A Day in the Life of a Holt Cambodia Social Worker

Holt’s sponsorship content and operations manager, Aanya Bricker, shares her experiences traveling and visiting families in Holt’s Cambodia programs alongside our in-country staff through a preview of a day in the life of a Holt Cambodia social worker.

On a hot day in July, myself and four social workers ventured out to a remote outskirt of Phnom Penh to meet with a young boy enrolled in sponsorship and have him draw a piece of artwork for his sponsor. When we got out of the van we began walking through a long corridor where many, many families lived in very close quarters. 

We saw women working in the home, children running around everywhere, waving at us, riding bikes and following us out of curiosity. They were definitely not shy of my camera! I just couldn’t get enough of those smiles.

We finally arrived at the child’s home and the social worker gave him the paper to draw on. A crowd of children circled him to watch him draw.

While we were waiting, the afternoon monsoon rains started and began to flood the corridor. The younger children took full opportunity to play in the rain!

When the boy was done with his drawing, he was so proud to show it to us and his sponsor. All of the children wanted to pose with him in the photo and were excited to receive a gift bag from Holt.

After taking photos, about 15 of us total were huddled under the tin roof of the home we were in while we waited for the rains to let up. But that didn’t happen.

After about 20 minutes we decided to wade through about 2 inches of water all the way back to the van. We were completely soaked through our clothes with muddy sandals but we got that piece of artwork we needed!

I could really tell how much the Holt Cambodia social workers care about the children and care about their work in the field. It’s truly impressive and heartwarming to see their dedication to Holt. 

Aanya Bricker | Holt Sponsorship Content and Operations Manager