Learning to give...

Mayah has been involved with a couple of memorable experiences offered by the Singapore American School that she goes to. One was with the organization Tabitha Cambodia...Tabitha supports the poorest of the poor in Cambodia with programs to fund families. The funds from these programs impact younger children through school fees, food for the day, water jars, etc. In addition the money that is raised supports micro-enterprises and community development that begins with small business and cottage industry projects. The Tabitha Cambodia's mission is not a charity, but enables these families to recognize and develop inherent skills and resources in such a way that using these skills will result in work that brings dignity and respect. It also results in great improvement in the lifestyle of the people.

Mayah participated in the Earn-To-Give program where she not only earned money to greatly benefit the families in Cambodia, but also herself. She earned money by doing chores around the house for certain "wages". The money Mayah earned went towards installing field wells in Tanong Village in Takeo. There are currently 7 field wells that service 28 families...families whom Janne Riskes (founder and director of Tabitha Cambodia) was told two years ago by the commune chief "Don't bother, they are very lazy and very stupid people." She said that those were just the words they needed to challenge her staff. The following is what she had to say about her recent trip to the village...

"Last November we started to install the field well. Our first stop was with 4 families who were desperately poor. What a joy it was to come. All of the families were there with big smiles - anxious to show me what they had done. They received their field well in January. Between them they have 50 small pieces of land - the average size is 10 meters square. The well had allowed these families to grow three crops of rice - their fourth crop of rice was growing. Out of every 4 pieces of land, the fifth piece was for vegetables - bananas, eggplant, morning glory, cabbages, and beans. For the first time, not all the land was for rice. It was their smiles and their health that touched me so. We have enough food to eat, enough food to sell each day - we are no longer hungry. I snuck a look at the chief, but he said nothing.

We went to the other families - as far as the eye could see, we saw vegetables and rice growing - all grown because of field wells. These families all owned several pieces of land that averaged 50 meters by 10 meters. They received their wells last November - since then they had grown 3 crops of rice - enough rice to feed their families and to sell a ton each. All of them had vegetable plots of cabbages, morning glory, beans and chili peppers - the one I liked most was the field of green peppers - I didn't know they would grown in Cambodia.

What was so amazing is that these families who were considered to be too lazy to work with, had fields of green while other fields lay fallow.

As we traveled out of this community, we watched other families just begin to plant their first and only rice crop of the year. It was sad, for the number of fields the rice was flagging because there was not enough water - there was no field pump. I turned to Pon, our staff responsible for this area - Id like more field wells she whispered - afraid to dream in case we could not do it. My response was immediate - as many as you need.

How good it is to see the men and women who found it hard to move each day because of malnutrition, work with joy and thankfulness, how good it is to see what was once so sad become a place of fruitfulness, a place of contentment, a place of people with dignity and pride."

The second program she is involved in is a Singapore based grass-roots organization called Caring for Cambodia that is dedicated to improving the lives of Cambodian children through education and empowerment. Mayah's teacher is going to Siem Reap with a team of 15 other SAS teachers over the Thanksgiving break to train the Caring for Cambodia teachers, students and their communities through a unit on the importance of basic hygiene. Their goal is to create 500 hygiene kits and bring them over to distribute. Mayah and her classmates will be assembling the kits in class with the items they have brought from home (soap, washcloths, toothpaste, toothbrushes, plastic combs, etc...all stuff we totally take for granted!) then they will draw and write a personalized note to put inside the bag.

Mayah has been really excited about these opportunities and is really thinking about the people she's helping with her donations. This has been a great learning experience for her and we both really look forward to having these types of programs become a regular part of her/our life. I wish we could have done and given more...and I wish we could have been able to help out more with the hands on stuff.