When Fiona and I decided to come to Cambodia we knew our business had to operate in a way that helped both Cambodia, and her people continue to develop, whilst retaining their unique cultural identity. In a country that has seen unbelievable horrors we feel privileged to be a small part of writing Cambodia’s new history.

We aim to operate all facets of our business in a responsible and ethical manner. Below are some of our ongoing initiatives to meet our commitment.

 Ibis Rice™

We are pleased to advise our guests that all rice used at Sojourn both for Restaurant Sojourn and for staff meals is purchased from Ibis Rice.

Ibis Rice™ comes from communities that protect and monitor the Giant Ibis and other species. Through improved farming practices and access to higher value markets, Ibis Rice farmers are able to conserve natural habitats and earn a better living.

  Staff

• We pride ourselves on being a fair pay equal opportunity employer
• We activley recruit staff from our surrounding village
• We provide free English lessons to staff to help their personal development
• We are committed to staff development & develop & recruit from within
• We encourage all staff to continue their schooling and education. We do everything we can to ensure staff attend school, have study time if required for exams and seek ongoing educational opportunities.
• We provide paid maternity leave and have a successful back to work program for our staff who are new mothers
• We reward staff loyalty with a yearly bonus program

Enrichment

• We have developed the Treak Village Enrichment Program in conjuction with the Treak Village Chief.  This program specifically helps to improve the lives of the people living around Sojourn.  This program will work on four key areas in 2009;
  • Provision of water filters
  • Provision of repair of water wells
  • Rubbish collection
  • Tree Grants
• 7% of Sojourns annual profits will be donated to our Enrichment Program
• Our Treak Village walk and talk tour aims to directly help the village and 50% of the tour fee is donated to the Enrichment Program.

Tours

• Our tours all use local guides and avoid local corruption schemes as much
  as possible
• Our tours that operate in local villages provide a percentage of the tour fee back to the village and make a direct payment to participating families
• We cap our tours at a maximum of 8 participants to reduce our environmental impact
• We operate in villages where we can highlight local culture and enable villagers to go about their daily lives. Our goal is to highlight local culture and develop sustainable tourism practices. We do not change local villages to suit our tours.

Environment

• We compost all possible fruit and vegetable scraps and have a recyclying program for cardboard, bottles and cans.
• We use low energy lighting options where available
• Our team limits the use of paper, reducing printing where possible and re using printed paper as scrap.

Being a responsible visitor

We strongly believe that every visitor makes an impact and you have the ability to make yours a positive one.

Employment in the tourism sector is a fundamental part of families income and so just by visiting you are already helping. Here are a few more tips you can follow in being a responsible visitor.

Be aware of prices that are extremely cheap - some may offer a good deal to visitors but local staff's salaries or conditions may not be a good deal!

• Do not give money to beggars or street children.  If you would like to help find an organisation that supports these people and helps them to break the begging cycle.
• Be aware that cultural differences do exist and some behaviours which are normal at home and not appropriate in Cambodia. 
• Do not try to touch monks
• Remember that you are a visitor and when in villages or walking around in town be sensitive to peoples lives and privacy and think before just taking pictures or walking into someone's house or land.
• Try to visit well run organisations that support local people, promote Khmer culture and invest in the local community
• Be aware your behaviour influences local people.
• Please don't litter

We proudly support ConCert and encourage you to visit the ConCert office to learn more about the NGO's working to make Cambodia a better place.  ConCert is working with 20 organisations who all have met strict criteria to become members. This provides you with the ideal place to start researching how you can offer further assistance should you choose to do so.