SHE RESCUE HOME RETURN VISIT

Hi Everyone,

On my first day in Cambodia I was blessed to be able to visit the Citipointe SHE RESCUE HOME, Phnom Penh, where I lived and worked with the staff and girls for 6 months in 2009.

I went to the office to sign in etc first. The new Project Supervisor, Nicole, is lovely and spent time filling me in on all the progress since I left two and a half years ago. She showed me how the micro enterprise project had grown as well. They now have several families making the bracelets and paper bags.

The bible verse where God says " .... don't despise small beginnings..." came to mind as I reminisced about my involvement and how it all started with me putting together about '6 craft kits' with all the materials etc needed, and God lead me to the lady in the shop opposite Toul Sleng (the school that Pol Pot turned into a prison and torture chamber) who was able to teach the two Khmer mothers to make them.

This enables the families to support themselves and get off the streets, or stay home and work, so their children aren't left alone and vulnerable to predators.

Since those small beginnings, they now have about 13 families involved in making them. They get international orders for huge amounts (1000 to 2000) bracelets and paper bags, and they have a store room at the office full of the materials and stock to fulfill orders. How awesome is that???? Praise God for small beginnings.

Then we went to the house where the girls live. They are in a new premises and now have about 23 girls. I was so warmly welcomed by everyone. All the girls remembered me, even the little ones. The three 15 year old girls that I was teaching english amongst other things, have all moved on. They all did hairdressing training. One is married now with a baby, I believe and the other two are back in their community with family.

THE STAFF WERE SO HAPPY TO SEE ME!! They even rang the House manager for her to say hello to me. She was disappointed to not be there, but it was her day off. They all miss me, it is humbling to realize what an impact you have had on peoples lives without realizing it.

God Bless till next time.....

NEW MICRO ENTERPRISE!

Our Micro Enterprise projects are growing! Micro Enterprise seems the way to go to create income for struggling families. You will recall that we have started off one of our mums making "ITS NOT OK" bracelets. Well we have now trained a second mum to make them, but a slightly different design. (See opposite). She is doing very well with them. As I said before, we supply all the materials and the mums are paid by piece. So they can help support their families. Then the bracelets are sold in Australia, and we even have an order for America. You may see them at future conferences.

Our new project is Paper Bag making, like this one but a little bigger. Hilary brought a template over from Australia so I could teach one of our dads to make them. We have an order of 600 to start with.

So, Last Sunday the Channy, House Manager, and I took all the supplies need out to one of our families, so I could teach the husband how to make them. Thus starting him off on his own micro enterprise project. As before, we will supply the materials and pay him by the piece. It was all quite new to him, but he seemed happy about the prospect of it all. Of course Channy, being Khmer had to translate for me, as I taught him the steps. The afternoon was successful and we left him and his wife with a smile on their faces. (The wife is already making bracelets for us, but she is clever and will help him learn). This family is now managing their own finances through the income that they are creating in this way. We are really happy for thier progress, as this is the family we relocated from begging on the riverfront!!! Praise God for new beginnings. Love and Blessings to you, Lane.

Epic Arts Centre - Kampot

Two weeks ago Julie and I visited the Epic Arts Centre in Kampot. We hired pushbikes and followed a moto out to this beautiful new building that has recently been completed with donated money.

The Epic Arts Centre

is a charity estabklished in 2001, with offices in UK and Cambodia. They run projects accross the whole arts spectrum for disabled and disadvantages people including drama, music, dance, photography, visual arts, pupetry and crafts.

They work with mainstream schools and special educational needs schools, community groups, churches and youth groups, hospitals, hospices, rehabilitation centres, orphanages, day centres and more..... To give opportunities for people to develope new skills, encourage self expression, build confidence, foster understanding and intergration between people with varying life experiences, abilities and disabilities, age and ethnics.

Here are some samples of their pupetry and crafts.

It is a spectacular new building. And on the day that we visited they were running a drama class for diasbled young Cambodians. They are often the forgotten people.

It was such a privelege to visit this centre. It was really encouraging to see such a work happening here. I hope you have enjoyed my little snipit about it.

Blessings, Lane.

Update on the House....

As you know, for privacy reasons, it is difficult to take photos etc of what goes on in the house with our girls and staff. But I thought I'd catch up on the progress of some of my stories.
Here we are this morning doing our usual pick up of children, and some parents from Stung Mean Chey (one of the slum areas of Phnom Penh) on our way to church. We had money donated recently to purchase a second Tuk Tuk . And as you can see it gets well used.

