ABCs and Rice Siem Reap: 1 Powerful NGO Changing 250 Kids’ Live

A Chance Meeting at Laundry Bar

I wasn’t looking for a story. I was looking for live music and a cold drink. One night at Laundry Bar in Siem Reap, I got introduced to a woman named Ins who worked with a local organization called ABCs and Rice. We got to talking, and when I mentioned I was a writer looking for interesting stories around the city, she didn’t hesitate — “You should come check us out.”

I took down the info and fully intended to follow up. Then life happened. Side projects piled up. The hustle of trying to earn a living as a digital nomad in Cambodia has a way of eating your days whole. Weeks slipped by. But Ins didn’t forget. She reached out and let me know ABCs and Rice was hosting a fundraising raffle, and would I want to come? Sometimes the universe has to tap you on the shoulder twice before you pay attention.

A Raffle, a Martial Arts Gym, and a Bottle of Wine

The fundraiser was being held at a place called Ground Zero Combat Sports — which, no lie, I’d already been eyeballing online as a potential spot to train martial arts or do some yoga while I’m here in Siem Reap. So the chance to check out the facility while supporting a good cause was a two-for-one deal I couldn’t pass up.

I’ll be honest — I was tired. It had been a long day, my energy was running on fumes, and the idea of staying in had some serious pull. But I laced up the old walking sandals (yes, the same ones that destroyed my heels at the puppet parade) and headed over anyway. Sometimes the best experiences come from the days you almost talked yourself out of going.

When I got there, Ins greeted me with the kind of enthusiasm that makes you glad you showed up. She walked me through the raffle setup, showed me the prizes on offer, and before I knew it I was sitting down with a stack of tickets, filling them out and dropping them into a bucket that already had what looked like a thousand entries in it. I met a few really cool people while I was there — community members who were actively involved in supporting ABCs and Rice and its work with local children.

I bought my tickets, made my contribution, and figured that was that. The fatigue was winning, so I said my goodbyes with vague plans to come back later for the music. That didn’t happen. I walked home, made a cup of coffee, dealt with a leaky pipe situation with my landlord — the glamorous side of expat life nobody tells you about — and crashed early.

Then the email came through. I’d won a prize. A bottle of wine and some Greek yogurt. You genuinely never know what’s going to happen when you drag yourself out the door on a tired Tuesday in Cambodia.

Visiting the ABCs and Rice Campus

A few days later, on Tuesday, I headed over to the ABCs and Rice campus on Psar Dam Krolanh Road to pick up my winnings and finally see the facility for myself. My tuk-tuk was running a bit late, but that turned out to be a happy accident — it gave me time to meet Raney at the front desk, who offered to take me on a tour of the grounds.

Walking through the ABCs and Rice campus, I started to understand why Ins had been so eager to get me out there. This wasn’t just a school. It was an entire ecosystem designed to support kids and their families from multiple angles — education, food, community care, and practical life support all working together under one roof.

The facility sits in the Poom Sala and Kroligne village area of Siem Reap, about 3 kilometers from the town center. It’s been operating since January 2010, when Canadian founder Tammy Pomroy built the first classroom — a bamboo hut on donated land — with less than $300 in her pocket. By the end of that first week, there were too many kids to fit inside. Sixteen years later, ABCs and Rice supports over 250 students and their families through a combination of free education, daily meals, and community programs.

The Model That Actually Works: Education Plus Rice

Here’s what makes ABCs and Rice different from a lot of NGO schools you’ll find across Southeast Asia. The model is built around a simple but powerful incentive — when kids attend school, their families receive monthly rice rations. It’s a direct, tangible benefit that addresses the root reason many Cambodian children don’t stay in school: their families need them at home to work or help out because putting food on the table takes priority over education.

By tying attendance to rice distribution, ABCs and Rice removes one of the biggest barriers to consistent education. The families get food support, and the kids get to be kids. It’s respectful, it’s practical, and it works. The name itself comes from this founding principle — it’s literally about giving children their ABCs (education) and Rice (food security) at the same time.

Students spend half their day at ABCs and Rice learning English across eight level-based classes, and the other half at their local Khmer government school. This dual approach means kids aren’t choosing between programs — they’re getting comprehensive education that covers both English literacy and their standard Cambodian curriculum. The English classes are taught by Khmer educators and supported by international volunteers who come from all over the world to work alongside the local teachers.

Raney showed me the classrooms, the student areas, and a music room where kids were playing ukulele — a scene that hit close to home for a guy who keeps one in his bag. The energy in the building was exactly what you’d want from a school: noisy, messy, and full of kids who were actually engaged in what they were doing.

More Than a School: Breakfast Club, Food Bank, and a New Daycare

The education piece is impressive on its own, but ABCs and Rice goes deeper. The Breakfast and Lunch Club — provided through a partnership with an organization called Pack the Essentials — makes sure every student has a hot meal during the school day. When you think about it, a hungry kid can’t focus in class. It’s that simple. Feed them, and suddenly they can learn. The program runs on a straightforward promise: not one belly goes empty.

Beyond the daily meals, there’s a weekly Food Bank where families from surrounding villages can come and pick up what they need — rice, eggs, vegetables, bread, cooking oils, hygiene products, and clothing. Local businesses in Siem Reap donate supplies each week, creating a community support network that extends well beyond the school walls.

