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! 

May 25, 2005

            	
Dear friends and partners, A couple of weeks ago, staff asked me to come out and visit 60 families who had just completed their first cycle of savings. The families wanted to show me what they had done. I went rather reluctantly because I was not feeling well, I was on a special diet for my illness and my body hurt and ached. The visit pulled me out of my self pity. As we went from home to home, people ran to show me the things that they had bought, things they thought they could never have, things, they said, that only rich people can buy.
                
At one house, Ly's family ran hurriedly to show me the pots and pans they had bought - oh, said Ly, now I can cook. Sopheak was not to stand by idly - she grabbed her clan and she showed me her dishes - her son's were so very proud - not plastic, said the oldest, real porcelain - just like the rich.  The family next door said but we have even better, we have drinking glasses. I marveled at how good it is to take joy is these things.
           
The widowed families were not be outdone - a single father showed me the sleeping mat that he and his children were sleeping on - now the floor is not so hard, chirped a daughter. A widowed mom proudly showed me a sack of rice that she had bought - the baby will not be hungry this month, she said. An old woman showed me her ice chest that she had bought - it will help to keep my daughter's medicine longer, she said.
              
 
My self - pity was rapidly disappearing - it was being replaced by wonderment - what joy, what pride each family had. Not to be undone, a family showed me their new mosquito net - we can all be safe now, said the mom, we all can sleep under it. Another mother proudly showed me the pigs and chickens they had bought. This year, she said, we will be rich - my pig will help us to buy many things. And yet another, proudly brought out the chair they had bought - now grandma can sit in comfort, laughed the grandson. A young man showed me the blanket he had bought - we will no longer be cold at night, he said.
           
The visit was a long one, sixty families are a lot to see. Each had their dream to share with us, each was so very proud of what they had accomplished. Each shared about their next dream come true. I came home exhausted but I came home refreshed. The diet was no longer a burden - I had choice of whatever I wanted to eat. My water was cold because I have a fridge, my bed is always soft, and I have many blankets.
I thanked my God that I was so blessed - not because I had everything but because I am privileged to see what it is to have so little, and to be reminded by these families, to take joy in all that I have - no matter how little or big it is. These families are my heroes - they give me life. I thank my God that it is so. And I thank each one of you, that you make it so.
Janne