New Life Outreach

With the expected arrival of the container of relief items in Mid Oct, we'll be needing volunteers to distribute these reliefs to the refugees from October onwards.

This would be a unique opportunity as brings you right to the doorstep of refugee camp ! This is where you'll experience first hand what a refugee camp looks like and at the same time, you'll have the opportunity to interact with the Hmong people you're helping !

I'm looking at organising a 4D3N/5D4N fund raising trip to visit both Petchaboon as well as Care Corner Orphanage (see www.CareCornerOrphanage.com) to meet the following objectives :

1 ) Distribute & hand-out reliefs to refugees
2 ) Assist with ongoing efforts (Medical, Dental, Milk Mission etc etc)
3 ) Children's Ministry @ Care Corner (Music, games, skits etc etc)

If you're keen to know more about this trip, please email me at eugenew81@yahoo.com.sg with the subject : "Fund Raising Trip To Petchaboon"

In our last trip to the Hmong refugee camp, we saw many of the children running up to the fence line to greet us (and of course to peep at what we've brought for them !) . Although it was just children's slippers, but they looked through the fence with such anticipation !

It was a heart-warming sight for the entire team, but we also noted that many of the them looked under-nourished.

It was in our conversation with the leaders, that we were informed that there was a fairly large population of mothers who are unable to breast-feed their babies and their young are in need of milk.

In our next trip, we're planning to bring some milk-powder/milo to feed the first group of 500 children. Though, we may only afford a small cup for each child, but I believe that it would make a difference in the children who are on the receiving end.

It may be a donation of just a few dollars, but it means milk for a hungry child..... Please, if you are able to donate and assist, please write to eugenew81@yahoo.com.sg

Some of our donors have asked for more details pertaining to the refugee population as well as their current needs.

In our last trip, managed to do just that !
So... here are the details.....

Population :
7715 Refugees
2475 Of them are children

Remaining Requirements :
Blankets - 1438
Mosquito Nets - 1438
Milk - 862
Children's Underwear - 2475

We've just returned from a tiring but fruitful and heart warming trip to Petchaboon last weekend.

With Care Corner Orphanage Foundation(CCOF) Chiang Mai taking the lead for this humanitarian outreach, 14 children from the orphanage volunteered to take the arduous 7 hour journey with us with one simple hope - the hope of bringing cheer to the less fortunate children behind the barb-wired fence in Petchaboon.

In this trip CCOF sponsored 800 pairs of children slippers as some of the children in the refugee camp were walking around bare-footed and subjected to cuts on their small feet. These are some pictures of our outreach.

Dear Readers & Friends,

Thank you for all your kind support and generous contribution. To date we have collected SGD $5626 with an additional $18,000 to be raised to buy sufficient blankets. Please continue to help raise awareness by sharing this blog with others with the hope that more people will step forward to support.

As I will be heading straight to Petchaboon refugee camp for 3 days after flight tomorrow, I will provide another update as soon as I get back to Chiang Mai ! :)

Extracts from a email from Laiu Nai Fwei dated 20 Aug 07:

"....Please let the Hmong people know that when their video clip is shown in each person's computer, people teared with them, felt a heavy heart with them....

You should hear these stories from me...

A brother who was badly indebted 2 years back withdrawn $1000 from his personal savings and donated it to the refugees. He understood how precious God's grace has been in his time of need and he gave of out of his savings to bless the Hmong people.

Another giver is a sister in my church, she earns a meagre salary by working laborous hours as a photocopy lady. I remembered speaking to her 3 years ago when I urged her to have some savings even if it means starting from $10 per month. This $10 saving was a challenge at that time as she has suffering from hypertension and in poor health, most of her hard earned money went into paying her medical bills.

Today, she still works in the same laborous job and saved penny by penny through the years. Just a few minutes ago, she handed me $1000 from her hard earned savings to bless these refugees.

Many of the people who have contributed funds from my church, are people who are very thrifty, eat simply, dress simply and hardly buy any new clothes. They understand the plight of the refugees and what it can be like without blankets in the cold.

It is a lot of trust when I received their response, and each time I felt like crying. The brother who gave $1000 hopes to see these little ones in the Kingdom of Jesus. The sister who gave $1000 wrote 'May God's love and peace be with them'.

Please let the Hmong people know that they are not hopeless people. Over here, though many of us will never meet in person, we want to share with them what God has given us. And we hope that they could have some shelter, and from these clothing and blankets and other stuff, they could see that God did not forget them....

-Nai Fwei "

Dear Readers,

I will be leaving for Chiang Mai this friday to head up to Petchaboon. This would be a 3 month long effort, interspersed with regular trips to Petchaboon with Ricky and his CCO team. As such, my sister(Perlita) & my brother-in-law(Andy) will be helping with the collection effort back here in Singapore.

For those who are unable to pass me their donations/clothes and blankets before I leave, do arrange to have them sent over as soon as possible. You can still use the same email contact to reach either Perlita or myself. (eugenew81@yahoo.com.sg)

As the logistics tail is relatively long, we would need to set a cut off for collection on 14 Sep (Friday) so that resources can reach the refugee camp before the cold season kicks in.

Please continue to contribute generously as we still lack funds to purchase sufficient blankets for these Hmong refugees.

Eugene