Ben gets on his bike for Cambodia
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A FORMER Elgin High School pupil has launched a fundraising campaign for his own special mission to Cambodia.
Ben Moore will travel to the Asian country at the start of October to carry out volunteer work in schools.
The 18-year-old, who will spend three months away, signed up to the International Citizen Service (ICS), which is funded by the UK Government to allow people of different backgrounds to
volunteer.
Ben started off his fundraising by cycling the Great Glen and climbing Ben Nevis on Wednesday.
He said: "My main idea for doing this was because when we get to Cambodia, we are given a bike and that is how we get about. We will be cycling up and down the hills.
"The Mondulkiri province is right on the border with Vietnam and it is in one of the most mountainous sections of the country, so there will be a lot of on foot climbing as well. "We are not allowed to drive, for insurance purposes, but we can get driven out to schools that are quite far away. The fundraising cycle and climb has been good training."
Ben’s ambition to volunteer abroad came after a trip to Zambia with the High School last summer.
"It was amazing, it completely changed my view on people," he said. "It made me want to work with young children because people kept on commenting on how well I was doing with the
kids. You could make them really happy just by picking them up.
"It was eye-opening seeing the teaching over there and how under-staffed they were – but how much the kids wanted to be taught, how much they wanted to be there, and the respect that they gave you."
Ben will be part of a group of 40 UK volunteers being sent to different areas of Cambodia.
He will be living with a host family for the three months and will be sharing a room with a Cambodian counterpart, who will help him with the language.
He said: "The area I’m going to is very rural. We will get placed with a Cambodian counterpart who will not necessarily be from the area that we are going to, but they will be able to speak Khmer, the local language, so can help us out with the basics.
"I am really bad at learning languages but I will definitely try my best, because you can’t really communicate with anybody else. It is not like going to Europe, where a lot of people know English.
"I’ll try and do as much learning as I can before we go out, but it is going to be tough."
Ben will be embracing Cambodian culture living with his host family, and he is looking forward to the experience.
He said: "I want to be able to interact with different people and see what is like over there and immerse myself into a different culture for three months.
During his time in Cambodia, Ben will be volunteering within the education system.
"The first part of the trip will be assessing the schools that we are going to," he said. "We will write up reports and take different data to see where the schools are at and what kind of help they need.
"After that we will spend our time helping out in the schools. I want to get more experience of working with children."
Ben has plans for more fundraising events, including a coffee morning and a barn dance.
To sponsor Ben go to his Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/MakeBenGoAway
