TWO trainee teachers took their decision to volunteer oversees to the next level by taking their three children with them to rural Cambodia.

Grace Harrison, 30, from Birtley, and Natalie Longford, 36, from Gateshead, heard about the opportunity to teach abroad when they began studying at the University of Sunderland but felt, because they had children, it would be impossible for them.

Another year passed while they studied for their primary education degrees and the idea of teaching abroad remained at the back of their minds.

Then, through Projects Abroad, they discovered Khemara, a Non-Government Organisation that works to improve the lives of women and children in Cambodia after decades of war– and discovered it offered an apartment that could accommodate them all.

Natalie said: “The more we thought about it, the more we wondered if we could do it with the kids. Cambodia is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, and the offer of an apartment is what really swung it.”

They raised money through sponsored walks and received donations of football strips from their children's schoolmates and, finally, secured a University of Sunderland DOSH award (Development Office Scholarship) to fund the trip.

Grace and her children Elliot, four, and Evie, seven, and Natalie and her son Finley, eight, set off for Koh Dach, also known as Silk Island, just a short ferry ride from the capital, Phnom Penh.

The two women taught three to six-year-olds and their children enjoyed helping. They also took 50 tooth brushes, as children in Cambodia have high sugar diets, and taught them life skills such as washing their hands before mealtimes.

Both found the experience positive for them and their families and Natalie's family is considering moving abroad when she graduates.

Natalie said: “We arrived as the wet season was ending and we discovered that the school was underneath someone’s house. The kitchen was two pits where they lit a fire and boiled pots, and there was a wooden platform where they would serve the food – usually with chickens jumping up on it.”

Grace added: “It was a very different world. The people who owned the house had a dog, and it would often wander in half way through a class.

“Every morning we got a ferry across to the island, and the word ‘ferry’ is a very loose term – we noticed on the first day that it was floating on empty gallon milk cartons. The first few times we just stood in the middle holding on to each other and we didn’t dare move.”

Grace said: “But our kids loved it. My son Elliot got really involved in school. We were teaching kids aged between three and six years, so they were all a similar age to Elliot. He was going around helping them with their numbers, and really got involved with the whole thing.”

Natalie agrees: “Our three children got really involved in teaching the school children about routine. A big part of what we had to do was hygiene, so my son Finley would show them how to wash their hands, Evie would stand with a towel and dry them off. Then Elliot would be helping set the tables out for lunch, and then bring around water for them while our older children would serve them their lunches.”

“Their parents also give them sweets to persuade them to go into kindergarten,” said Grace. “Some of the kids were walking around the class eating sticky buns that were bigger than them. We did a full lesson on teeth and hygiene and then gave them their tooth brushes.”

They soon discovered that the children’s grasp of English and numbers was very basic, and introduced some of the techniques they had learnt at the University of Sunderland, including using jigsaws, flash cards, books, and worksheets used by English primary schools.

“We brought some toys with us, and when they came in and saw them they were just overwhelmed,” says Grace. “They had never seen toys before.

“We just let them be kids for a little while. I don’t think they’d really had that before.

“A lot of the local volunteers who teach have literally just left school themselves, so we sat down with the local schools coordinator and explained about early years teaching. Two weeks isn’t really long enough to make a massive impact on the lives of the kids on Silk Island, but going forward I hope we taught them a lot of stuff about teaching in England that they could use and take forward in the future to kindergartens all around Phnom Penh.”

Both Grace and Natalie say their two weeks in Cambodia has had a huge impact on them and their families, and on Grace and Natalie’s future plans.

“I’m looking to teach abroad once I’m qualified,” says Natalie. “I’ve always loved seeing new cultures, and it was always in the back of my mind that I’d like to work in Asia as a teacher, but this has really cemented that ambition for me. My husband is a Newcastle lad through and through, so he took some persuading, but he’s come around and once I graduate we’re going to Singapore and then Hong Kong as potential places to live and work.”

Grace added: “Before we left we were standing in Central Station in Newcastle surrounded by kids and bags and looking at each other as if we’d gone mad. We really thought “What are we doing? Can we really do this?” I had so much stuff in my first aid kit I could have performed surgery.

“But the impact on our kids is what has meant the most to me. I want my children to grow up knowing that helping other people is the right thing to do, whether it’s in this country or abroad, and we all felt privileged to be involved in proving education for these children.”