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July 2010

Dear friends and partners,

It’s been a remarkable week. Every so often I get to see the fruit of what I have done. Back in 1995, I and June Cunningham took over Cambodia House, an orphanage that had been abandoned by the person who established it. We had 32 children from under 1 to six years of age. As Tabitha was just beginning and Cambodia was still very unstable, we decided that running an orphanage was not what was best for the children and so we started a process of adoption. Over the next two years we placed all the children in adoptive families around the world.

In the ensuing years, many of the children and their families have returned to Cambodia for reunions and house building. It was good to watch these young people grow and mature. This summer marked another passage for these young people – they are either finishing high school or their first year at university. They came for a reunion – they came to house build.

In the past, a number of these young people would talk about their desire to return to their birth country and work with the people here. They knew firsthand about the poverty and the suffering of so many. As they would say to us as parents, this could have been us. This summer was no different except that they are now young adults with a vision in mind. Several are training to be teachers, architects, contractors, etc. Their adoptive siblings are also young adults who have caught the vision. What was clear was that house building was no longer enough. They wanted to continue impacting their birth country even while they were studying and developing skills. Over the past 6 months, these young people had done fund raising themselves and they had raised enough money for twenty houses. For them and their families it was fun and it was concrete. We talked about what they could do.

We talked about Theoun, one of our children, who had died in a tragic fire a year ago. We talked of his legacy, a school for impoverished children in Kompong Thom – a school that will be finished in August. They talked of their desire to also build a school. And so that is what they will do.

My daughter Miriam is part of this process. She came home so very emotional about the impact of this past week. Mum, these are my brothers and sisters, she said. That’s what we call each other – we are all Cambodian, we are all adopted. We all want to help our fellow Cambodians. And their families mum, these are also my family. We know each other, we understand each other, and we take care of each other. I wondered at her maturity. I want to be a doctor mum, or at least a nurse – then I too can come back and help.

As a parent, I often wonder if I am doing the right thing. As Cambodia House Chair I often wonder if I did the right thing. As founder and director of Tabitha I often wonder if we keep doing the right things– this week, I know it is right.

I thank my God for the privileged life He has granted to me. I thank Him for these young people and their families for being a part of their lives. I thank my God for Miriam and her life. I thank my God for each of you – for being a part of all of this – for these young people and their families are also yours. We are doing the right thing.


How good that is!
Janne

May 2010
 
Dear friends and partners,
 
It’s a bit of a hard newsletter this morning - I have been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer - prognosis is excellent - but the process is a bit daunting. What it all means is that over the next 3 months - my life will have its moments - it also means that the Tabitha staff are stepping up to the plate and carrying out all the work with renewed vigor - I do have excellent support from Dr Doug and Jude, Tabitha Australia and from AnLee and Valerie, Tabitha Singapore, my family in Canada and my doctor, Laura here. In short, I am very blessed with excellent medical care and support.
 
Miriam is going through it with me - has pointed out that she too has lumps in her breasts and her neck - I am happy she is verbalizing so much. What do I need from all of you - your prayers and positive vibes - and continuing support for Tabitha, my staff and all the great accomplishments they are doing. If you are on the teams coming this summer, bear with us - I may not be able to serve you personally as I would like but my staff will do what I am unable to do. I will keep you all apprised of the progress of this particular journey as it evolves.
 
In other news, Tabitha’s growth and strengthening of their families is truly amazing. As news continues to spread about field wells and the impact they have – more and more of our families are beginning to see a way out of their constant poverty – thank you all for making that possible.
 
As some of you may know, we have added the building of schools to our programs. The need for schools comes from communities who have progressed out of their deep poverty and are moving towards a more sustainable life. Their immediate needs of food, clothing, water are being met – and their attention starts to turn towards education for their children. This current program year, we are building and completing five schools. What a delight and honor that is.
 
I thank my God for each of you – without  the extended Tabitha family – my personal problem would not be resolved so quickly – without each of you – our families that we work with – their problems would not be resolved either. Thank you for making that happen.
 
Janne
 

April 2010
 
Dear friends and partners,
 
Happy Khmer New Years everyone. You know Khmer New Years is one of the big holidays here, a time when all Cambodians travel home to be with family and friends. A time when those who came before and have passed on are remembered and honored. It’s a time for festivities, eating and dancing and buying new clothes. Khmer New Years is a very important time of the year for all Cambodians.
 
For the families in our program, Khmer New Years is often a time of sadness and despair. Despite the expectations, many of our families are unable to buy new clothes, eat a variety of foods, welcome and visit with family members – and so they don’t join in with the festivities.
 
