Our school in Cambodia has over 700 students attending classes every week and many more visiting for workshops, the library and fun activities. It is constantly buzzing and has become a true refuge and opportunity-builder for our local community. This amazing school was in part made possible by Collette Cares, the not for profit arm of Collette Vacations. Their generous donation allowed JWOC to build the new school and allows for hundreds of students to better themselves and have a brighter future.

The great part about the Collette Foundation being part of building and maintaining our school as well as our other projects is that they can now bring their travelers to visit our projects and see the work that Collette is part of. Once or twice a month, usually on a Friday, a large bus pulls up outside JWOC and guests visiting Cambodia with Collette Vacations are able to visit the JWOC Conversation Class.

This class was developed for exactly this reason…so that our students could have a chance to meet with native English speakers and put their English learning skills to the test. It also is a way for our supporters to really meet and interact with the Cambodian people, learning more about their lives and goals.

Our students really enjoy their time at conversation class and for them it is invaluable practice and a chance to take what they have learned in the classroom and put it into practice. The hour class always flies by. At the end of class there are smiles all round and in just one hour it is amazing how people from such distant cultures can bond so closely.

Collette Cares have provided us with financial support every year since our partnership started in 2008. Their help has allowed us to build classrooms, toilets, fund our Kindergarten classes and our Clean Water Project. Foundations such as Collette Cares help grassroots organizations trulyachieve their vision. Certainly, in our case, without the help of Collette much of what we do would not be possible so we thank them and look forward to the next group to visit our Conversation Class and Journeys Within Our Community.