Jeanie Cheah (right) with Cambodian Som Srey Nou whom she coached in marketing and English

Jeanie Cheah signed up as a volunteer with the Singapore International Foundation (SIF), after seeing an advertisement for New Futures Organisation (NFO), a British-run charity in Cambodia.

Her role was to teach marketing and fund-raising to the staff at a Cambodian orphanage run by NFO.

Jeanie was based in the town of Takeo, about a two-hour drive from the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Her three-month stint ended in mid-November 2010.

What were some of the bigger challenges in getting the project off the ground?

The main challenge was to try and maintain a balance between being flexible and staying focused. It is easy to be distracted and go with the flow. It was a daily challenge.

Who were the people you worked with? Was language a barrier?

I worked mainly with a Cambodian woman, Som Srey Nou, who is the organisational director at the orphanage. She speaks some English, so language was not a barrier.

There are many volunteers at the centre where I was based, and they are mostly Europeans. The British make up the largest number at any one time. Neville Charles O’Grady, a Briton, is the founder and director of NFO.

You talk of databases and training NFO staff in using the internet.  Was it possible in a remote area?

NFO is located in Takeo. While it is not a village, Takeo is rural compared to Singapore. That said, there is internet access, even wireless.

Most Cambodians who own a telephone subscribe to a mobile instead of a land line. Cambodia seems to have skipped the era of the home telephone lines and gone directly to mobile technology. So setting up databases and modern communications isn’t a problem.

Does poverty make “aid-governance” issues difficult to teach?

To me, “aid-governance” boils down to differentiating right from wrong. In the end, it is the integrity of the individual that counts, especially in a place which does not function best through systems and structures.

Cambodians have a certain stoicism and resilience that makes poverty seem less tragic and onerous than what the average Singaporean might imagine it to be. In other words, the Cambodians around me just get on with life and find joy in whatever they have. They generally do not gripe about their lot in life.

What is the biggest lesson such an experience has taught you?

The biggest lesson: Help is not always in the form you expect it to be. This is about perspectives and expectations.

I thought that I was there to coach Srey Nou in marketing and English, in that order. She saw the order differently. For her, the benefit of communicating more effectively in English far outweighs the grasp of marketing.

Similarly, the tools that help such as using the computer, knowing how to navigate the internet, and writing, are more important than the concept of fundraising.

She may be right as mastery of the language and computer literacy will open more doors in the longer term, be it personal or organisational.

Most people would agree that volunteers are here to help, but having been there, I begin to think that the reverse could be more accurate.

The experience of volunteering is invaluable, and it is perhaps the volunteers who get more out of the experience than what they give in many instances.

Cambodians are warm and they know how to find joy in whatever little they have.

I am not sure if that is a Cambodian trademark or if it is because the orphanage offers them a better life than what they would have otherwise. In either case, it is a good thing.