One of the newest additions is a daycare facility they recently built on campus. This one struck me as particularly smart. Parents can drop their young children off while they go to work and earn money for the family. It solves a problem that plenty of families face — you can’t work a full day if there’s nobody to watch your youngest kids. By providing that childcare, ABCs and Rice frees up parents to earn a living while keeping children in a safe, supervised environment. It’s the kind of practical thinking that separates organizations that look good on paper from ones that actually move the needle.

What $590 Actually Buys in Cambodia

After the tour with Raney, I sat down with Ins over coffee and heard how the fundraiser had gone. The raffle raised $590 USD. My first thought was that it sounded modest. Then Ins broke down what that actually means in Cambodian terms: 19 weeks of fruit snacks for over 200 children. Let that sink in. Less than $600 feeds 200 kids healthy snacks for nearly five months.

That kind of math is what makes community work in Cambodia so impactful — and so accessible. Your dollar stretches further here than almost anywhere else on earth when it comes to direct impact on children’s lives. A pamphlet at ABCs and Rice laid out the numbers, and they’re worth sharing because they put things in perspective.

For $44 a month, you can fully sponsor one student’s education, nutrition, and medical support. That’s less than most people spend on streaming subscriptions. For $62, you can sponsor a university student. Ten dollars buys 100 notebooks. Eighty dollars a month keeps the fans running and the lights on across the campus. A teacher’s monthly salary is $220 — or the equivalent of 400 kilograms of rice. Twelve hundred dollars provides over 6,000 breakfasts or covers two months of rent. And $5,000 covers 60 students in government school for an entire year.

When you look at those numbers, the gap between what this organization needs and what it would take to fund it becomes surprisingly narrow. ABCs and Rice operates on community support — donations, volunteers, local business partnerships, and fundraising events like the raffle I stumbled into. Every dollar that comes in goes directly toward keeping 250 kids educated, fed, and supported.

From a Bamboo Hut to 3,000 Kids and Counting

The origin story of ABCs and Rice reads like one of those “it started on a whim” tales that actually turned into something real. Tammy Pomroy was a Canadian working in logistics who planned a vacation through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Cambodia, she was supposed to spend three days touring temples. Instead, she spent three days playing with village kids and couldn’t bring herself to get back on the tour bus.

She went home to Sudbury, Ontario, quit her job, raised money by standing in front of grocery stores showing people photos of the children she’d met, biked between towns collecting donations, and came back to Cambodia to do something about it. A local woman offered her land, Tammy built a bamboo hut with her remaining $300, and ABCs and Rice opened in January 2010. The hut filled up within a week.

Sixteen years later, over 3,000 children have come through the program, and more than 100 scholarship students have graduated and gone on to careers as chefs, hotel managers, and professionals. The bamboo hut has been replaced by a proper campus with multiple buildings, classrooms, a music room, a daycare, and kitchen facilities. What started as one woman’s refusal to get back on a tour bus has become one of Siem Reap’s most established community organizations.

That trajectory — from tourist to founder of a 16-year-old NGO — resonated with me. I came to Cambodia as a traveler too. And while I’m not building schools, I understand the pull this country has on people who show up expecting temples and leave changed by the people they meet along the way.

Why This Matters When You Travel

There’s a version of travel where you hit the highlights, take the photos, and move on. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s another version where you dig a little deeper and find out what’s actually happening in the communities you’re visiting. Organizations like ABCs and Rice exist in cities all over Southeast Asia, doing real work with real kids, and most tourists never even hear about them.

Part of the reason I started writing for The Roaming Sparrow was to shine a light on exactly these kinds of stories — the ones that don’t make the tourist brochures but tell you more about a place than any temple tour ever could. Siem Reap is more than Angkor Wat. It’s a city full of people building things, supporting each other, and finding creative ways to break the cycle of poverty one kid at a time.

If you’re in Siem Reap, ABCs and Rice welcomes visitors. You can arrange a tour through their website, see the campus, meet the students, and understand firsthand how education and food support come together in daily life here. If you can’t visit in person, even a small donation goes a remarkably long way. Just $20 provides food for one family for an entire month.

They accept donations from Canada, the US, Australia, Cambodia, and internationally through their donation page. If you’re a business in the Siem Reap area, their Food Bank is always looking for local partners to donate supplies.

A Bottle of Wine, Some Yogurt, and a Story Worth Telling

I went to a fundraiser because a woman I met at a bar told me to check it out. I bought some raffle tickets because it felt like the right thing to do. I won a bottle of wine and some Greek yogurt because apparently the universe rewards you for showing up on tired legs. And then I visited a school that’s been quietly changing lives in a Siem Reap village for 16 years.

That’s the thing about living here — and about travel in general. The best stories don’t come from the planned itineraries. They come from saying yes to the random invitation, dragging yourself out when you’d rather stay in, and being open to whatever shows up. A leaky pipe, a raffle ticket, a tour of a school, and a coffee with someone doing meaningful work. That’s a pretty solid Tuesday in Cambodia.

ABCs and Rice is proof that one person with $300 and a refusal to get back on a tour bus can build something that feeds and educates hundreds of kids for over a decade. If that doesn’t put your own “I can’t make a difference” excuses in check, I don’t know what will.

What community programs have you discovered while traveling? Have you ever stumbled into a local project that changed how you see a place? Drop a comment below — I’d love to hear about it.