The Shinta Mani Foundation
The Shinta Mani Foundation – The charity you should know about
Where? The Shinta Mani Foundation, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Exactly? I was very lucky to be invited to stay at the Shinta Mani Hotel in Siem Reap, over Christmas and during my stay they invited me to visit the Shinta Mani Foundation for the morning.
The Foundation? A Cambodian NGO, the Shinta Mani Foundation is dedicated to supporting local communities by providing vital services, developing schemes to increase human capital, and equipping them with the tools to overcome the constraints of poverty.
The Shinta Mani Foundation Charity
The charities main purpose is to ‘Improve the lives of Cambodians by providing opportunities to overcome poverty.’ They have provided the local villagers with jobs in the hotel, from front house to culinary, giving them the opportunity to bring home a salary to support their families. The Shinta Mani Foundation also provides transport for the locals, such as bicycles so that the children can get to school to be educated.
Most recently the Foundation – funded in part by revenue from Shinta Mani hotels together with donations – partnered with Global Dental Relief to bring a group of 16 dentists and volunteers to Shinta Mani Shack, in order to conduct free dental check-ups at local schools for underprivileged students.
It was a very interesting, emotional and enlightening experience for me. The charity works with a lot of the local villages and I had the chance to go to one of them and be part of a day there. I met lots of the women, men and children living in poverty, that the foundation helps and I also helped out with some of their daily activities. Well sort of. Photo above is of one of the much need drinking water wells new to the village.
It was amazing to be able to see first hand, exactly what the charity has achieved since it opened its doors in 2004, and how many lives they have changed.
On top of this the foundation has built new wells and taught the villagers how to do so themselves, in order for hundreds of families to be able to drink clean water. Building a well provides for one village, but teaching the individual how to build the well themselves and providing them with the materials, means that they can use this new skill to create a sustainable job for themselves, as well as building new wells for nearby and surrounding villages.
They have also taught the older generation women how to make useful home items such as rattan matts so that they can go on to sell them as another form of income.
I also learnt the charity supplies free health care and education, funded by the generous donations through the hotel and 100% of these proceeds go directly to the charity too!
The image below shows one of the new brick homes they have built in the village.
Projects such as this are carried out alongside the Shinta Mani Foundation’s ongoing, fundamental work, which centres around the Shinta Mani School of Hospitality. The Hospitality school takes in a carefully chosen group of underprivileged locals yearly and provides them with the knowledge, skills and ‘on the job’ experience, enabling them to gain a job in Siem Reap’s booming hospitality sector. These are opportunities which would have never been available to the individuals if it weren’t for the Foundation.
As things stand the Shinta Mani Foundation success shows 1,400 water wells built, 99 homes constructed, 229 graduates from the school of hospitality who are now employed in the local tourism industry, 641 bicycles donated, 8123 health checkups and 59 micro business loans, as provided to Channary pictured below who set up her first small local shop.
If you would like to find out more about the foundation please click here!
Good bye from Cambodia, next stop Vietnam.
Bon Voyage xx
Having worked with child protection professionals for many years, I have so much respect for the work of the NGOs in South East Asia. It’s so difficult but they keep on persevering.
I totally agree, it’s such good cause
I’ve got so much respect for people who help in these situations. How nice that the lady got to open her own shop. Such a touching post that puts everything into perspective
I wish there were more people striving to help kids that need care and support. Thank you for sharing this story.
Thanks for your comment
Wow, this was eye opening. You are such an inspiring person, the world needs more people like you! Thanks for sharing, your photos are a really strong touch.
how lovely thank you
I love that the foundation chooses a group of underpriveledged locals each year and aims to help them more skills, more work and above all be part of a fantastic community! I would be very proud to support a foundation like shinta mani, so it is wonderful that you are raising awareness of all the amazing things that they do!
What a beautiful experience and opportunity for you to see first-hand! The Shinta Mani Foundation’s work sounds like it’s really making a difference. Amazing.
This sounds like a great experience!
i was wonderful
Quite of an experience! I have done it a couple of times and it really changes your perspective. Well done!
I agree it really does
I love the work that this foundation is doing in the community. Aside from just giving, they are provided the people with sustainable skills. Your point about teaching them to build a well being a prime example. I’ll definitely look them up when I visit Cambodia!
This is really amazing! I visited Cambodia before and I loved it, but I know how big their poverty level is there, I would love to visit this charity, and help out there. Next time I’m there I’ll have to visit.
Wow, this is great. A foundation helping to improve the lives of others. And it’s good that they taught them to weave or to make rattan mats, as a means of income.
Wow! I’ve never heard of an NGO creating a hotel to employ people before. Sounds like a very smart strategy. Instead of just giving them money, they’re providing employment for those who need it most and empowering them as a result. Thank you for telling the world about this NGO, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them from now on!
This sounds like an incredible foundation, something I would definitely love to work with in the future. Sounds like an incredible experience.
Thank you xx
It leaves a good feeling whenever you extend your hand to other people especially those in needs. The children suffer more when it comes to poverty. I hope that more and more people can lend hand to one another. I salute the Shinta Mani Foundation and all the volunteers. God Bless them all
What an amazing opportunity to see what they do first hand. I believe there is so much benefit teaching them how to make things to sell because it means they can continue to provide for their community.
Great initiative… very inspiring.
I really hope that you can keep it up the excellent work.
I hope so too x
Wonderful initiation indeed. Wish you all good luck to get more such opportunities wherein you get the first hand experiences with the locals.