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!
October 2007
Dear friends, The new program year has started very well. It’s a peak season for house building teams – it is also our busy season for orders. The rains are in full spate – causing havoc for so many of our families. The staff, as usual, does so much in very difficult circumstances.
October is also the month of Pchum Ban. Pchum Ban is the holiday week when Cambodians remember those who have passed away. It is a season when mood swings tend to be a daily occurrence and depression is just below the surface. Nary is one sufferer. Her face is long and drawn each morning. Memories of her lost family are all too real. This past year, so many of Nari’s friends have passed away in their sleep. People who are in their mid forties – too young really, to pass on. Often there is no sign of illness, just a quiet passing in the night. Nari says her body hurts. She tells me she is too old now – not the same as when we began working together. Her mind doesn’t always learn new things very quickly – she is not as physically able as she was before. Nari’s symptoms are reflected through out the staff and with our workers. This month of remembering exacts a high price. We combat all of this with the hope and renewal of beginning another year. The months of September through December will mean 323 houses for 323 of our families. As the volunteers come, they bring a sense of excitement and expectation. The staff reacts to these expectations and begins to rejoice in so many families getting new homes. At the end of the day – the aches are gone – replaced with contentment – other families have begun their long way out of despair. We have received and continue to receive orders for our goods. The miracle is that this pressure has brought our ladies living with AIDS into our regular production of silk products. For these ladies, death is a constant companion – yet the work brings out hope and laughter – they did not want to take the holiday – they did not want to remember – it hurts too much – so we gave them work to take home – armfuls of work – our regular ladies – they took home work – what is so good is the laughter and the chatter I hear ringing through-out the building. Hope and dignity which the work provides relieves the sorrow of their lives. For our development staffs – this month brings pain of recently lost siblings and parents – their sadness is turned into gladness as they focus on their work. Savings and changes in people’s lives brings contentment – watching the fruits of the wells being dug each month – brings them gifts of food and pleasure in peoples company – the house builders bring renewal – the constant searching and exchanging of new ways of doing things brings a challenge. October and Pchum Ban are a good mix. There is a way out of sadness in these months; there is a way of hope. I thank each of you for making that happen, for being our inspiration, our hope. I thank my God, that He always provides sufficient Grace for each of us to live our lives to the fullest no matter which month it is. It is very good. Janne
