Building & Construction Projects Volunteer Programs in Siem Reap

Had a great trip to Italy. I met a ton of people from all over the world and we worked together educating about issues around refugees. We worked during the day and had fun at night and on the weekends. I am still in touch with many of the people I volunteered with. Thanks

I love helping the old people , and I love those who do this because it gives them a spirit of life and enhances their psychology for the better. I also love animals and playing with them gently and I hope that I will enjoy this volunteering because it will have a great impact on my psychological state

My experience with VFP way back in 2009 was remarkable. Living in Germany and building a labyrinth at a World Heritage Site as the only native English speaker in my group was a truly immersive experience. I didn't feel like I was coming into a place from the outside so much as I felt part of a community. Our group really bonded and while we had a primary task, many of the day to day decisions were made by the group, one of my first experiences with really being responsible for myself.

As some who needed a year off between high school and college, Carpe Diem was the best fit for me. As part of the Southeast Asia gap year program one of my favorite things was our partners and host families. At Punpun, a greenhouse building and seed saving organization, I’ve never felt more exhausted, but loved. The people there were so kind and caring as well as invested in educational and experiential learning. While there, I met people with similar interests who showed me that I can do exactly what I want to do in life.

If you’re thinking of taking a gap year, this gap year semester is amazing! I really got to develop as a person and had incredible experiences (and food). I also met really kind and down to earth people on this program, made such great memories, and friends! You really get the best of both worlds on this program - rugged nature adventures and city life activities, which I didn’t know about prior. My favorite part of the trip was going to IWP, which was a Buddhist feminist retreat. 10/10, would recommend this trip.

Carpe Diem is 100% an experience I would recommend to others. The mix of volunteer service work with explorative more touristy activities was excellent. A highlight of my trip was our experience at Pun Pun farm in northern Thailand. We spent a day helping build mud bricks for a community member’s house. The work was tiring but extremely rewarding. Tiring but very rewarding sums up the whole of my semester perfectly. I now have built great friendships with my fellow group members and wonderfully relationships with our various host families and organizations.

I had the absolute best time in Cambodia. I have only been outside of Europe once before this in my life and Cambodia was definitely the best choice. I loved all of the other volunteers and all the kids at the school were amazing. We had really good staff there that really cared about the well-being of us volunteers. Truly the best trip of my life.

My week spent in Cambodia was a hugely eye opening experience and allowed me to gain a real life insight into how clothes are made on a fast fashion and slow fashion scale. As a consumer, it has further encouraged me to make more conscious decisions about buying clothes after seeing for myself the conditions factory workers live in and having conversations with them about their work environment. I would recommend this to anyone - it is a great way to educate yourself and others on sustainable fashion.

Going into the school and meeting the kids was incredible. everyone there was so friendly, kind and would go out of their way to help you. seeing how different the kids classrooms and schooling environment to mine was eye opening. for anyone who has a passion for helping kids, or is happy to make a change for the better, i can’t recommend my experience more.

My Projects Abroad experience was such a well-organised, enlightening trip where I not only got to make a genuine impact on the local community but also got to meet other volunteers from around the world. There was a perfect balance of construction work, teaching, and even tourism, definitely something for everyone! I also loved Cambodia as a place. The culture and history there were amazing to be immersed in. Even if you go into the program with no prior knowledge of the location, I can assure you will go home begging to go back.

