Free · Certificate included

Preparing for a Mission Trip to Cambodia

Settle the orphanage question before you book — then learn the language, the history and the ground you are walking on.

Reviewed monthly · last reviewed October 2026

50 min Beginner 7 modules Pass 80%

EspañolFor: Short-term mission team members, youth group leaders, trip coordinators and first-time travelers to Southeast Asia

What you’ll learn

Explain why Cambodia’s orphanages multiplied as foreign visitors arrived, and why most children in them have a living parent
Decline an orphanage visit — including one your own trip leader has already booked — and propose something better
Greet, thank and apologise in Khmer, a language with no tones, and give a sampeah correctly
Behave well at a pagoda and around monks, in a Buddhism rebuilt from almost nothing after 1979
Handle the Khmer Rouge, Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek with the seriousness they require
Prepare for heat, water, dengue, roads — and the land mines still in the ground

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Course outline

1
The visit you have to say no to
Why Cambodia has more orphanages than orphans, and why that is the first thing a team here has to understand.
8 min Quiz
2
Saying no — including to your own trip leader
The exact words for declining an orphanage visit that is already booked, the objections you will hear, and what to propose instead.
8 min Quiz Written + interactive
3
What the people in the room lived through
The Khmer Rouge within living memory, the two sites teams visit, and the questions you do not ask.
7 min Quiz
4
Khmer: the language without tones
Why Khmer is easier to attempt than its neighbours, the gendered yes, and the twenty-odd phrases worth carrying.
8 min Quiz Written + interactive
5
The sampeah, the pagoda and the monks
How the sampeah differs from the Thai wai, and a Buddhism that was rebuilt from almost nothing after 1979.
7 min Quiz Interactive
6
Heat, water, dengue, roads — and the ground itself
The practical things that end Cambodia trips early, including the one hazard that is literally underfoot.
7 min Quiz
7
Angkor, honesty and the pre-flight checklist
How to be straight with your supporters about the Siem Reap add-on, and the team checklist including the step most groups skip.
5 min Quiz Written + interactive

Sources & further reading

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