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Earlier in the month, 9 staff members from the Perkins Group of Companies departed for Cambodia to take part in the Tabitha Foundation House Building for a second year to participate in their house building project.

Cambodia is a third world country that in the 1970s experienced genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime. The systemic killing of Cambodians results in the loss of 25% of the country’s population – and this occurred in some of our lifetimes. This has resulted in extreme poverty throughout the country, which the Tabitha Foundation is looking to combat through meaningful savings programs.

The team visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields on the first day, both memorials to the atrocities committed during the 70s. We also met with a survivor of the Khmer Rouge Regime who now works for Tabitha Foundation and were briefed on what was to come with the build. We found out we would be building in a nearby province (near the Vietnam border), and for 24 families. These families had committed to the savings program, where over a period of 5 years, they save $25 to contribute towards the cost of the house build (the rest contributed by donations).

Two days, 24,000 nails, bamboo floors, 92% humidity, and a few sore thumbs later we had constructed 24 houses for 116 people; 74 of which were children. The build included participation from eager family members, farm animals, and the occasional fan plugged in from a neighbouring house that were fortunate enough to have power.

At the end of the build we participated in a handover ceremony, where each family received a blanket to signify the handover of the house to the family. With a roof over their head, and access to clean water it is anticipated that these children will likely go to school, the family may be able to afford to pay for medicine if someone was to fall ill, and there would be no need to sell their children into human trafficking or be vulnerable to this in the future. Through education, the program helps to break the hopeless cycle of poverty.

All that hard work had built up an appetite for us, and following an award ceremony where we saw a number of the Perkins Group acknowledged for their building skills or expert photography ability, we headed to dinner with the build group at the Friends Restaurant, who employ young adults who live on the streets, and provide them training and employment opportunities in the hospitality industry.

In Siem Reap, we visited the Cows for Cambodia Project. The way the programme works is to loan a family a pregnant cow that they must look after, and when it has a calf, they give back the cow to go to another family and keep the calf. We visited the cows that had recently been purchased for the programme, including one that we had donated funds towards and then visited two families that had been positively affected by the programme.

The day was topped off with a visit to a local school in one of the rural villages outside of Siem Reap where we spent some time meeting the children that were attending after school classes in English, seeing how intelligent these children were, and the opportunities that were being created by the programme for families in the community was heart-warming and inspiring.

There will be a lot of lessons learnt from this trip that will stay with each of us for the rest of our lives. One quote that sums up the experience well is – what we do for ourselves dies with us, what we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. The people we met, and the experiences we were afforded is something we will be eternally grateful for.

We want to extend a thank you to all whom participated in all our fundraising efforts, with a very special mention to South West Site Manager Pete Leaman who donated a whole house; without your generosity this would not have been possible.