The best 3 months of my 21 years of life has to be the most to the point way to describe my time in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam with Carpe Diem Education. I am 21 and finishing up my college sociology degree this year. For fall term of my senior year, I wanted to do something different, and experience true hands on learning outside of the traditional classroom lecture setting. This trip to South East Asia truly went above and beyond what I could have ever expected to get out of my time abroad. From week one in Thailand when we each got placed in our own homestay with the most amazing and sweet host moms, to the last week of the trip directing our own student travel through vietnam, each experience I look back on with so much gratiude, knowlege, insight, and a smile. Carpe Diem truly does give you the ability to have such unique and amazing experience, and there is also such a good balance of volunteer work, weeks in homestays, and life off the beaten path, to city days for self care and relaxation. One of my fondest memories from the whole trip that I think about daily was out treck in Thailand. We went on a 3 day treck in Thailand led by 3 amazing locals who know the area and land so well. They led us through dense bamboo forests, that would open to the most amazing views on the hillside of a rice patty field. We stayed the night in village leaders home in a small Lahu village. The full day we were there was my favorite day of the trip. We got up and walked 30 mins through the village and into a rice patty field where to the left of the path was vegetables growing, ahead was a bamboo forest, and down the hill was a stream. We brought 2 chickens, a sack of rice and some eggs. We collected water form the stream, picked vegetables from the field, made a fire with bamboo and cooked the rice, chicken, and eggs in the bamboo logs over the fire. We also learned to carve spoons, chop sticks, bowls, and cups. We ate the meal we made on the beautiful hillside in Thailand. Something about that day was so special, peaceful, and such an amazing learning experience. Carpe Diem allows you to get to experience and connect with others so different from you. Each homestay family I stayed with showed me such kindness, love, and were so welcoming despite language barriers. I have shared so many laughs, hugs, and amazing homecooked meals with my host famalies. Most homestays are with at least two others in the group which is nice and comfortable. A quick trip recap of everything amazing Thailand: A week learning Thai, and homestays with sweet host moms. 10 days volunteering and staying off the beaten path in an amazing Akka village. 4 days of trecking through beautiful Thailand rice/ pineapple field hillside. Some amazing hostels and city days to explore beautiful tempels. A week on an organic permaculture farm learning about sustainability. 5 days of silent meditation with monks learning about buddhism, and mindfullness. A quick trip recap of everything amazing Cambodia: Days in Phnom Phen learning about the genocide, killing fields, and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. Angkor Watt of course. A week on a village off the Mekong river working on a clean water project homestay living. A quick trip recap of everything amazing Vietnam: Days to explore the amazing city of Ho Chi Minh. A week with very funny Tan Tao University students staying in homestays, english teaching at primary schools, and a school for the deaf and disabled, picking pineapples, cooking, and singing a lot of karaoke. 5 days on the beautiful beach in Nha Trang getting suba certified, and tanning on the beach. Days in the city to go to museams and learn about the Vietnam War. And lastly student directed travel. Student directed travel is where we got to plan how to get from Nha Tang to Hanoi which was 800 miles in 1 week. We got to plan where we wanted to go, stay, forms of transportaiton, activites, and had to stay within a budget. It was so amazing. So there you have it, the best 3 months of my life by far! The guides for Carpe Diem are also amazing, and really made the trip flow well. They handled the tough situations with ease and are such wonderful, and positive people. Having 10 students and 2 guides total was also great! All Carpe Diem trips have 15 people or less. I would highly reccomend going abroad with Carpe Diem whether you have just graduated high school or are about to graduate college. I feel refreshed, and have a new motivation, and goals for my life becuase of my time abroad with Carpe Diem Education!!

I've been always active with many local associations . And i would love to experience something new abroad . France can be 1 grear chance for me to deal with the local community and to help in any kind of project

Traveling with a cohort of students was the best thing I have ever done. I learned more about myself in 3 months than I have my whole life. I learned how to live independently and how to travel independently. I got to experience a culture that was close to mine in the textbooks but in the real world it was different and very eye opening.

Volunteering with Globalteer was an experience that will never leave me. The enthusiasm of the kids was infectious, they loved being at the Helping Hands project. I was so lucky to be with an amazing group of other volunteers from all around the world. We had so much fun together, both at the school and socially. Siem Reap is a wonderful little town, my kind of place, lots to do and laid back. I look forward to the day I go back, I know I will one day.

I was a bit nervous about going to Cambodia, but I was not disappointed. The Globalteer team in Siem Reap were so nice and helpful to a novice traveller! The project and kids were amazing and I felt so humbled to volunteer at Helping Hands school. The staff are making a real difference to the kids lives. I was lucky to meet so many nice people in Siem Reap, from the staff to other volunteers.

The project is in a small village outside of Siem Reap. The kids here have very little and the school gives them the opportunity of improving their lives. It was great to go out to the countryside every day and work at the project. The project is making a real difference to the kids lives and I hopefully contributed my small part in that. The kids were amazing, so keen to learn and be at the project. I will remember this for always!

This was an amazing experience for me, it really made me reconsider my life priorities. The children were amazing and the project was just fantastic. They are really making a difference to the community and I was proud to be part of it.

In September of 2014, I completed an assignment with Globe Aware at an orphanage near Siem Reap. it was my first trip to Cambodia and was a wonderful experience. The in country hosts met me at the airport and was with me daily. The children and teacher at the orphanage were tremendously happy to have me there and it was very rewarding working with the children on their English speaking skills. We completed simple projects including a chicken coop, garden and construction of a compost bin. We also spent time assembling wheelchairs and distributed to elderly people in a nearby village. I will never forget the looks of genuine gratitude from the recipients. Since then I have completed 9 other volunteer projects and this summer hope to take my grand daughter on her first international trip to Romania. We are very excited!!

I've traveled twice to Cambodia thru this program. Both were amazing adventures. The people are so wonderfully kind and gracious. Our guide did a fantastic job of showing us the culture and making us feel like family. We loved the time we spent teaching the children and playing with them. We were able to build wheelchairs for people disabled by landmines and personally give them to the people. It's a beautiful country and seeing it as a volunteer is a priceless experience.

VFP made the travel and volunteer process very simple and it was very easy to communicate with them when additional information was needed. They worked with an agency in Nepal called VIN (Volunteers in Nepal) which was also excellent. Our host family made the experience really incredible. They were kind and very concerned for our safety and well-being. My partner and I remain in contact with our hosts and VIN through Facebook and have made life-long friends. Through VIN we were also able to feel involved and contributed to the reparations after the massive earthquake last year. I would recommend Volunteers for Peace to anyone.