” My name is Harvey, and I am halfway through my two months of volunteering with Indochina Starfish Foundation. I work 4 days a week with the development team, and 1 day a week alongside the English teaching program.

Upon my arrival in Cambodia after a long sleepless flight my senses were very shocked by an environment so vastly different to back home.

However, I was met at the airport by another member of the team who immediately made me feel more comfortable. We made our way through Phnom Penh from the airport and she began to explain more to me about Cambodia and what life here entailed, as thousands of motorbikes poured through the streets darting around the Tuk-Tuks.

I have already had some incredible experiences at ISF after my first month here, the children give such an incredible life to the building and the positive atmosphere is infectious even in the office place!  The children are always so keen to talk and practice their English which means you are never really short of someone to talk to even if it doesn’t extend much further than ‘How are you?’

I have never felt alone while I have been at ISF and have made many good friends thus far, all of the Khmer staff were exceptionally friendly and welcomed me warmly into their country by trying to introduce me bit by bit into their customs and food.

What has made my experience so special is the variety of things that I have been doing. Working as both a teacher and a member of the development team has meant I have experienced ISF at all angles. From the start I felt like my work was valued, as in my first week a social worker showed me around the communities in which the children who attend the school live. This experience so close to the start of my work really motivated and gave me a greater understanding of the tremendous work ISF does.”