Volunteer With Us

Volunteers building a Community CenterVolunteers for the new Community Agriculture Development Program (CADP) work in the Sovanna Baitong village in the beautiful Koh Kong province of Cambodia. Here you will learn about this lovely village, how and why it was established, and ways in which you can help the village’s community development.

In the Cardamom Mountains, many landless Cambodians struggled to survive; poaching wildlife, illegally cutting down trees, and scraping to provide food, shelter, education, and health care for themselves and their children.

Wildlife Alliance, in collaboration with the Cambodian Government, is working on a re-forestation project to protect and preserve extensive forest areas declared a nature reserve, and subsequently prohibit hunting and burning of forests (the source of income for most families).

Farmer selling produce at market

The Sovanna Baitong village, established with the help of Wildlife Alliance, provides some of these landless Cambodian families the opportunity to settle in a community. The village consists of about 200 families who have received land tenure, become part of a community-wide irrigation project, been given access to education and health care, and been trained in sustainable farming techniques. They were also given financial support, allowing them to make the transition from the life of the forest to the life of the village.

After establishing the village as a source of livelihood for the residents, the organization is now reducing subsidies to enable villagers to become independent and earn their own income, without outside assistance.

 It has been seven years since Sovanna Baitong was established; the villagers are developing an understanding of agriculture and are profiting from their land. Nevertheless, the transition to independent village life raises many concerns. It has become necessary to widen community development so as to help create a sense of unity and enrichment in order for them to feel confident about the new life they have created. There is also a need to develop additional business initiatives to enhance their income.

English LessonsIn order to help strengthen the community development, the organization started a volunteer project in the village about five months ago.

We now give you an opportunity to contribute to the project in any way you think could help. This could include financial contributions, donations of equipment, ideas, or initiatives. We also invite you to join the family of Sovanna Baitong village and come volunteer with us.

To Volunteer in Sovanna Baitong: Email Ido Chen and Yaara Reuveny at Wildlife.vo@gmail.com