Newsletters
With our regular newsletters, we aim to keep you posted on all the interesting and important news and updates of our programs and various activities. Enjoy reading!
April 2022
Dear friends and partners,
Savings and planning, a gift of Tabitha Cambodia. Visiting families and staff on site visits is always a pleasure. As we talk with so many families, a message coming through is always, savings is the methodology for our families to overcome the fears and uncertainty of life especially as the Covid pandemic has brought so many fears once again to the forefront.
In this country of sorrows once torn apart by war, genocide, isolation and now once again the pandemic has brought out the old fears and uncertainty of life. Savings gives a soothing dimension to these fears, it brings about hope and courage to dream and to believe that the future is worth living for.
In Siem Reap, we visited one of our villages where the changes in people’s lives is remarkable. From thatch huts to large, strong homes, to fields full of food, to relatively good diets, healthy children and minds full of dreams. I asked why do you need Tabitha any longer? The spokeswoman smiled gently; you see what we have accomplished over the past few years? She pointed to many well-built houses, to furniture, animals and fields full of food. These are things we hoped for so long – and savings made it happen. We plan for each next step. We buy chickens and ducks; pigs and we plan when to sell these animals alongside of our savings return so that we can do the next step. I suppose, she said, we could do this over a long time without savings but savings makes it all happen quickly and smoothly. I asked about if they had taken loans to achieve some of these goals. All gathered around us murmured loudly; no, they said, we are safe, we can do this ourselves.
In Takeo, Pon spent hours talking with each family each savings cycle – deciding what the next dream to be achieved would be. Family savings and animal husbandry would determine what the amount to be saved would be. Strengthening their houses, building toilets meant large savings for the next ten weeks, a time when every family member would tighten their belts and every family member would save the extra riels required to make up that amount. Then came the time when all the money was achieved and the big dream completed. A time of satisfaction and pride.
I thank my God for each of you who stand with us as partners in savings. I stand humbled before these families for whom life is harsh but also a life full of dreams and achievements. As one 63-year-old stood before me, showing all, she had achieved, her face glowed with pleasure and thankfulness. She looked 20 years younger than her age, she glowed with vitality. I thank my God I can meet people like her. It gives me life. How good that is!
Janne
