Maddy Tuchin was part of a life-changing team building toilet blocks in Cambodia. Photo: Supplied.
A plumber has taken the skills she perfected in the Illawarra and used them to change lives in Cambodia, having embarked on a ”life-changing” trip to build toilet blocks in the Third World country.
Maddy Tuchin never expected her trade to have such an impact.
The 24-year-old put her name down for a volunteer opportunity with the Reece Foundation after stumbling upon the organisation during a visit to the plumbing supplies business.
“Pretty much I walked into Reece one day and I randomly saw that they had some hoodies that had ‘Reece Foundation’ on them,” Maddy said.
“I didn’t know it could take me overseas, I just thought it was just an Australian volunteer program.
“Then maybe six months later I got a phone call and they were like, ‘Do you want to go to Cambodia and build some toilet blocks?’”
Alongside eight other plumbers and two team leaders, Maddy spent weeks working in rural communities to bring them the vital pieces of infrastructure.
“It’s hard work and it’s hot and you’re under a time crunch, but then seeing the faces of everyone that’s going to be able to use the toilet block, be able to wash themselves in private, not in the backyard, have access to a toilet, I honestly still get emotional thinking about it.”
Professionally, it was a unique experience for the TAFE Wollongong graduate, who didn’t frequently work with many other plumbers when she plied her trade back home.
And the collaborative approach exposed her to different ways to do tasks, with her fellow volunteers bringing their own expertise to the mission.
“Even the fact that we dug everything: we did the foundations, the brickwork, the framing, the cladding ourselves,” she said. “It was pretty much from start to finish, which you don’t normally get.”
But the experience also had a deep personal impact on Maddy.
“I’ve seen a lot of different countries, I’ve travelled Europe quite a bit, but Cambodia was a whole new ballpark,” she said.
“I thought I would expect poverty, but seeing it, what they live in, it’s very different being from a First World country to definitely a Third World country.”
And the eye-opening history of war in the country was still at the forefront of the population she was there to help.
“I knew a little bit about it, but I didn’t fully comprehend how much of the elderly population was murdered throughout the Khmer Rouge or just how young a country it was,” Maddy said.
“It was really confronting. I think the oldest person I met there was in his 50s and that was crazy. I went to multiple rural communities, major towns, and it’s so crazy to see so many young people and no-one old.”
But despite the hardships that the people endured, Maddy said the communities were welcoming and grateful.
“They would sit with us or just watch us,” she said. ”We had translators sometimes and that was really good just to be able to talk to them.
“I never would have expected that doing a trade would ever allow me to go somewhere or even just impact a community the way it has.”
Now back home, Maddy has a whole new perspective and appreciation for what she has – things that are often taken for granted.
“We never have to think twice. We can just go straight to a bathroom. We’re out and about – we can go to public toilets, restaurants have bathroom,” she said.
“They literally have no access to not only sanitation but also clean water as well.
“Definitely personally, it was just really eye-opening. I’m so grateful for what I have and what I have access to, and I have so much more appreciation for everything now than I did going into it.”
The Reece Foundation was launched in 2022 and has helped bring clean water and sanitation to tens of thousands of people in Australia and across the world.
And with volunteers always needed, Maddy is urging anyone with a trade to get involved.
“It’s just an opportunity you can’t miss,” she said.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities, visit the Reece Foundation website.
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