Warm greetings from Phnom Penh!

Due to the fact that we handle many teams a year, we have found it easier to put together an Info Pack with some basic general information about doing an outreach in Cambodia. This will most likely answer a lot of your questions. Please read through the following information. If you still have any other specific questions, please don't hesitate to ask. We are here to serve and bless you and consider it an honor to do so!

Please make sure that you carefully go over the info on "clothing - what to bring, what to wear" with your team, as we are having a few problems lately with teams coming with inappropriate clothing for ministry here in Cambodia.

Our Teams Department Win, Chris, Ariana, Sokly, & Bethany (left to right)

If you have any further questions please feel free to let us know. We are here to serve and bless you and consider it an honor to do so!

To request an application form via e-mail write to us at: uofn.teams@gmail.com

Be blessed and have a great day!
Outreach Teams Department

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Please thoroughly review all the information listed in the NEW! Info Pack. We update financial costs, visa information, transportation options etc...on a periodic basis - last updated on December 4, 2006.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Visas and Invitation Letters
2. Air and Land Pickup
3. General Outreach Costs
4. Housing Options
5. Translators
6. Additional Costs
7. Money Exchange
8. Mobile Phones
9. Orientation
10. Transportation
11. Immunizations
12. Contact Information

*** Please keep the NEW! Info Pack for future reference as many teams end up asking many of the same questions later on that are already listed here.

REMEMBER – All prices listed below are in $US...

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1. Visas and Invitation Letters

Teams coming to Cambodia are required to apply for a tourist visa. You can apply for a tourist visa at the Thai border if you come in by land, or at the airport if you come in by plane. If you are coming in by land from Vietnam, you will have to apply for your visa at the Cambodian embassy in Vietnam. The tourist visa costs $20 and lasts for 30 days. It can be renewed once for another 30 days for $45. (If you need to renew your visa, please tell us and we will do the renewal process for you). Sometimes, the officials at the Thai border will try to charge you more money for your visa. Please bring two passport-sized photos for your visa.

NOTE: If your passport expires less than six months before your arrival in Cambodia, you will have to renew your passport before coming.

We would also ask that you use caution in telling embassies what it is that you are doing in the country. Please DO NOT mention anything about religion work or evangelism or doing missionary work. (especially the word - "work") For their purposes, you are coming in as tourists. As well in most cases you will not need any letter of any kind from UofN Cambodia. If you do need some kind of invitation letter, we can supply that as well.

2. Air and Land Pickup

If you are coming to Cambodia by plane, we will arrange a van to come pick you up from the airport. Generally, this will cost $15. From there, we will take you to where you are staying. If you are a large team, we can arrange a second van or a truck to transport your team or luggage. If you are a team of 5 or less, you can take a taxi for $7.

If you are coming to Cambodia by land, there are two (2) options...

Option 1:
If you are taking a bus, you can tell us what bus line you are taking and what time you expect to be arriving in Phnom Penh and we will meet you at the bus station and take you to the place you are staying. (Generally, teams like to use Capitol Tours bus line but all the companies have similar prices and comfort). Normally, you won’t know this information until you are at the border. When you have this information, you can call Chris at 855-12-965-035 and tell him this information and he will make all the arrangements for your pick up.

Option 2:
If you rent a taxi or van, you can call Chris at 855-12-965-035 and let him talk to your driver. (You should be able to use the driver’s phone). We can tell your driver how to get to the place you will be staying. We can meet you at the place you will be staying. If you have trouble finding the place or will take longer than you thought, you can call again and talk to one of our UofN Cambodia Outreach Teams Department staff.

3. General Outreach Costs

The cost of your outreach will vary depending on what you eat, where you stay, and what you do. Normally, it costs roughly $12-14 per day per person. It costs about $5 for housing, $3 for food, and about $4-6 for transport and translator. Staying in the province can be cheaper than staying in Phnom Penh.


Bottom line - Don't let the prices scare you off, if you feel that the Lord is calling you to come to Cambodia, we want to make it happen for you. We are willing to discuss a budget for teams that are tight on finances!

4. Housing Options

There are three different housing options for your team while you are here on outreach in Cambodia.

Option 1:
University of the Nations, Cambodia has two team houses that we have for teams to stay in while they do ministry in Phnom Penh. These houses have several rooms, a kitchen, a washing machine, and a lounge that can be used for team meetings etc. Each house provides support for two Cambodian staff that clean the public areas and cook meals for the team. They can cook lunch and dinner for the team from Monday through Saturday. Teams have to buy and cook their own meals for breakfast and on Sundays. It costs $5 per person per night to stay at a team house and $1 per meal per person. Prices vary slightly for teams with children. If your team has children, we will send you the family pricing in a separate email.

