Becoming an English teacher was hard work - but very rewarding.

Cambodia is still a country in need of a lot of help; when I went North to Banteay Chhmar I saw huge 4x4s emblazoned with aid agency logos everywhere, and along the streets of the villages you often see plaques on the water pumps giving the name of someone who donated it.

As I was spending some time in Siem Reap (no joke, we were there so long our guesthouse owners adopted us as part of the family!), I decided to investigate options for doing some charity work. We'd heard about a charity concert held at the children's hospital, Kantha Bopha, every Saturday night. The hospital founder is a Swiss doctor called Beat Richner, a well-known cellist who goes under the stage name Beatocello, who performs music from Bach to help raise awareness and crucial funds. Dr Beat has been tirelessly working for the past twenty years to set up 5 hospitals in Cambodia, offering free treatment for children. Cambodia has no national health service, and without Kantha Bopha thousands of children (about 4 in every 5) suffering from diseases such as Dengue fever, TB and cholera would die. Across the 5 hospitals, over 3,000 children are brought in every da, of which about 300 are hospitalised. The hospitals are clean, well-equipped and well-staffed, but very over-crowded by Western standards - children are two to a bed, and the corridors are cramped. No-one is turned away, and on-going care is given to ensure that the children are given adequate after-care at home. The concert included a film showing the history and progress of the hospitals. See www.beatocello.ch for more on Dr Beat.

Inspired to do something useful, I decided to volunteer at a local orphanage. ACODO is an NGO offering care for children and the disabled. At ACDO the children are taught English by volunteers, and sponsorship by international donors mean that every child now attends private school (Cambodian state school is a really poor standard, and very corrupt - you have to bribe the teachers to be taught!). Every evening the orphanage opens its door to visitors and the children perform in a traditional APSARA dance show, after heading over there and meeting some other volunteers I decided to sign up.

At the moment there are 63 children living at the orphanage - not all are orphaned, but many come from big families who are too poor to care for them. There is a wall as you go in which shows photos and gives information on each child, its heart-breaking to read some of the stories. I had a feeling as I looked around that I was going to be tempted to do an Angelina and take one of them home in my rucksack! The kids are so happy there though. One little girl, Teja, is the youngest of 3 but her parents couldn't afford to keep all of them at home, so she was sent to the orphanage. When she arrived she was very teary and clingy, but in just a few weeks has transformed to a happy, mischievous little smiler. An older boy living there has terrible burns; the orphanage are trying to get hold of his medical records so he can receive further care - being in the sun causes him terrible pain. Many of the children are from rural areas, and would have no opportunity to get an education if they were not at the orphanage - in Cambodia children as young as 11 go out to work, often back-breaking jobs like farm work. I wanted to make sure that our lessons were useful, but fun too - teaching English was nerve-wracking, but once I got going it was great! I taught both the little ones (the ABC class of 3-10 year olds) and the older ones (aged 11-16) and it was so rewarding - the kids really want to learn, and love the attention! Some real highlights were getting the kids to learn actions, then perform their favourite; using balloons to explain maths, and seeing the looks of pure concentration as they drew their favourite animals. Leaving the orphanage on my last day was so sweet; all the children walked me out to the gates, saying 'Thank you Teacher', hugging, waving, hopping on the back of my bicycle for a ride.. it was really lovely.

I'd recommend volunteering at ACODO if anyone is interested. The experience was so memorable. Donations of money, stationary or clothes would be gratefully received - see www.acodo.org for more information.

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