We are seeking volunteers to join two building teams to help our partners build a new classroom block for a remote village school in Takeo Province where there is a long waiting list for more children to receive education. The village is approximately a 1-hour van journey from our planned accommodation in Ta Khmau municipality on the southern outskirts of Phnom Penh. You will experience heat, poverty, hope, despair, laughter, colour, smells, friendship, love, gratitude, local markets, potholed roads, rubbish, dust, pollution, street kids and saffron-clothed monks! 

Cambodia is a country of extremes – and we love it! Many past volunteers have loved it, especially the food!

8th - 22nd November 2025 

7th - 21st February 2026

28th February - 14th March 2026

Mission Direct continues to partner with Serve Cambodia and the Fellowship of Hope (FOH) Church network in Cambodia. In 2024 our focus was on building a school for a remote rural community in the northern province of Preah Vihear, but in 2025 we are aiming to significantly increase the capacity of an existing school in Jake (Banana) village, situated in rural southern Cambodia. Our partners, Pastor Savut and Pastor Sara of Fellowship of Hope church, want to provide education to many more children who live in Banana village, which has about 250 households. 

Currently only approximately 50 children receive education, with one class in the morning and two in the afternoon. The existing small classroom building which stands on land owned by the church, has never been completed. Our project is to raise funds for, and to build, an additional two-classrooms and a small teacher’s office. Funds permitting, we wish to complete the existing classroom and provide a boundary wall to the rear of the area. This is another exciting Mission Direct project which will bring great benefit to a poor community. 

Teachers and Healthcare workers

Teachers are welcome to join the team but please remember the main project is to build. However, there may well be an opportunity to teach the local children and to provide some teacher training, but this cannot be guaranteed. Some of the 50 children are currently educated in the nearby church building but this is not ideal as it is also used for other purposes.

We are not currently aware of opportunities for healthcare workers, other than perhaps providing simple health education advice to the children and their parents via an interpreter. 

In the afternoons, when it is too hot to build, you will visit some of Serve Cambodia Schools, which include Harvest of Hope, Light of Hope and TLC Schools. We may be asked to organise various fun activities for the children such as playing games, taking a school assembly, providing some simple health education to families or hair washing / treatment of head lice for the children.  We serve in whatever way our partners wish. 

We will have the opportunity to learn from our partners and friends who live and work in Cambodia. They can teach us about the local culture, Buddhism, and some of the realities of everyday life. The life story of Pastor Sara is particularly memorable and inspirational. 

A trip to the Killing Fields is important, in view of the historic Pol-Pot Genocide, when 2 million people were murdered in just 3-4 years by the Khmer Rouge. This occurred between 1975 and 1978 and traumatised every family in Cambodia with a continuing impact on the nation’s psyche.

In Takeo province we may have the opportunity to visit rural villages and lakes. There are various cultural opportunities, and we will travel into central Phnom Penh for these over the middle weekend. After completing our time on the building site, we will travel to Siem Reap, where you will have some time off to relax and swim, visit tourist markets, and enjoy meals out in restaurants, some of which may support local NGOs. It may be possible to attend performances of traditional Cambodian dancing either in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap depending on timing.

Visiting the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap is one of the final highlights of the trip. Angkor Wat is the world's largest collection of religious temples and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We will get up before dawn to see the sunrise and spend the morning exploring this and other temples. After an afternoon rest, this special day will finish with a visit to the Siem Reap Night Market. 

Flights usually leave from Heathrow and are in two stages, with a stop-off which we try to make as straightforward as possible. The total journey time is between 15-17 hours. We expect to fly into Phnom Penh and out from Siem Reap.

In-country transport within Phnom Penh is often by tuk-tuks which are small carriages pulled by motorcycles. An air-conditioned minibus will be used to for travel to Takeo province. 

The climate is generally very hot and humid and due to climate changes Cambodia appears to be getting hotter by the year. 

You will need a wide brimmed hat to cover your face and neck from the sun and plenty of sunscreen. Please bring a water bottle, clean water will be provided. Building work in a hot climate can be exhausting for people. Please be mindful of this before you choose to undertake this trip. 

In Ta Khmau municipality on the south side of Phnom Penh, you will stay in simple hotel accommodation or a guest house. In Siem Reap you will stay in a hotel, which may provide a swimming pool. The hotels we use have air-conditioning. Please note there will be an hour-long journey by van from the accommodation to the building site in Banana village. There is no suitable accommodation closer to the building site.

