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Philip Fox and Simon Cowell travelled to Cambodia during the June/July term break.

Both of us had a hard working term and it was nice to get on the plane at Melbourne's Tullamarine and put our feet up on the overnight flight before arriving in a hot and steamy Phnom Penh.

We were greeted by the ever smiling Mat Sary and we both experienced out first ride in the Humanitus tuk-tuk. It was great to look at the expression on Philip?s face. I guess he was thinking the same as me, ?The Humanitus tuk-tuk looked amazing travelling the streets of Phnom Penh?. I do not think either of us actually said anything but for me that was a significant moment. It really showed me that Humanitus was on the ground and operational in Cambodia. 

True community development involves working at the grass roots level like the locals and I think the tuk-tuk really symbolises this. It was very obvious while in the tuk-tuk that many other NGO?S have flash cars, but we fitted in well with our swerving, horn blowing tuk-tuk!

We had a hectic couple of days to say the least. We visited SCC School, SFODA Orphanage, and Pichey Rangsey School. All of these places had varying needs, but it was great to put a face to the schools and orphanages and to meet the people. While I managed to be the photographer for the majority of the trip, Philip appears in many photos that have been updated throughout the website.  There were various moments when Philip and I looked at each other trying not to shed a tear, but overall we managed to donate funds from our initial fundraiser and also ascertain some specific needs for these schools and the orphanage.

The main goal was to apply principles of community development. Central to this was to respect the needs of community through ?listening? to the local people.  We consulted before each visit. We needed to establish their needs, not what we perceived to be important according to our value and belief system. Getting to the bottom of the needs of the schools and orphanage was our goal. It was great to leave and really have a sense of what was needed by each place.

Philip will be visiting again over the December and January holidays where he will do some volunteer work at the SFODA orphanage. He is hoping to also be able to distribute more support for the needs established during this time.