Malaysiafrun -

Cambodia - What a trip!

This time I choose to write in English so all my "new" friends from Australia, New Zeeland, Canada, United States, France, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Poland, Iran, Egypt, Korea, Germany, Denmark and of course Sweden can follow.

Here we all are, happy that we have accomplished what we came for, to build houses. The whole group in front of one of the seventeen houses we built during two days.

We were 28 people (25 ladies and 3 guys) gathering at the airport for a little bit more than two hour trip to Phnom Penh to build houses for 17 families out on the countryside about one hour away by bus. When we rolled in with our three white buses filled with us people who are there because we all have a wish, a hope and a will that we can do something for this very poor families. We were there to build them houses that they will turn into homes. Before we had information of what we were not allowed to do and among a few things we were not allowed to give them anything (more than we already have) and we could not touch their children and if we for instance hammered ourselves or got hurt we were not allowed to show it. They are supersticious about these things. They do not like if something bad would have happened in their new house and I tell you that that is absolutely no fear because these houses were built with so much love... I am blessed to have this experience and it was a fantastic feeling for both them and us!

Colleen, the organizer from KL explains what this is all about."This is the 4th yr of going and my 3rd of co-leading a group of 25-30. We go and spend 2 days building houses for the Cambodian villagers who have saved USD30 (this can take way more than a year) towards their new house, via Tabitha Foundation. We pay the remaining cost of their houses. It is so humbling and gratifying. We have built them a 'shed' really but - it's waterproof, flood proof and about 4x bigger than what they have had before. They are so grateful - it's a very moving experience for the cost of a bit of money, a few blisters and maybe a few sore muscles".

Tabitha Foundation is an organisation led by an amazing woman, the Canadian lady Janne, who dedicated her life to help poor people out in Cambodia (read more and maybe you want to contribute on www.tabitha.ca). On the website you can read "Tabitha has made an impact to 463,776 families with 3,710,208 dependents from 1994 to date. Tabitha’s main activity is the Savings Program (Family Partnerships). Before joining Tabitha, many families have no savings or may only save a few cents each week as the average family earns less than $1(US) a day. Through Savings, people set goals to make their lives better. Tabitha staff make weekly visits to families in the program to offer support and collect the savings. After 10 weeks, the families are paid 10% interest on their savings – they use the money to buy items they need thus achieving their initial goals. Then they start the cycle again, with new dreams and goals. Families graduate from Tabitha in 5 - 7 years, after which they have enough food, clean water, shelter and a sustainable source of income".

Our teamleader Hana with the founder of Tabitha, the Cambodian hero, Janne Ritskes.

She also have a shop where poor and ladies with HIV are working making beautiful things. I was a big fan of the necklaces in different colours.

But now we go back to the village...

The house on the left is what the family livet in before so it is a BIG difference in size and comfort.

Thanks to everybody that made this trip such a wonderful experience for me!

We were divided into four teams. We had a great collaboration with lots of laughter and happiness.

The houses were already built on pillars and they have roof. We completed them with nailing the bamboofloors and we put the plaguewalls up.

Lunchbreak with baguettes and water.

Last day we celebrated with a cold beer. Here am I and Nina who inspired me to come along!

The families have waited for a long time for this day. They follow every step we take and they are very grateful. They live on less then a dollar a day and imagine feeding your family on so little money. They don´t have birthcontrolpills either so the families can be quite big with many children.

I love the kids...so cute and nice!

Hana, our great teamleader with some of the beautiful children.

This girl ran up to us and asked if she could have a picture of Birgit and myself with her old mobilephone.

We also played with the children with some bubbles that we brought with us.

Lovely children supporting our work!

Some of the children took a swim in the natural pool...

...or played with big brothers bicycle!

This day was a happy day and they shower and dress in the nicest clothes they have.

And after we finished building houses day 2 we had a nice ceremony when the "eldest" in the village held a speech and talked about how he had asked Tabitha during three years to come to his village where 2000 people are living. We have done a small small part, but it feels fantastic and they treated us as heroes! They were very very happy to have their new houses. We handed over a blanket from Tabitha to each family as a symbol of her prescence here.