While living in Phnom Penh, expat partner Marta Bardon was keen to find a way to give back to the community: “I was so happy to find a way to help using the Spanish language.”
Like a big village
“My husband and I lived in Cambodia for six years. We really enjoyed our time in Phnom Penh. It’s quite a big city with over 2.5 million people but when you live there as an expat it often feels like a big village. You always run into people you know,” says Marta, a Spanish psychologist from Madrid.
Disadvantaged communities
“In Cambodia there are many NGOs, social enterprises and charity missions. Practically everyone who lives there finds some way to contribute to support disadvantaged communities,” says Marta. “As I’m from Madrid, one day I was asked by a friend if I would be interested in joining a volunteering mission to a local prison. Among the inmates were a number of Latin American women that had been convicted of drug smuggling…”
Paying their way
“These women cannot speak English or Khmer. They have no way of communicating with anyone in the prison. The volunteering mission partly involved visiting the prison and spending some time chatting with them, so they didn’t feel so isolated,” says Marta. “But we also helped them to earn an income. You see, Cambodian prisons require inmates to pay for their food, medicine and other basic necessities…”
Sad to say goodbye
“So our project supported these women to make various kinds of handicrafts, which could then be sold to earn them an income,” says Marta, who felt sad when seeing the inmates for the last time. “Inevitably, when you spend time with people, you will build a rapport and feel close to them. When my husband’s assignment in Phnom Penh came to an end, I had to say goodbye to these women, which was emotional.”
A way to give back
“Now I’m in Singapore, which is quite a contrast to Cambodia! But even though Singapore is a very developed and super efficient modern state, you can find volunteering work to help disadvantaged communities. So I’m definitely open to finding a volunteering role here. My experience in Phnom Penh has made me more conscious that whenever we go in the world, we can find a way to give back.”
Photo: Nativity scene made by women imprisoned in Phnom Penh
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