2006-07 News

In February, 2007, I joined a wonderful group of people who had come together in Phnom Penh to build homes for families in the Province of Svay Rieng.

Our first formal introduction to each another was on board a boat on the mighty Mekong River. Over drinks and nibbles, we chatted and probed into one another’s lives, all interested in how each of us ended up in this desperately poor country sharing the same goal: a desire to help people we had never met. Everyone had heard of Tabitha's work through friends, the media or the grapevine and wanted to be part of this worthy cause. After a few hours watching life on the riverbank go by and the setting sun we were all quite familiar with each other.

It has been quite a wonderful month for Tabitha Cambodia. Ninety of our families received new homes; for the children in these families, a good night’s sleep is now a reality, because they can all sleep inside the house with mom and dad – no more sleeping in the open, in the dark, listening for noises and wondering what it is: a snake, a cow, a robber. It is starting to rain again, but for these 90 families it no longer matters – they will no longer have to sit up all night with their children, huddled in a corner, miserable and wet, waiting for the morning sun. This morning two of the moms came into my office – both these women live with AIDS – their faces shone with happiness, their bodies quivered with joy.

This month we celebrated with several Rotary Clubs from Taiwan and Japan and the 2,665 families who benefitted from their donation of 533 wells and the gift of water.

February saw another successful "pick up" house-building trip with Jude Quarry at the helm (due to work commitments, Doug couldn't make this trip) and the ever reliable Kev from WA providing a lot of technical know how on this, his fifth house-building outing.

The team was 27 strong with the make up from all around Australia (actually, the Commonwealth: NSW: 13 people; WA: 8 people; VIC: 4 people; QLD: 1 person; and the UK: 1 person.

We literally broke fresh ground on this trip, as this was the first house-building trip organized by Tabitha within the Svay Rieng province, located in the SE corner of Cambodia on the Vietnam border.

Susie Robertson, together with colleagues Debbie Hutchinson and Rickey Smith, and Susie's 13-year-old son, rode in the inaugural Great Western Australian Bike Ride to raise funds for Tabitha. The ride took them from Albany to Margaret River, a distance of 450 km.

Susie, Debbie and Rickey work in the neonatal unit at King Edward Hospital, Perth, and together raised a total of $760 for Tabitha. This amount will support 30 families on the Family Development Program for one year.
See details. Thank you Susie, Debbie and Rickey.

The Board of Tabitha Foundation Australia would like to thank Patrick Mitchell for the fantastic effort he made in both obtaining sponsorship for, and then completing, the recent Sydney Marathon.

Buy a goat, act the goat, even eat a goat, but just make sure you make it to the ball on time, Cinders…

It’s a balmy Saturday evening by the ocean in Sydney. The waves are lapping gently against the shore – it’s a night like any other. But hang on, if you look closely, you’ll find there’s a man wearing Christmas socks running up and down the corridors of a hotel in Manly; he has a stye in one eye and a slightly harried look in the other. He’s looking for his shoes – let’s hope he finds them soon, because any moment now he’s going to be delivering goats and uhm, X-Boxes to a few lucky individuals. He’s hoping to help make some dreams come true tonight - could he be Santa? No, of course not – it’s Dave Allinson – nice socks Dave!

The Saturday night in question was, of course, the night of the Tabitha Fundraising Ball and what a fabulous night it turned out to be.