I'm going to Cambodia for a volunteering project!

Razor-BladE · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:02

Deleted

Razor-BladE · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:03

Reserved for later!

Razor-BladE · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:04

Do you have a reservation sir?

Razor-BladE · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:04

Third time's a charm.

teaboy5 · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:07

Is the money for books and materials and stuff for the school, or for your flights/accommodation?

Nitefly · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:07

More reservations that a 6.00am to Paddington :eek:

Cambodia is a really interesting country. You will have a great time and I hope the project turns out to be worthwhile

Razor-BladE · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:12

teaboy5 said:
Is the money for books and materials and stuff for the school, or for your flights/accommodation?

About £1k of it will be flights/accommodation/food, but I'll be putting in money myself (around £500), and my immediate family have already donated £500.

The rest will be for books/materials/whatever other resource we'll need out there.

Nitefly said:
More reservations that a 6.00am to Paddington

Cambodia is a really interesting country. You will have a great time and I hope the project turns out to be worthwhile

Haha, I thought just in case I need it.
Thanks!

teaboy5 · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:22

Razor-BladE said:
About £1k of it will be flights/accommodation/food, but I'll be putting in money myself (around £500), and my immediate family have already donated £500.

To be fair, I am not the biggest fan of people that do this. If you were really that interested in helping you would have paid for the flights and accommodation yourself in full. But instead 500 pounds of your families money is now going towards paying that instead being used for supplies for the school etc.

It seems like you want people to pay for a 3 week gap year type experience.

Hudzy · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:29

I doubt many students could front a grand for something like this really. I know I wouldn't have been able to.

arknor · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:32

Anyone want to pay for a nice holiday for me to?

Participant · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:34

Funny this volunteering thing. I don't begrudge people the Raleigh International gap yah type experience, but 2k could pay for a lot of local labour to do it themselves and the money thereafter would stay in the economy. So I semi wonder why people don't just send money to Cambodian charities?

doiks14 · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:35

Hudzy said:
I doubt many students could front a grand for something like this really. I know I wouldn't have been able to.

I agree, being a 3rd year student myself (even with a year gap of full time work as placement), there's 0 chance of me managing to afford £1,000 myself, maybe around £500 sounds more realistic.

Nitefly · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:40

Robbie G said:
Funny this volunteering thing. I don't begrudge people the Raleigh International gap yah type experience, but 2k could pay for a lot of local labour to do it themselves and the money thereafter would stay in the economy. So I semi wonder why people don't just send money to Cambodian charities?

Do you actually wonder? It's kind of obvious that a big part of it is the experience for the OP. He could just take all the money and blow it on going to vegas or binge drinking. At least he's doing something even if there are clear benefits for him. As a side point the vast majorities of charities are run as profit making vehicles.

I say cut him some slack.

Jason2 · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:43

Majority of charities are corrupt anyway. That's why you have all those administrators driving round in Ferraris.

As the ancient Chinese proverb says:

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

Participant · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:47

Nitefly said:
Do you actually wonder? It's kind of obvious that a big part of it is the experience for the OP. He could just take all the money and blow it on going to vegas or binge drinking. At least he's doing something even if there are clear benefits for him. As a side point the vast majorities of charities are run as profit making vehicles.

I say cut him some slack.

1. I said I semi wonder, 2. yes it's really obvious that part of it is about the op's experience, but that makes me less inclined to want to pay for it, which leads us back to my original point...I'd rather pay a Cambodian 2k and let him feed his family for 6 months. If he wants an experience, his family can pay for it, or he can get a holiday job.

Judgeneo · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:51

Jason2 said:
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

Which is why I support Practical Action.

Anyway back on topic, good luck with your funding OP, unfortunately I'm a poor postgrad student so have no funds to donate.
Be sure to keep us informed of the trip, who knows, I might be in a position to contribute at a later date

Amp34 · 7 Apr 2013 at 23:03

I'm surprised he hasn't had to pay £1500 for "food and accommodation".... That's generally what many gap year style "charities" try and get you for now... If they were more honest I probably wouldn't be so grumpy, but it can't actually cost them more than a couple of hundred...

Anyway have fun OP, not my cup of tea (I'm more a wilderness/real wildlife volunteer kinda person), always fun and satisfying to do.

As for the £500, I'm assuming the immediate family know its going towards his flight... No different to parents helping with a uni field trip.

Amp34 · 7 Apr 2013 at 23:04

Robbie G said:
1. I said I semi wonder, 2. yes it's really obvious that part of it is about the op's experience, but that makes me less inclined to want to pay for it, which leads us back to my original point...I'd rather pay a Cambodian 2k and let him feed his family for 6 months. If he wants an experience, his family can pay for it, or he can get a holiday job.

His family have paid for it... :confused:

Greenja · 7 Apr 2013 at 23:11

If his costs are £1k and he will be putting in roughly £500 and his family have already put in £500, would any donations made not be funds for the school anyway?

Unless I misunderstand and he means he needs £1k worth of donations, plus his £500 and families £500 for his expenses. In which case £2k seems like a lot of money for 3 weeks in cambodia, flights would obviously be the most expensive thing but living costs would be cheap.

Razor-BladE · 7 Apr 2013 at 23:31

Yeah, thought this would get some controversy

Yes, ideally, I would front the flights/accommodation money myself but as some of have said which is spot on, I don't have £1k at hand to put in!
I do work, but it's very irregular especially this time of year with exams/assignments due in (I'm a club photographer), so I am putting in about £500 myself as that's really all I can put in. But depending on work and such, it could be more. But I don't want to say more, just in case I can't put the money in!
It's better than what most of the other students in my group are doing, where they're trying to raise the whole lot from other people, but I did want to try and pay for however much I could afford for the non-volunteering expense myself.

Regarding volunteering/time off when we're actually over there. We do get the weekends to travel by ourselves/as a group, but Monday through Friday, it'll be all hands on deck.

Nitefly said:
As a side point the vast majorities of charities are run as profit making vehicles.

I say cut him some slack.

Jason2 said:
Majority of charities are corrupt anyway. That's why you have all those administrators driving round in Ferraris.

Thanks Nitefly

And pretty much what these two have said.
Yes, there are benefits for me gaining the experience, knowledge, seeing the culture/country, etc, but one of my reasons why I wanted to go out there and volunteer myself is because I actually KNOW that work is being done, that the money is being used for materials and resource, etc. If I donated that £2k myself let's say, who's to say that even 10% might go to good use?

I know that's a massive generalisation, but sadly a lot of charitys are like that, and you'll never know where or what your money was used for.

Judgeneo said:
snip

Thank you! And I will do!

Greenja said:
If his costs are £1k and he will be putting in roughly £500 and his family have already put in £500, would any donations made not be funds for the school anyway?

Unless I misunderstand and he means he needs £1k worth of donations, plus his £500 and families £500 for his expenses. In which case £2k seems like a lot of money for 3 weeks in cambodia, flights would obviously be the most expensive thing but living costs would be cheap.

I need to raise £2150. They haven't said the exact cost but they've said that about half will be used for flights/accommodation/food. I'll be donating about £500, my family have already donated £500, so the rest of the £1k or so that I need to raise will be used for materials/other resource. Hope that clears thing a little