Art of Kindness
Home
A safe, dignified home and community for elderly people in rural Cambodia — built with love, transparency and steady hands.
Four grandmothers are already waiting for a home.
A house becomes a home when someone is waiting inside it.
For the past two years, Art of Kindness has been showing up — quietly, weekly, with food baskets, medicine, and the kind of presence that older people sometimes need more than anything else.
We have listened. We have eaten together. We have held hands. And in those moments, four grandmothers told us, almost in the same words, that what they want most is not a big thing — it is a small, warm place where they no longer have to be alone.
The Art of Kindness Home is being built for them. Not a hospital. Not an institution. A home — with a kitchen that smells of rice and lemongrass, a garden, an art room, and a door that is always open.
Four grandmothers are already waiting.
Two of them will move in as soon as the first permanent home is ready — within months, not years. The other two will follow soon after, once the next phase of construction is complete.
This is not an abstract plan. There are names. There are faces. There is rice cooking on a small stove somewhere in Takeo province tonight.
We are not waiting for everything to be perfect before we begin. We start with two — and grow.
Two quiet years of showing up.
Not headlines. Not campaigns. Just weekly visits, food baskets, medicine runs, and evenings shared around a table. The Home is the next chapter.
Why we are doing this.
In rural Cambodia, growing old alone is still the quiet reality for thousands of people. Many of the elderly women we visit live in small wooden homes, sometimes without family nearby. Some have lost children. Some simply were never visited.
We started by bringing rice. Then came blankets, then medicine, then conversation. Over time, we realised we could not just keep visiting — we had to offer something more permanent. A place where being old does not mean being forgotten. Where a meal is shared, where the door is open, where dignity is the architecture itself.
"I don't want a hospital. I just want a small house where I am not alone."
— one of the grandmothers, during a home visit
What we are building.
Not a clinic. Not a facility. A small Khmer-inspired home where up to twelve elderly people can live together — with private rooms, shared meals, gardens and a creative life.
Private homes with dignity
Small private rooms for each resident — their own bed, their own things, their own quiet. No shared dormitories. Privacy is not a luxury at the end of life; it is a human right.
Vegetables, herbs, mango trees
A working garden where residents can grow food, water plants and remember what it feels like to have something of your own growing under your hands.
A space to make things
A bright room for painting, weaving, music and conversation. Art has always been at the heart of Samalia's work — here it becomes part of daily life, not a separate world.
Kitchen, bathrooms, gathering spaces
A communal kitchen where rice is cooked together. Accessible bathrooms. Outdoor terraces for evening tea. A small guest space for visiting volunteers and donor families who come to see what they helped build.
How the Home will be built, step by step.
We are building in four stages. The first stage opens the door for two grandmothers. Each stage after that grows the community until the Home is complete.
First two residents
Land preparation, first private homes, basic kitchen, water and sanitation, the first two grandmothers move in.
A small community
Two more private homes, expanded communal dining, garden beds, accessible bathrooms, additional staff room.
Living & creating
The Living & Art Room, additional residences, volunteer and guest accommodation, expanded garden and outdoor areas.
The complete Home
Final residences, full guest house, team offices, finishing works and the quiet details that turn a building into a place someone can call home.
Help us build the first home.
This is the current working budget for the complete Art of Kindness Home — including land, construction, infrastructure, equipment, professional services, project management, team salaries and the essential operating costs needed to open the doors and keep them open.
100% of donations are tracked and reported in our Transparency section.
You should always be able to see what you are helping to build.
Transparency is not an afterthought for Art of Kindness — it is part of the work. Every euro donated to the Home is recorded, every expense is categorised, and regular reports are shared publicly.
- LandAcquisition & preparation
- ConstructionHomes, kitchen, art room, guest house
- InfrastructureWater, solar power, sanitation
- EquipmentFurniture, kitchen, art & medical
- TeamSalaries, training, project management
- OperationsFood, medicine, daily life
Come and see what you helped build.
You are not just a donor. You are part of the story. With advance booking and subject to availability, donors contributing €100 or more will be welcomed as guests at the future Home and offered a complimentary stay for a few nights in the guest house.
- Meet the grandmothers you are helping
- Share a meal in the communal kitchen
- Walk the garden you helped plant
- Stay in the guest house for a few nights
- See, with your own eyes, where every euro went
This is what kindness looks like in real life.
Over the past two years, Art of Kindness has supported elderly people in rural Cambodia through food, essential supplies, medicine, financial assistance and companionship.
This autumn, we held our first Art of Kindness Charity Tour and created special experiences for the elderly people we support — from restaurant dinners and Apsara performances to a beautiful village dinner with traditional Khmer music.
Help us build the first home.
Four grandmothers are already waiting.
We don't need to build everything before we can change someone's life.
We can start with two.
Help us turn kindness into something lasting.
Registered ASBL in Luxembourg
