Sadly, in most cases these acts of kindness end up hurting
the children or communities they intended to help. Orphaned children may have
trouble dealing with the lack of stability in their lives as volunteers rush in
and out, local English teachers may be displaced by international stand-ins,
local businesses may suffer with the introduction of free foreign goods, and
local preferences may be disregarded in favor of an outsider’s idea of what
should be. In the end, a difficult and costly volunteer experience can be far
more damaging than helpful.
If this kind of short-term volunteering can be so harmful,
then why do so many people do it? The answer is simple. It feels good, much
better than just donating a few dollars to an unknown organization thousands of
miles away. Of course these volunteers have laudable intentions, but instead of
pondering what kind of assistance is really needed, they charge in to do
hands-on work. They sacrifice their time, their labor, and their money, and at
the end of the day or the week or even the month, they can see a finished
product. They can feel that they were physically a part of it. They were there,
and they did something.
***
Today I would like to offer you the opportunity to make a
significant difference in the lives of some children in my community here in
Cambodia, but there’s a catch. It won’t be difficult, you won’t get to
sacrifice your time or your sweat, and you will barely get a glimpse of the
final impact you’ve made through a few photographs later on. All you’ll be able
to do is donate a few dollars with the faith that someone you trust is going to
make sure it goes toward a meaningful, community-driven project to some
strangers in need.
At the beginning of January, my high school counterparts approached
me with a great concern about low student reading comprehension skills and the
lack of a functional library at our high school. They identified reading skills
in Khmer and English as their number one priority for school improvement and
asked if I could help. I worked with school officials to collect data, and we found
that most students have no access to a library and have only school textbooks
to read for a few hours each week. Our survey revealed that over 94% of
students wanted access to a library with books in English and Khmer, but no
library was available to them.
With my help, the school directors set to work writing goals
which included opening a welcoming library five days a week for six hours a day
with two trained librarians and increasing the amount of time students spend
reading books. While the room reserved for the library was in disrepair, they
committed to raising nearly $800 to clean and paint the room in addition to
tiling the floor. However, they would not be able to raise the funds to supply
the renovated room with enough books and teaching materials for the 1,000+
students the school serves. So, they made a clear request for help to the
American people in the form of a Peace Corps grant.
If you’d like to help a school in need by donating to a
community-driven project which is sustainable, stimulates the local economy, is
administered by a Peace Corps volunteer you trust, and improves literacy for
hundreds of Cambodian children, then I ask you to please consider donating
towards any of the items listed below.
While you won’t be able to see the smiles on the children’s
faces or notice their improved reading skills after years of free access to
books, you will be able to know that you made a smart investment in a
sustainable project which will continue to benefit children in a positive way
for many years to come.
***
The following is a
list of some of the items the school will purchase with the grant money, the
number of each item needed, and the approximate cost of one item. While
donations cannot be earmarked for a specific material, this list shows what a given denomination can fund.
|
Material
|
Number Needed
|
Unit Price
|
|
Biographies
(English/Khmer)
|
40
|
$1
|
|
Textbooks
(Khmer)
|
60
|
$3
|
|
Novels
(Khmer/English)
|
100
|
$3
|
|
Textbooks
(English)
|
35
|
$4
|
|
Plastic Chairs
|
20
|
$5
|
|
Dictionaries
(Khmer/English)
|
6
|
$12
|
|
Wall Paint
|
2
|
$30
|
|
Wooden Tables
|
2
|
$115
|
|
Bookshelves
|
2
|
$215
|
Donations may be made
online with a regular checking account or a credit/debit card at the following
secure web address:
***
These students visited the "library" for the first time to take this picture. At the time, the room was being used for storage.
Most students only have access to old state-issued textbooks for reading purposes.
During my year and a half at site, the library has never been open. The stated project goal is to open the library 6 hours a day 5 days a week with two trained librarians.
The community raised nearly $800 to start this project, but they can't finish it without some help. They are so eager to transform this space, they've already begun cleaning and painting the room.
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