Frequently Asked Questions
Thirty four at present but this can change at any time.
The children are aged between 9 and 21.
Certainly, if a baby came along that needed care.
Children are normally expected to stay in the Village until they are 18 years old when we try to send them to University or some form of vocational training through our outreach programme. If at any time a child wants to return to his/her family home to live, we will check the family’s circumstances and if they can afford to feed, clothe and educate their child, we are happy for that child to return to his/her family. We would like all children to be raised in their family environment.
Who Will currently has 2 young people in this programme and both are sponsored by individuals from overseas. One of these young adults has just completed Year 8 at Medical School and the other has completed a Bachelor’s Degree at Law School and would now like to continue his studies and take a Master’s Degree. We have interest in providing him with the tuition fees and books but he must work to cover his living costs. We will try to secure scholarships or sponsors to provide tertiary education fees for all of our children who their School Leaving Certificate exam. For the less academic, we will try to place them in vocational training courses. The needs of each student will be different, for example they might need help with accommodation, food, clothing, transport, university fees, text books and even extra English classes. These extra costs will need to be sponsored.
It depends on the subject chosen for the degree course. Medicine is the most expensive degree to obtain. A medical student would need approximately US$3,500 a year and the course lasts for 8 years.
No, all but 4 of our children have at least 1 parent but they are too poor to support and feed their children.
Our current budget breaks down to just about US$5.00 a day for each child.
We provide a secure happy home, food, clothing, education and hope for the future. We don’t want our children to become institutionalised, so we aim to provide a lifestyle as close as possible to the one they would have enjoyed with their natural parents.
We do not approve of Orphanage Tourism but if you have a valid reason for visiting, this can be arranged. Visitors are asked to make an appointment for a weekday. They will see the children in the school, office or gazebo, but not in their living quarters which are out of bounds to all visitors in order to preserve the children’s privacy. Most of the children attend school in the morning and the High School children are now at school in the afternoon as well so visitors don’t see many of them.
We have six family houses each with either a married couple or a female carer who act as house parents for up to ten children in each house. The house mother takes care of the daily running of the home whilst her husband, if unemployed, is offered work in our village.
Visitors take a taxi from Phnom Penh which will cost about $20 each way. We will tell the taxi driver the exact location. The trip should take about ninety minutes depending on traffic.
Visitors must sign a visitor compliance form and we take a photocopy of their passport to retain on file. You will meet some of the children, either in the office, school room or the gazebo over the fish pond. You will not be allowed to spend any time on a one to one basis with any child and you will be accompanied by a staff member during the whole of your visit.
Photography is allowed after a form is signed saying that the photos are for personal use only and not for commercial use.
Most of the children return to their family home for Khmer New Year and Pchum Ben festivals.
The children attend the nearby government school. They study Khmer language, maths, history, geography and science, but no sport or music. Who Will has a soccer pitch and the children also enjoy playing volley ball. Who Will provides English language classes which are taught in the village. Around twenty neighbourhood children and two local monks attend from time to time.
We run a volunteer programme for overseas visitors to help with English classes and utilise any skills they might have. We prefer volunteers to be from mid twenties up and to stay for a minimum of one month. For more details please contact us at info@whowill.org.
Who Will doesn’t charge fees for volunteering but does charge for accommodation in the Volunteer House. Most volunteers do some fund raising before coming over and donate the money to the village but this is not a condition of acceptance..
We have a Volunteer House on site with 4 twin rooms with en-suite shower room/w c. There is a communal kitchen/living room. For a single person the cost is US$150.00 per month and for double occupancy US$200.00 per month. Hot water is supplied but not food. Volunteers must be self-funding.
We prefer a minimum of one month but some volunteers choose to stay for three to six months.
Yes, we need a Police Clearance from your country of domicile and two verifiable references.
Most of the children are Buddhist but as we are a secular organisation they can follow their own religion.
Who Will started in 2008.
Arrangements are in place.
The chairman ran two orphanages for an Australian organisation which housed two hundred children. He was the Chairman of the Foundation and Country Director responsible for hiring staff, educational programmes and implementing new building projects. He started volunteering for it in 1997.
No fundraising tours are undertaken and awareness of our needs are transmitted by word of mouth. All running costs are covered by donations. Organisations or groups of individuals in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong and Australia make monthly or quarterly donations that cover about 75% of the daily running costs and one off donations fill the gap. Capital items are usually sponsored by companies or groups of individuals. Some of the children have individual sponsors who pay on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Go to the Donations page on the web site.
It is too difficult and time consuming to track each individual donation. All casual donations go into the general fund.
We accept children from all over the country.
We do take siblings.
We don’t discriminate against sick or handicapped children. Unfortunately we can’t accept children with a major handicap as they would use up our resources to the detriment of the other children.
One of our House Mothers is a qualified Nurse and a doctor from the local hospital is on call in case of need. We have a Medical Advisor who is based in Phnom Penh and he makes regular visits and is available for telephone consultation most of the time.
Usually the Head of the Village or Commune will make a recommendation. Sometimes it is word of mouth and people find us. We check the story by visiting their home location and confirming that the need is real.
We have no plans for future development other than extending our vegetable garden. Government policy discourages children from entering orphanages so we have ample space for current needs