International Journeys include the opportunity for students to get involved in authentic, grass roots community service work within the impoverished village community. The focus of their humanitarian work centres on their adopted friendship school, helping to build a library, school fence, toilet block, or a playground, and later the students’ community service work will extend into the villages that feed into the school, so that the entire village community benefits from their humanitarian work. The children will work directly with the village school principal and village chief of the community.
This unique program allows for continuity, as each group of student ambassadors going on tour every year, build upon the previous year’s student ambassadors’ community service work while also being able to check on and maintain the previous work that has been done.
At International Journeys we encourage responsible tourism. There are no visits to orphanages on International Journey tours. Please view Tara Winkler’s TED talk to understand the problems of orphanage tourism.
Giving students the opportunity to work alongside poor villagers to improve their standard of living and create brighter opportunities for their children’s future will foster a lifelong understanding of and empathy for others in our wider global community, outside of our own local community.
Building relationships with the Cambodian students of your adopted Cambodian Friendship School provides Australian students much insight into Asian culture and values and develops intercultural understanding, while fostering authentic long lasting connections with the community.
Our program is to first talk with members of the community to listen to their needs and then discuss with them a way to meet these needs. We believe it is important to build a lasting relationship based on trust and respect in order to work with the community to improve their overall standard of living for all families within the village. It is important for the families themselves to play a significant role in their own development to maintain their ownership of this and their personal pride and dignity.