Option 2:
Several ministries in Phnom Penh and all the ministries in the provinces have housing available for teams to use. The style of this housing can vary from mats on a floor in a church to a house with beds. Some ministries are able to cook for the teams when they are staying there and others require the teams to cook for themselves. Prices for ministry housing vary depending upon location. As we organize your ministry locations, we can tell you if your ministry location choices offer housing, conditions and cost.

Option 3:
Teams can also stay in a guesthouse or hotel during their stay in Cambodia. Rooms generally have beds for 2-4 people. Some rooms have fans, others have air-conditioning (A/C). Rooms can vary between $5-8 for two people, depending on if the room has a fan, A/C, or cable TV. If you get a room for 3-4 people, the price can vary between $9-12. Hotels are more expensive than guesthouses. Housing can sometimes be cheaper when you stay at a guesthouse but since you have to eat out for every meal, food will tend to cost more.

5. Translators

Though English is the most common foreign language in Cambodia, it is not spoken by most Cambodians, especially in the villages. Therefore you will need to have a translator for most of your ministry. Some ministry locations provide translators, but many do not. For those locations, we will provide a translator for you. The translator will stay with you the entire time and their job is not only to translate for you, but to serve your team as well. Based on rough equivalents of what a Cambodian young person would make at any other job, we ask teams to note that we also factor into their budget $5 per day for each translator that they use. The average team size is 10 people so this works out to be roughly .50 cents per person per day. In reality, most teams never really "feel" the translator expenses unless they are a smaller team. For teams that are 10-15, the amount ends up being absorbed by the overall daily budget. Most teams under 20 need only one translator but more can be arranged if necessary. However, if your team is coming at a busy time, we may not be able to provide more than one translator per team.

We also ask teams to take care of food, transportation and housing expenses for their translators as well. (in other words they become another team member!) Unless your team is staying at a guest house or hotel, our translators usually don't have to pay for their housing costs as we have an arrangement with many of our local contacts that they can stay for free. As well, with regards to transportation costs, once at your location, usually teams end up paying for "bulk" transportation costs that are not based on "per person" costs but rather, per trip so their "cost" gets absorbed by the team. In the end, most teams really end up paying for meals and any "long haul" trips to and from a location. If you would like to bless your translator at the end of your time, you are more than willing to do so. Please keep in mind that many of our translators are young Cambodian Christians who are also trying to earn their keep and raise support to be in the ministry. This is very difficult for our Cambodian staff because they do not have the same kind of resources as many in the West.

6. Other Costs

- We ask that teams staying in Cambodia for more than three weeks to pay an administration fee of $15 per person which can be taken care of during the leaders meeting following your teams orientation.

- If you leave Cambodia by plane, you will have to pay a departure tax of $25 per person at the airport.

- Do not forget to budget some money for your days-off or other special activities you may want to do in your free time.

NOTE: You do not usually tip at restaurants in Cambodia.

7. Money Exchange

The money in Cambodia is called RIEL. There are no coins for Cambodian money, and RIEL come in 100, 500, 1000, 5000, and 10,000 note bills. The exchange rate varies very little and is usually 4100 RIEL to US$1. You can exchange dollars to RIEL at many shops on the street and in the markets or at a bank.

American dollars are used as much as RIEL in Cambodia, but American coins are not used. Therefore, if you bought something that cost US$2.50, you could give the seller $3 and then the seller would give you 2000 RIEL in change. Or you could give the seller 10,200 RIEL. Because of this, it is not necessary to exchange large amounts of money to RIEL when you come to Cambodia. Also, it is easier to use $20 bills or lower. If you have $50 or $100 bills, you can use these at exchange places but not at most shops. (NOTE: Cambodians WILL NOT accept American currency if it is damaged, torn, stained, dirty, etc. This is not always true for $1 bills though).

There are some international ATMs at the ANZ Royal Banks in Phnom Penh. You can also withdraw money from your credit card at many banks in Phnom Penh and some banks in a few of the other cities. Traveler’s checks can be used in only a few locations within Cambodia.

