Tim Keller, DDD Volunteer Alumni, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Volunteers are essential to DDD's mission. By sharing their spirit and knowledge with our offices, they help our staff grow and keep our work running smoothly. Interested in volunteering with us? Find out more and see our list of our current volunteer opportunities.

My life was changed forever when, at the age of 23, Jeremy and Michael convinced me to move to Cambodia and start DDD's operations. At the time I was pondering leaving the world of investment banking and living in San Francisco. A month after learning about DDD I was living in Cambodia as DDD's first President!

I lived in Cambodia for almost two years as we grew from a start up of 10 to 120 employees. I remember lots of late nights IM'ing with Jeremy. He taught me everything I knew over the internet at night and the next day I would roll it out with team.

After my first few months, and a lot of hard work and fair bit of loneliness, Kathryn Lucatelli arrived. We got to know each other over an often excruciating "working lunch" (fried fish and rice made by the landlord) as we tried to figure out how to make operations sustainable. A few times we'd do spell checking at night too! Kathryn and I became like brother and sister and we felt like part of much bigger extended DDD family that included 100 or so wonderful Cambodians.

Over time, the Cambodia staff began to take on larger and larger roles in the business. After about nine months we had "localized" and operations were running with Nary and Sophary at the helm. Much of my time after was spent cultivating some of our early donors and customers. We met MPDF/World Bank and Adam Sack; the Asia Foundation; Kearny Foundation; and Global Knowledge Partnership who have been some of our best supporters. Sophary and I spent an eternal three months negotiating reil-for-reil (the Cambodian currency) our contract with Mobitel, our longest standing contract today. We did some wonderful local work for the UN, EU and Mekong River Commission.

From a personal standpoint, I had the good fortune of watching our employees mature and grow in almost all aspects of their life. Some married, many showed up with new motorbikes and clothes and smiles on their faces after receiving their first few paychecks. Operators began supporting their extended families and then graduating from university. Everyday all it took was a conversation with an operator, or sitting in on staff meetings to be reminded of the meaningful difference DDD was making in peoples' lives.

For me, it was truly "following my dream." I had always wanted to live in a developing country and start a social enterprise. DDD gave me an opportunity to do more good in the world than I might ever be able to do again. Working with DDD is still by far my proudest accomplishment.