Sunday, May 22, 2011

Week of Wonder

There has been wonderful generosity shown state wide in the last week towards my volunteering adventures in Cambodia. I have a box of stationary - pens, paper, pencils, textas, amoungst other goodies that was donated by a friend who is off on an adventure of her own to an orphanage in Bali. She got more boxes of stationary donated than she could take over, so she passed one on to me to take.

I've had undies in the postbox from people I know and people I dont know, both from victoria and from interstate. Zip lock bags, gloves, bandages. 2nd hand kids clothes. It is piling up and looking fantastic!

Donations of money have been put into an account with the hope of reaching $2000 so that we can fund a Tuk Tuk Ambulance for the women and babies in desperate need of medical assistance. I love recieving emails which say 'I want to donate!'. It makes my heart sing. Every dollar helps and changes lives of women, families, villages, communities.

Courtney has made jars of delicious tomato relish and nectarine & ginger jam and has donated them to me to sell with all money going straight towards the ambulance. Steven bought the first jar, as he is a bit of a relish fan, and I am guessing he will buy one or two more too. He may end up funding half the Tuk Tuk if he keeps eating all the relish ;) Books have been donated and chillies have been picked from my garden and bunched up to sell. As I have already said, every little bit helps.




On Saturday 2 really awesome events occured in honour of the volunteering work I am doing and the peoples in Takeo. Firstly, we screened a documentary called Babies, which was a gorgeous little film that followed 4 babies from birth across the first year of their lives. There weren't many attendees, there were around 8-10 of us, but those who came loved the film, loved the atmosphere, loved the cause and we raised $120. Thank you to those who came - your support fills my heart and Im sure the hearts of women in Cambodia!




Secondly, a group of gorgeous women (and 1 spunky man I believe, plus a tribe of children) who hold the same passionate heart as my own, created a day of sewing and made many, many menstrual cloth pads for me to take over. Women in Cambodia often dont attend school when they are bleeding as they dont have anything to catch their blood. This in turn leads them to fall behind in their studies, dropping out of school and thus continuing the cycle of poverty. Cloth pads can obviously help this situation. Who ever would of thought that cloth pads can be an essential part in ending poverty!?! Anyway, this amazing feat deserves a blog post of its own, so for now I shall leave you  with a picture of what these people of spirit created!


Peace, Love and Passion!

Xo

2 comments:

  1. I wants me some relish!!!! I love love love it, I was so sad when my jar finished last time Coutney and Leo made a batch. How much per jar? My mum loved it too, so look out, we'll buy up too!!

    And yes, these women are totally completely awesome!! Kint said yesterday they'd been back at it and made more and I think they've passed the 100 mark now. They rock!! I had no idea, when Jo said she was planning a day of sewing and for other women to join her....I thought maybe 20-30 pads would come of the day(having no idea what goes into making each one), so I just am in total awe of their amazing effort!!!!!

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  2. All diifferent sizes and prices from $3 - $8. We have already bought $13 of relish lol

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