Rebecca Fitchett describes the volunteer aid work she undertook in Cambodia, prior to starting as a trainee lawyer at Freshfields.

Like most aspiring lawyers I applied in the penultimate year of my law degree for a training contract with a firm of solicitors, and so spent my final year secure in the knowledge that my future was mapped out until 2010, with 1 year of law school followed by a 2 year training contract. With the spectre of the corporate world looming large on the horizon, I decided that upon completing my LPC, I should seize the opportunity to take some time out and engage in a radically different activity: volunteer aid work.

Organising the trip….

I organised my trip to Cambodia through an English based agency. Counter intuitively this meant paying a fairly large amount of money to be able to do a difficult and challenging job helping others. I was convinced, however, by a combination of two factors. First, I could rest assured that the agency would provide a support network should anything go wrong during my time in Cambodia. Secondly, the long standing relationships which the agency have built in Cambodia allow them to filter out those organisations, abundant in developing countries, which use the guise of an NGO to facilitate their far less humanitarian aims of profiting from the exploitation of women and children.

Developing the role

Having been given an extremely wide job specification, I was free to develop my role in accordance with what I perceived to be the needs of the organisation for which I chose to work. The Khmer Development of Freedom Organisation (KDFO) is an orphanage, school and community education project which operates on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, near the city’s municipal rubbish dump. Many of the children who found refuge at the orphanage had been trafficked from the provinces to work as prostitutes or household labourers. Many more of those who attended the KDFO school each day had come to live on the rubbish dump with their families, in order to scavenge recyclable goods which they would sell in return for a meagre living of less that $1 per day.

Within a short time after starting at KDFO, it became apparent that potential investors were being dissuaded from committing to long term funding by break downs in communication and a general lack of transparency. I therefore started to organise meetings with these sponsors, and to develop simple project management systems by which KDFO could report back on its progress towards the aims it set out in funding applications. I also rewrote the annual report, which had last been updated in 2003, allowing English speaking donors an insight into the workings of the organisation, its objectives and goals. As a result several projects were successfully launched, including a long term scheme to improve teaching methods and resources at the centre. Several other volunteers from different organisations also became instantly enchanted with the children at KDFO, and through the support of friends and family in several different countries, we managed to raise over $US10, 000. With this, we purchased many items which the centre desperately needed and organised a (non-religious) Christmas Party. The vivid memories of that day, full of smiles, will stay with me always.

On Cambodia….

Cambodia, especially Phnom Penh, is no longer a war ravaged, desolate place. It is, however, very much a developing country, with all of the problems which that status entails. Corruption is a major problem which affects even grass roots organisations such as KDFO. When working in such a system, it is fatal to begin to think of your input on a macro scale, as the plight of a country which is currently ranked in the lowest 30 in the world on the UNDP’s human development index, cannot be solved on a 4 month placement. When researching the support offered by the government to the communities with which KDFO works, including those who have been trafficked or displaced, I would sometimes be so appalled that I would think ‘what is the point’. This in itself was a great learning experience in terms of focussing on the task in hand and realising the value in touching a small number of people’s lives.

3 months into my training contract at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and I am surprisingly content in my job. The work is challenging and the variety of personalities and experience amongst my colleagues mean that it is a dynamic atmosphere to work in. Nobody can deny that working in any type of corporate firm can be stressful, but my experiences in Cambodia have certainly taught me not to sweat the small stuff.