Training for Isanborei guides

This week Khiri Reach organized a full day training for guides of the Isanborei Community Tourism Project. Mr. Sam Sopheap of Khiri Travel Cambodia and Ms. Linda Oum spend the night with 5 guides and lectured about various subjects.

Mr. Sam has been a freelance guide in Siem Reap for about 10 years before he joined Khiri Travel in 2000. He shared his experiences with the guides. "It was a great thing to do. I am really happy to be able to teach these young guides the ins and outs of guiding..", said Sam.

Linda did a one month course on sustainable tourism in Japan in February, organized by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), and she told about her experiences there. Linda focused especially on issues like health and safety and risk management.

Sambor Prei Kuk Community gets cooking lessons!

By Linda Oum

Phnom Penh Branch Manager - Khiri Cambodia

Members of the Sambor Prei Kuk community, part of the Isanborei Community Tourism project of Khiri Reach and German Development Agency GTZ, recently went to the Paul Dubrule restaurant school in Siem Reap to hone their cooking skills.

The school mission is to give young Cambodians training and to get the qualifications needed to excel in sustainable tourism in the country.

Chefs and staff adjusted the menu to the availability of ingredients in the community, and the training was a success.

The donation to the Luang Prabang Orphanage

By Marc Albert
Country Manager
Khiri Travel -- Laos


On the morning of 15 September 2009, Khiri Reach visited the Luang Prabang Orphanage, home to around 500 children in need, many of them orphans.

On behalf of Riksja Online we donated writing books, pens, pencils, soaps, washing powder, tooth brushes and tooth paste for each child in the orphanage.

We arranged for a carpenter plus some wood and other repair materials to fix broken doors and windows. It gets very cold up here in the winter. Nobody wants the children to be shivering in their wooden dormitory beds at night this winter.

Our little delegation bearing the donations was well received by the students and teachers. A small ceremony was held by the head of the orphanage to thank Riksja Online and Khiri Reach for the donation on behalf of the children.

Khiri Reach and Riksja Online support the Luang Prabang orphanage school on a regular basis. We usually supply learning materials and personal hygienic goods for the children.

A visit to the Child Care Centre in Mae Hong Son

By Frans Betgem

Co-founder, Khiri Travel

The predicament of refugees around Thailand’s border camps doesn’t make the newspapers like it used to do when much of Indochina was a battle zone driven by opposing ideologies. The camps are still there. Conditions are still very poor. It’s saddening to see young children not realise their full potential because they are stateless.

I was reminded of this when I visited the Child Care Centre in Mae Hong Son in September.

The centre is located in a Karenni refugee zone on the Thai side of the border with Burma. It is a much needed safe haven for Karenni orphans and disadvantaged kids. The centre was set up and is still been run by Meredith Nunu, one of the most giving and dedicated people you are ever likely to meet. In 1994 the SLORC killed her husband in a jungle raid in Karenni state. She has been living as a Karenni refuge in camps ever since. Despite her own sorrows, Meredith is completely dedicated to the dozens of disadvantaged children in the Child Care Centre.

Khiri Travel has been supporting the centre with financial donations since 2000. I hadn’t seen Meredith for years. She is still in good health and strong spirits despite her advancing age. She admitted she’d had health problems recently. But she made light of them and turned the conversation back to the children.

Meredith told me the situation at the camp was stable. Quite a few kids have found new homes in third countries such as Australia, Sweden, Norway, Finland and America. However, there were always new Karenni arrivals fleeing from across the border, she said.

I went with a couple of the hard working staff from the centre to the market in Mae Hong Son. We bought shirts, pants, sarongs, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and other necessities. We donated a guitar as well. Khiri Reach and Riksja Online also bought 68 warm jackets in Chiang Mai and sent them by minibus to the centre. In the winter it gets very cold in the nights up here.

Meredith thanked us profusely. I pledged Khiri Reach’s continued support for the centre and said farewell with a heavy heart.

As I travelled back to Chiang Mai I found myself hoping that there is a good guitar player in the camp. He or she must teach the children to sing with joy and hope. Always hope.

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Khiri Reach will keep you updated about Meredith and life at the Child Care Centre in Mae Hong Son.

To make a donation to the centre, please click here.