Newsletters

With our regular newsletters, we aim to keep you posted on all the interesting and important news and updates of our programs and various activities. Enjoy reading! 

December 2018

            	
Dear friends and partners,
In this month of Christmas celebrations with dreams and hopes abounding, it is good to share how Christmas works in Tabitha. It’s not a specific month – nor is it a specific thing or step achieved – it is a process – a process of development. The central core of this development process is savings – the core of savings is a dream – a vision – of what a person or family wants to achieve.
In November, Heng, Srei and I visited our project in a small village called SreKeh. The first time I visited this village was in 2013 – a village of thatch huts – hot, dusty and ever so poor. It was a village of no’s – no means of income, no animals, no water, no hope.  We began with savings and as time passed, water sources and income generated. This was a visit to see the progress of the village.
   
                
When we arrived in the village, the families and staff could hardly contain their excitement – so much of the village had changed – so much more was going on. We went to the house of Sokeing – a middle aged woman who was a widow – she had several grandchildren living with her. Sokeing had received a Tabitha house on Oct 1 – before the house was built – Hout, our staff and Sokeing had talked about her new home and what her dreams were. Sokeing wanted a toilet for her new home – an outhouse. This involved buying bricks and cement and tiles. So Hout and Sokeing sat down and figured out how much she had to save to be able to purchase these items. They counted how many bricks and this is where the miracle happened – not intentionally but unintentionally. They counted the number of bricks – average size 6 inches by 12 inches , When it came time to deliver, cinder blocks arrived – cinder blocks of 18 inches by 12 inches by 10 inches – and so many of them - way too many for the toilet alone. The house building team came and they built. Then they left.
Sokeing did not have the money to hire labor so she did the work herself – she built the toilet, then with the so many bricks left she finished of the space under the house, another 2 rooms and then she built the wall.
  
Chantha across the street also got a house and watched Sokeing, Like her neighbor she was a widow with no men in her life – she went across the street and learned. Chanthon built her toilet but did not buy endless bricks, instead she bought cement and bamboo and build a kitchen – both women used left over bits and pieces from their shack and were adding on more space.