About Us

Sara & Paul Wallimann

We are from the beautiful city Zurich in Switzerland, where we both used to work in marketing. Paul, the strategian, was Head of Marketing at a marketing school and also taught there. Sara, the organiser, worked for companies for which she realised events, handled sponsoring activities and was responsible for PR.

Even though our home, friends and our work meant a lot to us, we felt restless and wanted to discover the world. In April 2008 we started our world trip with open end – and are still on the move. But we don’t want to just travel the world, we also want to make a contribution and help where help is needed.

Last year in October 2008 we arrived in Siem Reap, visited the Chres Village School and Orphanage and immediately fell in love with the children and the family who takes care of them all. We knew we had found a good place that really needs help and where we wanted and could help. The next day we started our 2 months’ volunteer commitment as English teachers.

With marketing as our core competence we also started a very successful fundraising campaign in Switzerland – and were overwhelmed by all the generous donations made (you can read more about it in our Volunteer Story). It was great to see how much could be achieved with the donations.

What impresses us most about the Chres Village School and Orphanage is the family Sena, who lives with the children under one roof. It’s the lovingly way they take care of the children, their way they put themselves out to get the orphans and the children from the poor families from the surrounding villages an education and with how much responsibility they make sure the donations and the help they get go to the orphans and the orphanage.

After we left the orphanage last year in December 2008, we travelled during 7 months through Southeast Asia. But we ached for Cambodia and the children. So in July 2009 we returned and have committed ourselves for another 4 months at the Chres Village School and Orphanage – again as teachers and as fundraisers but more importantly as their friends.

Love, Sara & Paul
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www.thinking-about-dragonflies.ch