8. Team Phones

The cell phone network in Cambodia is very good and you can get reception at most locations in the country, including the countryside. Therefore, many teams like to have cell phones to use for their communication while in Cambodia. Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain a SIM card to use with the cell phone networks in Cambodia. Foreigners need a letter from the government or NGO confirming that you work and live here in order to buy a SIM card. Because they are difficult to obtain, we provide SIM cards for teams to use while they are in Cambodia. If you would like to use one of our SIM cards, we ask that you pay a $15 deposit. When you return the SIM card, we will return your $15 deposit. If you borrow one of our phones we may ask you to pay an additional deposit.

9. Orientation

We will be happy to give your team an orientation to Cambodia and the Khmer culture. In fact, we insist upon it! Most people who have not been to an Asian culture before comment on how radically different it is to the West. Because we want teams to be able to have the most impact for the cause of Christ, we need to be able to share how the Khmer person thinks from his Buddhist mindset. Often times, we can offend the Khmer by something we are doing, but all the while thinking we are loving them in the name of the Lord. Because we all live and work here, we feel a sense of obligation and responsibility to help you understand the Khmer people and their culture so that you can minister most effectively to them. It is also UofN Cambodian policy that all incoming YWAM teams go through our cultural orientation prior to doing their outreach here in Cambodia.


We provide a cultural and historical orientation of Cambodia to every team that we host. This orientation provides teams with a detailed history of Cambodia, insight into Cambodians’ religious and spiritual views, description of important points of their culture, a description of how the Cambodian culture affects evangelism and discipleship, and things teams should and should not do while here on outreach. We can also provide an introduction to the Cambodian language and an orientation of the major sights in Phnom Penh.

This city orientation can be done in two ways. Teams can go to major locations with a team coordinator or translator who will describe the locations that the team is visiting, or teams can choose to see the city by doing a scavenger hunt for part of the city orientation. For the scavenger hunt, team members will be given a list of tasks to do throughout the city and they will have to find those locations on their own and then do that task at that location. For both types of city orientation, we usually have teams visit a temple to see what the major religion (Buddhism) looks like in Cambodia, Tuol Sleng S-21 (a torture prison that was used by the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s), the killing fields where the Khmer Rouge took their victims to die, and a traditional Cambodian market to show some typical Cambodian life.

10. Transportation

There are many ways to get around once you are in Cambodia. When traveling around inside the city, the most common method of travel is a moto-taxi (motodop in Khmer). This is a small motorcycle that can take up to two passengers. You tell the motodop driver the area you want to go and as he gets close to the location, you give him exact directions to where your final destination is. We will teach you how to do this during the orientation. Another common method of travel is the tuk-tuk. Tuk-tuks look like a motorcycle on the front half of the vehicle and a small truck bed with a cover and seats on the back half. Depending on the size of the tuk-tuk, they can carry between 4 and 8 passengers. They are slower than motodops but can be cheaper for large groups. If your team is traveling longer distances or going to a province, you can ride a taxi car, van, or bus. If your team needs any of these modes of transport, we would be more than happy to arrange them for you. Taking a bus can be the cheapest method for a team if you are going to a major location. If you are going to a small village, you will have to rent a car or van. (When you rent a car or van a Cambodian driver will be included).

11. Immunizations

Please note that we are not able to give specific information to teams/individuals about which shots to get before coming to Cambodia. We recommend that each team contact their local travel clinic to receive proper thorough medical advice by people that know what shots and pills your team will need for your situation. We receive so many teams each year that come from various locations around the world, that it is impossible for us to know each team member’s background and what shots they may or may not have had. As well, every team goes to different locations throughout the country. So a team that stays for 2 months in Phnom Penh may not need some shots, while a team that is in Battambang may need entirely different shots. Furthermore, we are not medical people and don't want to be held responsible for any illnesses you may get while in Cambodia.

If you are looking for good short term/group medical insurance we recommend "Insurance Services of America" - Please check out their website at: http://www.missionaryhealth.net

Some immunizations that we would recommend you checking on are Typhoid, Hepatitis A/B, and Tuberculosis.

12. Contact Info

If you need to contact the team coordinators at the University of the Nations, Cambodia, you can email us at uofn.teams@gmail.com. You can call any of these numbers if you have any problems and you can also give this contact information to your base, family, friends or relatives as an emergency contact for your team:

Chris Newman: 855-12-965-035

UofN Office: 855-23-882-680

UofN Cambodia Office Address:
#4A, St. 608
Tuol Kok
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

To request an application form via e-mail write to us at: uofn.teams@gmail.com