Since we adopted our gorgeous Khmer son, Hansa, in 1996, I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve visited Cambodia – I think it’s eleven. Of those visits, five have been with building teams and three of those trips have been to Kompong Som Province. Each visit I have got to know Janne and the Tabitha staff more and have learned a little more about Tabitha-Cambodia and how it works. Like most people, my visits have been short and my exposure has been only to specific aspects of Tabitha: cottage industry and house building, in particular. However, slowly, slowly the penny is dropping and I believe I’m beginning to understand the big picture – the breadth and depth of Tabitha’s programs and their enormous effect on thousands of the poorest people of Cambodia.

Although I can honestly say I didn’t have any preconceived ideas of what I might be doing when I decided to volunteer at Tabitha, I also have to admit that I didn’t know exactly what talent it was that I was bringing with me. I’ve spent most of my life working independently at a job that basically required me to write very fast – I didn’t see at first – and I still don’t – how that particular skill would be of much use.

I confess I was secretly horrified at Janne’s first request: to produce a document describing the importance of the Tabitha Savings Program – how that program can enable the poorest people to break a cycle of poverty and debt and empower them to take charge of their own lives. I would have to put the living situation of these people under the microscope and isolate many of the day-to-day obstacles they have to overcome. “Sure. Easy, Janne.”

Even after so many visits to Cambodia, I still find myself confronted by the poverty endured here. I roll along in my own existence believing that I understand and recognise what that poverty means in everyday terms to the people here. But I don’t really. Sometimes I get some of it. How does an average middle-class Aussie dame really grasp the fact that, if a person washes, they have only the one set of clothes to dry themselves off with, and wear; that a family of eight may have one container from which they will all take a turn to drink; and that one small meal of rice a day is the norm. Do I really understand how difficult it is for people that dirt poor to manage to find 500 riel (USD 0.12) each week to save with Tabitha? That is the amount we are talking about that people save when they first join the savings program.

Where do these same people find the trust to hand that money over to the Tabitha staff member collecting those savings? I don’t have the expression or writing skills to answer that last question adequately; you really have to meet these remarkable Tabitha people to begin to understand their level of commitment to the poor in their communities and to the Tabitha Program.

To grasp the size of the Tabitha Saving’s Program, you have to consider the amount of USD256,000 – that is the total savings for the period October-February – and realise that that is made up of weekly deposits ranging from as low as USD 0.12 up to USD5! Tabitha pays 10 percent per ten-week cycle on those funds. Where does this money come from? It comes from supporters such as yourselves.

Like myself, I’m sure many of you were attracted to Tabitha because of its “lean” nature – no new four-wheel drives running around town, no staff perks and no big salaries. I was also attracted because support did not mean handouts, which do not allow respect for an individual’s pride and disregards their dignity.

Money is tight around Tabitha because all funds that come in are absorbed pretty quickly. Extra money translates to expanding projects! No extra funds sitting in the bank here. I am reminded of that most day’s, when I see or hear Nari and Janne juggling this or that amount to pay expenses. Tabitha operates in a rather unpredictable financial environment – sometimes it’s not known where or when money is coming in; on a month-to-month basis, the financial situation can often be described as precarious and unpredictable to say the least. A solid support base and revenue stream would make life here so much easier.

Week after next we have our Aussie building team arriving – and in that description I include our honorary American member. We originally committed to build four houses on this trip, but due to a disastrous fire in one of the communities, Vonn (Tabitha’s manager in Kompong Som) has asked us to build ten smaller houses. She has managed to source some very cheap materials, so our USD3,200 is able to stretch that far. Usually, when we bring a team over to build, we bring the funds with us and present them to Janne sometime during that week, oblivious to the fact that materials for the houses have had to be purchased well in advance and staff have had to travel to Kompong Som to do the preliminary hard work, requiring them to be away from home for some time. What a difference it can make to Tabitha’s financial worries, if that money is received in advance!

I suppose because I came in here with no expectations, I have been surprised and delighted by the unexpected pleasure and privilege of working alongside the women here at Tabitha headquarters – strong, proud, determined, funny women. I have been made to feel so very welcome and spoiled with gestures of undeserved kindness – Nari keeping my son in the “best quality” dried fish; regular cups of coffee from Sina and Pisette; inquiries into the well being of my family from Vonn on her weekly visits from Kompong Som, and much, much more. However, I believe I received the best compliment last week when Nari relayed to me the comments of some of the ladies working here that I am “like a Khmer lady, not like a foreigner”, because “she speaks quietly and dresses like a lady, not sexy” (I’ll take that as a compliment - and those of you who know me will be guffawing about the word “quietly”).

Finally, I feel very fortunate to have met Janne Ritskes and privileged to be allowed to play a small part in this incredible organisation. I think I can anticipate that Tabitha-Cambodia will not stop here – I get the feeling there is plenty of energy left and many ideas still to come. Of course. What else would you expect?

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