15 January 2007

ActionAid is seeking volunteers to help a poor village in Cambodia build a much-needed community centre for children, women and people living with HIV and Aids.

You can now sign up for the 2007 ActionAid Cambodia Challenge, where you will work side-by-side with local people to construct a vital building that will act as a school, a surgery and a refuge.

• Cambodia has the highest percentage of people living with HIV and Aids in Asia.
• Nearly five million people live on less than 65p a day.
• Over 95% of women in rural areas have no access to medical care and over 180,000 children of primary school age are not enrolled in school.

The village community centre, which participants will help build, will be crucial to solving these problems.

• It will provide a safe area for children to play and take part in educational activities
• There will be health facilities and counselling services, especially beneficial to women
• It will also act as a refuge in times of extreme need for landless families, disabled people, and those living with HIV/AIDS

 
For five days volunteers will be digging, laying bricks and plastering. But no building experience is necessary. In the evenings there will be the chance for the small team to enjoy local music, dance, food and drink. And after the challenge they can explore the charming French colonial town of Siem Reap and the magnificent temples of Angkor Wat.

Participants are required to pay a registration fee of £300 and then raise around £3,200 in sponsorship. At least 55% goes towards ActionAid projects and the rest pays for the trip.  

Jodie Cohen, ActionAid fundraising spokesperson, said: “Charity adventures are a challenge, both mentally and physically, testing people’s endurance to the limit. But at the same time, they take people to some of the most culturally rich places in the world and they leave with a sense of achievement you don’t often get from a two week package holiday.”
 

ActionAid is running 2007 fundraising challenges in the following locations: Brazilian Rainforest, Indian Himalayas, Peru Inca Trail, Tanzania Rift Valley, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. More information is at www.actionaid.org.uk/adventures