Tabitha Foundation Cambodia
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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! 

February 2008

            	

Dear friends and partners, A second newsletter in one month – a bit of a record, even for me, but yesterday was one of my golden days in Cambodia and I want to share this with you before I lose the impact with the busyness of everyday life.

Yesterday, I traveled to communities in Svay Rieng and in Prey Veng with staff from the projects and Srie and Nary. We went to visit projects that we had first looked at 2 years ago. In Svay Rieng we stopped in 2 villages in Svay Chrum District. The poverty was appalling – people lived in houses less than 2 meters – everyone was tired, all had aches and pains. There was no laughter, no joy. It hurt to see this. The village chiefs in both communities arranged for families to receive a larger plot of land – we had promised wells for the families. With the wells is the promise from families that they would grow vegetables and/or raise animals. Our staff Ponluck and Tula would often talk about how very hard it was to get the people to do. Poverty does that to people – it makes them tired, physically and emotionally. And the people told them, no one grows vegetables in Svay Rieng, it’s unheard of. Yesterday, I saw a younger family with a fish pond – full of fish, a garden that gave them an income of 10,000 riel everyday – I saw mango and banana trees planted, I saw land being prepared to build a house – but most of all I saw a young family smiling with smiles that wouldn’t quit. Next door I saw a garden full of special herbs for soups – a staple in Cambodian society – I saw a middle aged couple – standing proud. And then I met an old couple – they had been full of aches and pains the last time – I had given them all my aspirin then. This time, the old man was acting like a child of ten – running and jumping to show me his fish, his garden, his fruit trees – it was hard to get him to stop but I did – we are not sick anymore he chortled. I saw a man who could not walk last time – a man who lay ill for the last year and a half. He took my hand as we walked through his garden – the vegetables, the fish – I am not sick anymore – look I have new child. Starvation no longer haunted his frame. His lameness was a direct result of lack of vegetables and fruit – just a bowl of rice each day. The village chief took me to his new home, his new garden and pointed at the jackfruit tree – it never bore fruit in all my life, he said – now look – a tree bursting with fruit – some so big they bent the boughs of the tree – his children were clothed – his wife and him had put on weight – their eyes and skin glowed with health We walked carefully so that I did not step on one of his 60 chickens or his 30 ducks. And then we went to Mesang District – an area infamous for selling their children to avert starvation – an area infamous for begging on the streets of Phnom Penh. 2 years ago, we watched helpless and angry as a child was sold. It is a poverty that was too stark to comprehend and to difficult to understand. Pat and Choeun our staff there, worked so hard to change things – it took so long. Finally, in desperation, Pat bought seeds and put in a well. Yesterday, I saw a woman I knew well – she often begged on the streets of Phnom Penh. Before me stood a woman transformed – her garden bore vegetables too many to mention. Her excitement about life was contagious – look at this, look at that. If I had a pump, I could do twice as much. You know, she said, people come from miles away to buy my vegetables – look at me – I am strong now. Her neighbor next door showed us their garden – we have 500 bitter melons we can sell right now – everyday people come to buy - we used to be beggars the man said – I have eight children – this month, 4 of my children have started school. Eight families in Mesang have shown the way for others – we were surrounded by hundreds of children and adults – all begging to have water and a pump so they too, could live. Pat said softly, one step at a time. It was a day of miracles – a day of blessings. We have a new motto – Tabitha goes green – our desire is to make all these fallow fields burst with food – our desire is to see all children to live free – never to be sold again – our desire is to see the middle aged to have hope- never again to beg – to see the fruits of their labour – our desire is for the aged to run like gazelles, their aches and pains forgotten – our desire is to see the lame walk – and the ill to become strong – our desire is to see people work and to receive just income from their work. To give a cup of cold water – my God has promised blessings – what a privilege it is to see those blessings. Thank you for being that instrument of grace. Janne