Firstly, a word about voluntourism:

At Friends, we believe that unskilled volunteers should never be allowed to work directly with children.

If you have transferable skills and decide to volunteer for an organization working with children in any country around the world, please make sure that the organization has policies and procedures in place to protect those children.

Some organizations allow volunteers to have direct and unsupervised access to children, without doing any background checks. This increases the chance of children being taken advantage of or abused.

Orphanages and the children in them are not tourist attractions, they should be run in accordance with accepted international standards and never be open for tourists. If you really want to help these children, find a good organization that is providing effective support and make a donation to them.

For more tips about travelling and volunteering, visit our www.thinkchildsafe.org

Before you contact us for a placement in our organization we would like to ask you to please read through our terms and conditions.

 

01 Candidates for volunteer positions must provide

Full CV with references

Cover Letter

02 Police record / background check when possible

03 Candidates should have a specialty that will be useful for staff and the work of Friends International

04 Friends Programs are not training organizations and, therefore, cannot accept students who need to gain field experience unless they can bring a specific skill to the teams or can carry out a specific duty that is useful to the organization in accordance with article 4

05 Candidates will always work with staff (not with the children directly) to provide specific training, or will carry out a specific duty that will reduce the workload of the staff in administrative capacities (research, reports, presentations)

06 No project is to disturb and interfere in the education/training curriculum of the children and must adapt to the Friends International lesson plans and time-tables

07 Volunteers who wish to implement their own project, must present an application with an outline of a project that must take into consideration points 2-3-4-5 and must include a tentative budget. All proposed projects will be examined by Friends-International management and any proposition that does not fit Friends-International’s needs will be turned down

08 All candidates that are approved will sign a contract and a job description based on the project proposal with Friends-International. The contract will be time-bound with expected results clearly identified. Minimum length of contract is 3 months, this can be renewed. Shorter periods may be acceptable; depending on requirements at a given time

09 The volunteers will be directly supervised by and will be responsible to Friends-International. At Mith Samlanh, a specific Team Leader will be appointed to be in charge of each volunteer, under the direct monitoring of the Director

10 All volunteers will undergo an orientation visit to some of our programs before starting their work, whatever the duration of their volunteering time

11 Progress of the volunteer’s work will be monitored by the Project Manager in charge and reported to the Country Program Director

12 Upon completion of work, all reports, papers, etc. produced by the volunteer, remain the property of Friends-International. An intellectual property clause in the contract clarifies the use of material / work by the volunteer. Any abuse can lead to legal prosecution

13 A letter of recommendation will be issued based on the outcome of the volunteer’s work

Check out our current volunteering positions here.