A week before Khmer New Years – our community development staff and I met. We talked about how things were going. I heard stories of families who had received field wells – these are wells that provide enough water for several hectares of land. The best account involved our families in Battambang and Pursat projects – families who had received wells and ponds over the past 6 months – they were earning up to $12.00 a day for their produce – unheard of for us – miracles for our families. Their Khmer New Years would be good.
 
Last week, the week after Khmer New Years we had visitors who wanted to see the impact of the field wells they had so generously donated. I too, wanted to see what was happening. So we went to Kandal province. As we were driving through the area, we saw  sporadic fields of green rice and vegetables. They were from our field wells. We stopped and talked with 15 families who had received these wells. They were growing summer rice, green tomatoes, spring onions, etc. It was fun to chat with the families, their eyes spoke of their joy. The men folk were all present – proud to give us some of their produce – proud to show us what they had done.
 
As we turned to leave one of the women spoke. She said, “This is the first time, we had enough food to eat, enough money to buy clothes. For the first time, we could sing and dance with everyone – we could celebrate. But what is best is that, after all that celebrating, we still have food to eat, work to do and money to earn. Thank you for that.”

I felt so humbled by these people. They work so very hard and they have so little. They are grateful for the water you all so generously donate – yet it is they, who work so very hard – who struggle so very much. It is I who says thank you to each of our families for showing me what the human spirit is – to work with joy and thanksgiving – to be able to celebrate with song and dance and to be grateful for each blessing.
 
I came back from Khmer New years and my emails spoke of grade 1’s who had done chores, of Grade 5’s who had a jump a thon , of other Grade 5’s who did a walkathon, of a mum who had written a children’s book about “I hate Peas” and donated all the proceeds  to Tabitha, about 28 other mums who came with a gift of more wells – and the stories continue. Because of all of you, so many more of our families will celebrate Khmer New Years.
 
For me, I celebrate each day because my God has sent each of you into our lives. And I am humbled because you give with joy and thanksgiving so that others can live with joy and thanksgiving. Life cannot get any better than this. Happy Khmer New Years everyone.
 
 
Janne

March 2010
 
Dear friends and partners,
 
Every so often we have one of those moments in Tabitha. Yesterday, I had several of those moments. Srei and I traveled to Banteay Meanchaey to see the progress in the new areas. The visit was anticipated by Kameak, Long and Touk, our staff there. They had gone through several frustrating years of working with families who had been slow to respond – primarily because the areas were next to the Thai border and troubles kept flaring over the disputed temples. A sense of fear and insecurity kept the families away.
 
The new areas were far from the troubles and work had begun in September. We have learned that water is the quickest way to move people from poverty on the road to prosperity. We all knew that we had to convince people that they had to earn income from wells that we installed. The staff took it to heart and began installing wells soon after the program started.
 
Often the Tabitha staff mention how much they had to talk before people would begin to respond – Banteay Meanchaey was no exception. But therein lay their excitement. The talk had worked. We stopped at Khun’s home. He and the neighboring family had received a well. Khun was taller than the normal Khmer so it was rather a pleasure to look up at him while he talked. He proudly showed me a stand of corn he was growing. I was rather pleased as the corn stood taller than I. I admired his work and asked, so when will you harvest? He smiled and shrugged – I don’t know, said he – do you know? I was a bit perplexed and looked at the staff. No one looked my way; rather they were studiously looking at the ground.
 
What do you mean, you don’t know - asked I. Oh, said Khun I have never grown corn in my life. Srei found it hard to keep from giggling – no one has ever grown vegetables here –said she. I was bit dumbfounded. So how did he know what to do? Kameak gave a grin and said, we didn’t know either – we just told him to make the ground ready and then throw seeds on the ground – and it worked. Srei mentioned that she had told Khun to cut a few stalks so that each plant had a bit more space.  Over my shoulder, other vegetables were growing in abundance – too many in too small a space but they were eating and selling from their small plot.  As I was admiring the handiwork, Khun kept asking when his corn would be ready – to me, who also didn’t know – I guessed another month would do it. He left it at that.

We visited a number of families – each one growing small fields of vegetables – none of them knew the first thing about growing vegetables. All of them were learning things the hard way – through trial and error – and it worked. Lek with her husband and 3 sons had learned how to plant several varieties of vegetables. They were on their third cycle of growing food. Lek found carrying the water to the plants rather burdensome and she had devised a unique way of transferring water by garden hose from her well. She was being innovative out of need and desire. It was fun.
 
