Hostel https://www.thebillabonghotel.com/. and in Siem Reap our tour group will stay at Villa Sok San hotel http://thevillasoksansquare.com/.

The cost of the trip is around $3000. This has been the cost for the last 2 immersions and is only likely to increase by a small amount depending on airfares. This covers all travel, travel insurance, accommodation, entry fees, food and donations. Boys only need money for souvenirs (approx. $100-200US) and clothes wash (approx. $2 per day). Whilst at the orphanage some boys like to buy snacks from the local shop.

The type of student who is invited to go on this immersion typically displays the following characteristics:

· A very high rate of attendance at school up to and including the last day of each term

· Attends and participates in all major school events such as swimming carnival / Athletics carnival, St Paul’s day, opening mass and end of year mass

· Has an excellent behaviour record backed up by a positive attitude indicated in his reports and in consultation with his teachers and Leader of Wellbeing

For more information please see the College Website on Cambodia immersions.

https://sites.google.com/dbb.catholic.edu.au/stpaulsmanlycambodiatour2018/home

Probable itinerary (school holiday period is from Friday 5 July to Sunday 21 July)

DAY DATE ACCOMMODATION AND ACTIVITY

1 Wed July 3 Fly air Singapore 7.40am Syd to Sing then to phnom penh - arrive Phnom penh at 5.30pm local time

2 Thur July 4 NHCC Teacher’s aide / gardening

3 Fri July 5 NHCC Teacher’s aide / gardening

4 Sat July 6 NHCC Teacher’s aide / gardening - Saturday night disco at NHCC

5 Sun July 7 NHCC - Visit rescued trafficked girls at TOM Dy centre Phnom Penh for painting and teaching english

6 Mon July 8 NHCC Teacher’s aide / labouring / painting

7 Tue July 9 Billabong - Teacher’s aide / labouring / painting - leave NHCC for Phnom Penh in afternoon

8 Wed July 10 Billabong Hotel - visit Sisters of Charity and Brothers of charity

9 Thur July 11 Billabong Hotel - visit S21 and killing fields

10 Fri July 12 Villa Sok San Hotel - Travel by bus to Siem Reap - approx. 6-7 hours – stop at Kampong Cham spider market

11 sat July 13 visit Happy days village school at Sre Vibol Ke approx. 30km from Siem Reap– Tonle Sap river cruise in the afternoon - evening school teaching English at Opening Doors Cambodia

12 Sun July 14 Villa Sok San Hotel – Visit Angkor Wat temples at dawn - possible dinner with Happy Days scholarship girls

13 Mon July 15 Villa Sok San Hotel – MI 61516 July SIEM REAP 16.10 SINGAPORE 19.15 SQ 0221 SINGAPORE 20.20

14 Tue July 16 ARRIVE - SYDNEY 05.55 12 July TERMINAL 1

NHCC http://newhopeforcambodianchildren.org/

Project futures https://projectfutures.com/

Happy days http://www.happydayscambodianvillageschoolinc.org.au/

Tabitha https://tabitha-cambodia.org/AboutUs/index

Opening Doors Cambodia https://openingdoorscambodia.com/

Happy Days Charity http://www.happydayscambodianvillageschoolinc.org.au/home

Billabong hotel http://thebillabonghotel.com/

Hotel Villa sok san http://thevillasoksansquare.com/

Brothers of charity No website – try Facebook

Sisters of Charity No website – try Facebook