by Rie Miura

01 June 2010

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Curiosity led me to apply to be a volunteer.

I work at a Japanese manufacturing company which supplies electronic devices, medical tape and even seawater desalination membranes. I am a public relations officer, mainly dealing with the mass media. This work is very worthwhile and I am really proud of it. Meanwhile, I am also keen to make something important out of my job. I want to broaden my horizons and make a contribution to peace in the world.

When I was surfing the Internet, I happened to find the UNV website offering a one-month volunteer activity program at the International Labour Organization (ILO) 'Better Factories Cambodia' project (ILO-BFC) in Cambodia.  

Because the recruitment qualifications seemed to suit me, I started to think, “Maybe I can take a one-month vacation for this volunteer work, so I could bring my expertise to this programme.”  I also thought, “This is a good chance for me to experience living in a developing country.”  

After my assignment was fixed, I became very anxious for two reasons. One was that it was going to be my first experience of living in a developing country.  And the other was that I was not sure if I could really accomplish my assignment.  

For the first few days after my arrival in Cambodia, I was so confused because everything was so different from my daily life in Japan. I felt like crying… But little by little, I became used to my surroundings, and then the street scenes and people’s facial expressions started to look different from before, and local colleagues at the ILO-BFC office started to approach me with more familiarity.

My assignment at ILO-BFC was marketing and communication. The project started in 2001 with the aim to improve the working conditions, productivity and quality of Cambodian garment factories.  As ILO-BFC plans to separate from ILO in 2011 and change its business style, my task was to develop some brochures to market the services ILO-BFC provides to customers.  

First, I familiarized myself with the philosophy of ILO-BFC. Second, I learned the features of the services. Third, I noted what benefits the services would give the customers.  And then I organized all the findings into the brochures.

As everything was new to me, the task was a little tough-going, but support from my supervisor and colleagues made it possible to complete my assignment.

Now I believe that volunteerism offers the possibility to complement the shortcomingsof society and pull the world together with an innovative spirit that is sometimes difficult for private companies or governments to provide.  And volunteerism helps volunteers to develop themselves.

I could share values across the barriers of national and ethnic differences and achieve mutual understanding with local people, ILO staff and UNV volunteers. Besides doing volunteer activities, I also enjoyed spending free time together with them.  We sometimes had drinks together, danced and went to BBQs.  After coming back to Japan, I am still keeping in contact with them through email, Facebook and Skype.

These four weeks were really concentrated in many ways. And I gained many things based on real experience. I have gotten so much more back than I could give. That would be difficult to realize if I simply lived my daily life as an office worker in Japan.  I am very thankful for this opportunity and to people who have enabled me to have it, and I would like to share this experience with as many people as I can.

Before I visited Cambodia, the image I had of people there was not very clear. I just considered them as people living in a developing country. After spending a couple of days there, I began to understand what the Cambodians were like. They were more energetic and lively than Japanese people, although their living environments seemed to be more severe. Cambodians seemed to know how to live better, even in less environmentally advantaged conditions.

I found that many Cambodians held dreams and strove to achieve them as they tried to win back the lost past. Their behaviour taught me that tomorrow would be a better day than today, and there would be much more to expect in the future if I did my best.

Finally, I would like to point out the challenges they are facing. There are many constraints. For example, the lack of job opportunities and the lowness of parents’ incomes prevent their children from getting formal schooling. And many people are not allowed to travel abroad freely.

But above all, I have come to think that even though the culture or history between our two countries are different, we can still show empathy for each other, because we have common interests and our values are similar even across borders.