Cambodian Children's Painting Project

Life is good here in Sihanoukville. Truly, "living the dream". By day, I am a volunteer with Cambodian Children's Painting Project (www.letuscreate.org). By night, I am a regular at the beach bar/paint party/bucket night party scene that rages until the early morning hours each night. Yes, every single night in Sihanoukville, one of the beach bars hosts a giant full-moon-style beach party. Most people are only passing through "Sin-ville" for two or three nights, but to live here for a month is to be, essentially, constantly covered in paint.

When I was planning my trip last year, I decided I wanted to spend a good chunk of time in Cambodia and figured that volunteering with an NGO would be a good way to make a contribution while taking my time getting to know the country. My search brought me to the Thorn Tree Forum on lonelyplanet.com- ideally, I wanted to find a situation where I could volunteer WITH kids NEAR a beach. It seemed like a tall order, but voila! I found rave reviews for CCPP and quickly emailed them to begin the application process.


Its hard to say which I've enjoyed more- getting to know the gorgeous and happy children of CCPP... or the amazing and diverse group of volunteers here with me. In only two weeks time, I've grown incredibly close to many of the "teachers" here, and am thrilled to now have friends in places like Morocco, Frankfurt, Paris and Reunion Islands (near Madagascar). We are naturally making verbal commitments to visit each other next year, which I fully intend on doing!


The children of CCPP are the most beautiful kids I've ever met. Not only are most of them incredibly good-looking (Angelina was onto something...), but they are very polite, take good care of each other, share toys effortlessly and take pride in cleaning up after themselves. Cambodia has spawned a breed of Super Kids! Many of them are very intelligent and speak pretty good English; others come to CCPP with dirt on their faces & empty bellies. There is no smile more sincere than that of a hungry child receiving food- and I get to see about 100 of them every day.


My first week with CCPP, we moved into a new facility down the road. In three days, we took the vacant lot of a Swedish Restaurant and added walls, bleached counters, painted rooms and trimmed the trees to make the place a giant playground for the kids. Previously, CCPP was located on the main road down to Serendipity Beach- it was nice, since many tourists would stop by on their way to and from the beach, but the space was not big enough for the 100+ kids that come to CCPP each day. Now, the old space is used as our gallery/studio area where we prep boards and stretch canvases and sell paintings for $4 a piece.


Each day at 8am and 2pm, our driver Pip comes to the gallery to pick up volunteers to transport us up the road to the new facility, where there are always kids waiting for us with those giant smiles on their faces. The first 90 mins of each shift is painting with the kids- helping them with sketches, passing out paints with brushes, etc. In the afternoons, painting time is followed by free time. In the mornings, the kids follow painting time with English classes (in our on-site classroom) and then receive a free lunch. As the food is served, the children who sold paintings the day prior receive $2 cash for each sale. A round of applause is given between each announcement of a sale. If the painting was a larger canvas painting (prices vary from $15-$80), then the money is given to the child's guardian.


Cambodian Children's Painting Project is a fantastic and well-run NGO with its heart in the right place. To learn more about CCPP, please visit: www.letuscreate.org. If you would like to make a donation to the project, or send art supplies/clothing/shoes/medical supplies, please let me know and I would be happy to put you in touch with Madeline, the director of the program. If you are interested in buying a painting (or 10...), send me an email and I would be happy to help!