Cambodian food is delicious and a highlight for many volunteers. Local dishes can be spicy, but there is usually an alternative. International cuisine will be available at many eateries in Siem Reap during the rest and refreshment part of your experience.

If you have any special dietary requirements or food allergies/intolerances, please let us know in advance and we will do what we can to accommodate your needs. 

Please note that anyone with a serious nut allergy is not recommended to undertake this trip as it is very difficult to avoid nuts in Cambodian cuisine.

The local currency is the Cambodian Riel (Currently $1.00 = 4,100 Riel) but you should bring US Dollars. When you spend US dollars you will usually be given change in Riel. 

All meals and water, transport and visits are included in the trip contribution. However, you may want to bring money for souvenirs, alternative drinks and desserts! Gifts and clothes are great value – trainers $15 and T-shirts $5. It is well worth having some available cash for the opportunities to support ‘good causes’ which arise; potential gifts include donations to one of our partners or partner organisations (and these cash gifts in dollars can be Gift Aided via Mission Direct if you pay sufficient tax in the UK).

The local language is Khmer. Also English, Chinese, French are spoken.

You may well have a generous baggage allowance and this gives you the opportunity to bring aid or useful gifts with you. We will tell you what would be gratefully received when you come to your orientation meetings.

When you join a Mission Direct team you will meet people from a range of backgrounds. It is important that you come ready to be a team player. We work hard together and generally have a lot of fun doing so. Some of these ‘strangers’ may well become lifelong friends afterwards. Trips where people try to opt out and ‘do their own thing’ tend to be far less successful and enjoyable for everybody on the team; please bear this in mind. 

Mission Direct is a Christian organization and the Partner organizations that we work with are often, though not always, led by Christians. We are all on a life journey and are delighted to welcome people of any or no faith to join us. Typically we have short morning and evening reflections and on the trip you will visit a local church. We would like you to attend these aspects of the trip as part of the ‘teamwork’ ethos though there is no pressure for you to join in with the services, sing or pray if you don’t want to. The trips provide an eye-opening cross-cultural experience and are great fun. 

You don't have to be a Christian and you don’t have to be particularly strong, able, young, or skilled in building work or DIY to join a Mission Direct trip. There may well be something else you can contribute to the team if you find building work too physically demanding for all the allocated time. Older children are welcome, provided they are accompanied by at least one parent or responsible adult. In recent years we have taken volunteers up to the age of 80 to our projects near Phnom Penh city but this may change according to limits set by our insurance company. 

Please note: There are both accessibility and health and safety issues for Mission Direct volunteers due to the nature of building sites and the extreme heat in Cambodia. If you have a particular disability or a medical condition associated with fatigue or tiredness, you must take this into consideration and discuss your options on this or another Mission Direct trip with Jackie Johnston, Volunteer Manager, in the Mission Direct office. 

Parts of the trip may be substantially different to your last visit. Prepare to do different things and meet new people, though you will probably also see some familiar faces too. Please allow those on their first trip to enjoy and experience each day as it unfolds, so avoid those ‘spoilers’ please!  

06.45am Daily devotions and breakfast

08.00am Depart for the Building Project 

12:00 noon Lunch 

13.30-14:30pm Teaching and visiting the local village

16:30pm Return to hotel to shower and relax

18:00pm Dinner at a local restaurant or at the accommodation

19:30pm Dorm Boy (student) outreach

21:30pm Reflections on the day

To join us, you’ll be asked to cover the cost of your trip, which is calculated using the previous year’s volunteer numbers and the total cost of the campaign. We build in an assumption of being able to claim Gift Aid on 60% of all contributions. We rely on this to cover any cost variations and to keep the charity running so it is important that you are able to Gift Aid your contribution.

Once your application has been accepted you will have the opportunity to set up a payment plan for your contribution. 

We ask you to fundraise for more than just the trip contribution to support building costs and help pay for materials and local labour. 100% of any extra funding, excluding Gift Aid, goes straight to the project.

This is particularly important for the 2025 campaign as Mission Direct Cambodia’s reserves are depleted. Helpful suggestions and tips for fundraising will be shared. It is understood that some volunteers find it easier to fundraise than others, so don’t be put off by this, but Mission Direct staff are also conscious that projects will not be completed without funds.