Over the summer break, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, a group of St Paul’s students and an alumnus partnered with RAW Impact to help build bamboo houses for families living in poverty.
Across 10 days, College Chaplain Antony Weiss, along with five current students (Auryn Griffiths, Hector Richards, James Ford, Lachlan Larsson and Stirling van As) and one recent alumnus, Mitch Arcus, joined 60 young Australians aged 18 to 30 on RAW Impact’s Converge Cambodia Program, a hands-on humanitarian initiative that exists to help families move out of the slums and into safe, permanent housing.
Every Piece Matters (EPM) Village, Cambodia.
Every Piece Matters (EPM) Village
RAW Impact is a grassroots not-for-profit organisation that has been running these immersive volunteer experiences in Cambodia for over a decade. The Every Piece Matters (EPM) Village, where our Paulines were based, is one of RAW’s most ambitious projects yet: an entirely new village that is being built from the ground up by volunteers. The initiative provides vulnerable families with their own home – often for the first time – along with access to clean water, community and conditions that make stability and a future possible. Throughout the year, different volunteer teams arrive to pick up where they last left off.
Arriving in January, the group was tasked with building four bamboo houses. The impact of building these homes was amplified as they met and spent time with the families that would be moving into them when the work was complete.
Chaplain Antony Weiss, who accompanied the group of students, reflected on the experience: “The houses matter for obvious reasons. They are part of a bigger effort to help young families move out of the slums and into safe, stable environments – shelter, clean water, and the foundations for education. It’s particularly significant in contexts where women and children are vulnerable.”
Second year student Hector Richards was initially sceptical about whether the group’s efforts would make a lasting difference in the village. However, this scepticism was quickly dispelled upon arrival: “Walking through the village and seeing houses still standing from previous RAW trips, with families living inside of them, reassured me that this work was genuine and lasting.”
Alongside the building work, the program also offered participants the opportunity to teach English at the local school – one that a previous RAW Impact cohort, including Paulines, helped build – as well as dedicated time for cultural orientation and immersion.
Team effort: Construction of the bamboo houses in full swing.
Transformative encounters
For many in the group, one of the most unexpected parts of the trip was not the activity, or even Cambodia itself, but the other members of the group who had joined the program from Australia. The group of 60 young Australians brought together a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, many of whom had experienced deep hardship and a lack of opportunity themselves. Second year Stirling van As shared his reflections: “One of the greatest realisations I had on the trip was the difficult circumstances the other volunteers found themselves facing back in Australia, and despite this, their devotion to helping others. Many people on this trip came from disrupted households, had rough upbringings, had less access to the education that we receive as Paulines, and had truly heartbreaking stories. These were the people that were giving back.”
Antony Weiss also reflected on the unique and moving sense of partnership: “It became one of the most moving and genuinely transformative experiences I’ve had in years. People didn’t just ‘get along’, we actually became close. There was something quietly important about doing the work alongside Cambodian locals – it felt like a genuine partnership: showing up, listening, learning, and contributing what we could, while being received with enormous warmth.”
Hector Richards (left) hard at work securing the bamboo structure.
Full character formation
St Paul’s aims to cultivate not only academic excellence in its students, but also full character formation – seeing each student leave the College as a better version of themselves than when they arrived. Outreach opportunities like this play an important role in seeing this aim come to fruition. Second year Lachlan Larsson shared his reflections: “The trip has really changed the way I view other people and the world I live in. We directly helped these families escape the desperate slums they lived in and built them real, tangible and productive homes. The trip was a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively.”
For second year James Ford, the experience was equally as powerful: “Building houses made me appreciate all I take for granted. It was an unforgettable experience that changed the way I see the world.”
Warden Ed Loane welcomed the trip, describing it as an example of the kind of outward-looking community St Paul’s College aims to be, and the values it aims to nurture in its students: “We want to be a community that is defined by the way we love and serve those around us, in word and deed. The character formed on a building site in Cambodia, alongside 60 strangers who become friends, is not so different from what we hope to build at St Paul’s College every year. I’m very proud of those who participated, and I would warmly encourage any Pauline who feels the pull of this kind of experience to talk to Antony and take the leap.”
From left to right: Hector Richards
Looking ahead
RAW Impact’s next Cambodia trip runs from 20–29 June 2026, and the next Converge experience to Laos is planned for January 2027. Both opportunities are open to current students, recent graduates, and members of the wider St Paul’s College community.
For those curious to learn more, Antony Weiss would love to hear from you via email: chaplain@stpauls.edu.au. As he shares: “I’d be super encouraged to see more Paulines consider going and will be doing my best to facilitate that.”
For more information about RAW Impact, head to: https://rawimpact.org/
From left to right: James Ford, Lachlan Larsson, Mitch Arcus, Hector Richards and Antony Weiss visiting the Bayon Temple in Cambodia.
Image credit: RAW Impact.