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Jodie first visited the town of Siem Reap in June last year, following months of internet research on orphanages in the area.

Since her five children have grown up, Jodie said she was now in a better position to sponsor a child as it was something she had always wanted to do.

‘‘You can only help one person at a time and that’s what I’m doing,’’ she said.

She first went over with a suitcase full of footwear to give to children, but had no plans about where she would donate them.

Jodie said she first met some Australian orphanage volunteers, handed over footwear to them and then went to see where they worked.

Jodie said she was really touched to see how one organisation, the Khmer Social Economic Development Organisation, helped the poorest children in the country.

She told stories of how one child grew up on prison grounds from the age of one, while others had witnessed their mothers being murdered.

Jodie said it was a difficult task trying to choose who to sponsor, as all of the children were in need in some way.

She said she was glad she made the decision to help Savuth, as he was one of the first children to go to the orphanage and had watched others go in after him and get sponsored before him.

Savuth has parents and six siblings in Cambodia, but with a monthly wage of $40 for field workers, his family cannot support itself well.

When Jodie first visited, she said Savuth did not speak a great deal of English, but he had read aloud the birthday card she had sent him when she arrived.

Jodie also met a young monk called David while at the Ankor Wat temple in Cambodia and has been communicating with him since through email.

She said she was also a strong believer in helping to educate adults in Cambodia, so they could help children.

Jodie hopes to raise enough money to send David to university, where he would like to study English as part of a career in business.

David needs the equivalent of $400 a year to do this and Jodie said she planned to help fundraise by organising a ‘Cake for Cambodia’ coffee morning in Rochester in the coming weeks.