Cambodia 2006.
So 9 random volunteers gathered for our first ever project. They were old friends or people I briefly met whilst travelling who were excited about the idea of Orphfund. We raised the entire school cost between us, gave up jobs for a while, and all paid our own way to experience building a school in a sleepy Cambodian village named Sophy. 5-6 weeks passed, we submerged ourselves into building, mingling with locals, learning how to cook local food, we joined rice farmers to help plant rice, learnt Khmer, watched storms pass by, played endlessly with the kids and made great friends.
By the end a beautiful school had emerged, and Orphfund had made its first big change in the world.
To those first volunteers, for jumping into the unknown, you cannot be thanked enough. It was the start of something very special and has gone on to change thousands of lives.