As we visited various families all learning new skills, I marveled at my staff. They had talked people into trying new ideas without understanding themselves the growing cycles of the various vegetables. They were so proud of their families, so proud of the progress. We talked of the innovation taking place and of other innovations that we could try to make this a bit easier for the families.
 
The families in our communities are desperately poor – their life style is fraught with hunger and despair – I look at the huts they live in, their meager possessions open to all who could see – I look at bodies, worn with hard labor and so little to show for it – I look at the staff and marvel at how hard they work – how much they must talk – to change just one life – and I marvel at how much change occurs simply because all of you and all of us – talk a lot about how to help without fully understanding the impact of what we say.
 
I marvel that my God talked to me about how to help – and I talked with all of you and all the staff – and how all of us talked with others so that people like Khun and Lek can look at me with shining eyes and ask me – when do you think I will be able to harvest the corn? Speaking of which, I must close now and look up the growth cycles of corn.
 
Thank you for standing and talking with us.
 
Janne

January 18, 2010
 
Dear friends and partners,
 
Happy New Years everyone. May this year be a blessing for each of you.  I started the New Years in Bangkok, celebrating with my daughter Miriam – who is now 11 years old. Like most people, a new year signifies for me new beginnings – some not so smart. Miriam wanted so much to go to the Siam Water Park and so off we went. Silly me agreed to go down the biggest waterslide which had all kinds of loops – at first Miriam hung on but with my weight – I started to go much faster than either one of us thought was fun - I went so fast I thought I would flip over the side – so I did what any sensible person would do, I closed my eyes and promised my God all kinds of things if I survived –I went through water spots which went up my nose – and I slid with abandon from side to side – would this ride never end - I landed in the pool at the end - which I thought was not the end - so I actually sat underwater for about 20 seconds which got the life guard down from his chair and screaming - my little mind finally said to my little body - its over - you better stand - which I did - much to everyone’s, including me - relief. A New Year’s resolution – never again a water slide!
 
Now we are back to work. Vonn came with stories and pictures of Koh Kong project which she started a year ago. At that time, I went to visit the new areas – the poverty was so hurtful to see. The people had small plots of land, others bigger plots of land – all were barren. What struck me most was that there was nothing at all – no animals such as chickens, pigs, ducks, no cows or buffaloes – just despair. We had looked at each other and we made a resolution – this must change.
 
Vonn laughed as we remembered that visit. She started to tell me all that had changed. At the moment she has 1,430 families in the program. 450 of these families are raising chickens - each family earns an average of $2.50 per day – plus they get to eat the eggs and occasionally a chicken. 271 families are raising pigs and in that process have also begun to breed their pigs. Every 3 months they get and average of 8-10 piglets which they sell for $35 each. 233 families now raise ducks and they sell the duck eggs for an average of $2.00 per day. 105 families are growing vegetables, fruits and rice – year round – their income has risen to $3.00 per day plus their diets have changed dramatically.
 
Last Wednesday, I travelled with Pon and Srie to our newest area – Krakor District in Pursat province. As we drove through communities, the poverty was hard to face. A number of families didn’t even have 4 walls – no shelter – we met another 60 families who cannot eat every day – hunger is painful to see. A number of families had shelter not big enough for 2 people –much less the 8-10 people living in the shelter. We saw bigger homes but they housed 2-3 families per house. Not so good. What we noticed was that there were no pigs, chickens, ducks – no vegetables – just barren, dusty land. What a challenge. As we talked, the ladies made a New Year’s resolution – this too will change.
 
On the way home we stopped in Kompong Channang to see the family that Miriam had given a well to. The family met us with shinning eyes – the husband had decided that he would be the model for his village. In his small garden, he had planted small rows of vegetables – 9 kinds in total – one was a row of 6 zucchini plants – the zucchinis were large and healthy – I said I would like to buy one – he said, no they have all been sold for a $1.00 each because people wanted the seeds from the zucchini so they could grow their own. He had planted 5 kinds of fruit trees, from mangoes, papaya and grapefruit. Across the path, lay his field. There he had planted a row of 9 other vegetables – wanted to see which would grow best. His eyes just sparkled. He had set up an ingenious irrigation system – piping the water into a water jar standing several feet of the ground. He turned a spigot and he could water each plant individually with a hose he had pieced together. He, too, made a new year’s resolution – no hunger for his family this year.
 
What a wonderful way to start the year. I thank each of you for standing with our families. I thank my God, that He has given me the privilege of being a part of this. All of us together, will make 2010 a year of resolutions changing lives. Happy New Years everyone.
 
Janne
 

 

 

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