Full to the brim each Sunday, with eager and excited children, to be going to church. Sometimes we have so many people that we have to hire a second tuk tuk. Julie and I have started a little "thing" where we take a spare pair of undies with us, as some of the kids will jump on the tuk tuk half dressed. This morning the pair I had went to good use for a little girl who had on a lovely little skirt and top, and was happily jumping about flashing everything she owns, because she had no undies on. She was quite proud of them (the undies). When I put them on her, she kept lifting her skirt to have a look at them.

This man was offering morning tea while we were loading up the kids. Some sort of sausages, and the lower plastic bags have birds eggs of some sort in them. Yummy, I had to hold myself back from this treat! Lucky I'd already had my weetbix.
The family we moved from the riverfront are doing really well. We also pick them up in our other tuk tuk each Sunday and take them to church. The mother is doing really well making the bracelets we had her trained in making. She was making an average of 40 per week, which we buy from her. But this week she mad a whopping 70. She is able to fully support her family's food and rent now. We also supply the materials, so basically we are paying her for her labour per piece. The builders labouring job, we had organised for her husband, fell through at this stage. A lot of building has stopped because of the global economic situation. But apparently he is doing a lot of the cooking and helping a lot more with the kids and everything so that the wife can make the bracelets. We have also supplied the littler children with some educational material, so they can start to get some sort of education. So the family is doing really well. Praise God for this progress.
The school year year is almost finished here, and a few of our girls are really happy to be progressing to a new level. We have about 4 girls that are in grades lower than their age, because of the schooling that they have missed out on earlier. But they are all coming along really well. We get great reports from their teachers.

One of the 15 year old girls, that we have been tutoring at home this last 12 months, (in English with me and also in Khmer) is going to start school for the first time next semester. She has worked hard and come such a long way. She will be in a grade 2 years younger that her age, as are some of our other girls, but she wants to do it. So that is a success also.
Praise God for what He is doing in the SHE Rescue House. It is a privilege to be a part of it for this season. Please also keep me in your prayers. Thanks for tuning in. I love and appreciate you. Bless you heaps, love Lane.

Stephen & Jocelyn Head.

This is Stephen and Jocelyn Head. They are a lovely Aussie couple that have been living in New Zealand for the last 20 years. They have many years experience as missionaries, and recently spent one month here in Cambodia, ministering to expats and the like. Their teaching sessions were inspirational and their care towards us as a spiritual mum and dad was warm and compassionate. (There was a bond between fellow Aussies)We were really blessed to spend some time with them and learn from their experiences and wisdom. I know for me, they were a timely Godsend. Jocelyn gave me some material to work through, to help reveal God's love and grace towards me. And some resources on culture shock, which I have found helpful. This photo was taken at the International Christian Fellowship church, last Sunday, on there last day here in Cambodia. They are now safely back in new Zealand. I thank God for the time we spent with them, it was precious. Bye for now, Lane.

Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre

One one of my days off recently I decided to take a break from the noisy crowded city, and took a Betelnut Jeep Tour to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Centre. It was about a one and a half hour, uncomfortable drive out into the province in the back of this jeep. The other three were very nice young American tourists.

This young Khmer lady was our tour guide for the day. She really loves the animals and is really passionate about what the Rescue Centre, and the organizations they work with, does for them.

These elephants have been rescued from poachers, as have most of these animals. Some of the animals, like monkeys etc, were found illegally chained up as domestic pets.

The baby elephant seen here taking a bath, is two years old. He has lost a foot from being caught in a tiger trap. His mother abandoned him because she had not other choice. He was trapped and they both would have starved to death. He was found in time, but starving, and brought to the Centre for treatment and rehab. Apparently he has an artificial foot that he walks on.

This is a tiger cat. There were two of these beauties. looks just like our domestic Tabby Cat doesn't he? Almost cuddly!!

I'm not sure what type this monkey was but she loved having her foot scratched..

This is a close up of her paw...hand...or whatever the correct name is.

There were many animals there, each with their individual rescue story, which our very knowledgeable tour guide shared with us. Sorry I can't remember them all, and you would probably get bored anyway. Sometimes you just have to have been there.

This very distinguished gentleman was very content in his spot in the shade. I did learn that during mating season the keepers cut their antlers off because they become too aggressive and do a lot of damage. All those hormones jumping around I guess. And that male ego rises again...ha ha.

You scratch my tummy and I'll scratch yours!!!!

I don't know this guys name either, but I thought he was a very unusual creature and worth a spot of fame!! Anyway that is all for that day's trip. It was very refreshing to get out of Phnom Pehn for the day. We had to race a storm back to town so we didn't get drenched on the way. Thanks for tuning in. Bye for now, till next time - God bless you, Lane.

Some Khmer Arcitecture

Here is some Khmer Arcitecture. I am not going to try to describe each photo. They speak for themselves. Some has French influence and some has Chinese influence.

These were taken on my cyclo tour the other week. I hope you enjoy this window into Phnom Penh.