HAVEN

Last night in Siem Reap, I ate at HAVEN, a restaurant with a month-long waiting list to get a table for dinner. But, the most expensive entree is just $8.00. Why then is this place so popular? Because the owners, a couple from Switzerland, were spending a few months volunteering in an orphanage in Siem Reap several years back and just happened to ask what happens to the kids when they grow too old to stay there, and everyone just shrugged their shoulders.

They saw an opportunity to open a restaurant using the children from the orphanage (some of whom were not orphans but kids not wanting to return home), as paid trainees. They raised money in Switzerland to fund the project, and in 2011, opened HAVEN.

Since that time, probably hundreds of kids who would not have had any skills whatsoever to survive in life, learned how to cook, how to wait tables, and how a restaurant works. In addition to weekly wages they get, all of the tips the trainees earn are pooled together and given to them upon completion of the year-long training. They can use the money as they wish - some save it and others use it for education.

It was really an amazing and emotional experience and I wish them continued success. To read more about HAVEN or to make a donation, click here.