When Nick Griffin moved to Cambodia, following many years in social work, housing management and community work in the UK, he had an over riding desire to introduce travelers to a better understanding of the sufferings and courage of people from poor and disadvantaged communities. Initially Nick helped several Khmer run orphanages and schools before founding The Cambodia Orphan Fund (COF) in 2007.

Nick identified that whilst there were a lot of local projects many of them lacked the skills needed to be efficient and provide satisfactory care to the children. Financial management and accountability were also lacking and visitors wanting to help were concerned that their donations were not being put to the best use. So COF decided to set up and run its own projects that would redress these issues.

Our main objective is to break the poverty cycle by:

Fundraising / Raising Awareness..
..both locally from tourism and internationally through a network of friends and supporters. Arranging for tour groups and individuals to visit projects and giving them a detailed explanation of the day to day successes and challenges faced by the projects so we can raise awareness and create donations. We also carry out presentations at hotels and guest houses.

Management Mentoring & Training
Many Cambodians have not completed their education and have not had either professional training or the opportunities that people from other countries have had to experience the world.  Often they know what they want to achieve but they do not know how.  So our volunteers spending time with the Khmer staff can be as valuable as the time spent with the children.

Child Sponsorship
There are many children who come from the poorest of backgrounds who with the help of sponsorship can be given a life changing opportunity.  Some of these children will be in existing projects while others may become known to us through our work with street children.  A link with a foreign person is also a great lift to the spirits of these children who receive little or no support from anyone.

Volunteer Programme
This is the main vehicle through which we carry out most of our work. We welcome both short term and long term volunteers, some people are with us for months and others may only do one day.  The core of our volunteer work is teaching English language and play development.

In November 2008 we started a new project called Osborne House which is an orphanage and children’s centre, situated in Siem Reap.  English language classes and activities are provided to about 100 children each day from Monday to Friday.  These children come from poor families in the area surrounding Osborne House.  As soon as facilities are finished there will be about 35 orphaned and poor children living at the house.