Jane Meads is leading a 150-strong Kiwi team to rescue Cambodian families from rubbish dumps. Photo / Kellie Blizard
Jane Meads wants to rescue Cambodian families from rubbish dumps.
Rebecca Blithe
28th May 2011
The Aucklander, New Zealand
When Jane Meads saw a film on poverty in Cambodia, she did more than pay lip service,
she made plans, as Rebecca Blithe tells.
A child picks his way through a filthy rubbish dump. Amid plumes of toxic black smoke he scours the wasteland for old shoes.
"It made me feel sick in my stomach," says Jane Mead of her experience watching the documentary, which chronicled Cambodian families living on a shut-down rubbish dump in Phnom Penh.
"One family, they collected shoes and rebuilt them, and that's how they earned a living. I couldn't talk to anyone after I'd watched it."
Come November, Ms Mead will be face-to-face with those poverty stricken Cambodians in a Habitat for Humanity building effort. Leading a team of 150 New Zealanders, the family support administrator and her volunteers will join another 200 people from around the world in the Khmer Harvest build.
Over five days they will build 20 houses, a community hall and an adjoining farm for families to run.
A somewhat seasoned volunteer, who has built homes in Fiji and Samoa, Ms Mead says the experiences thus far have been eye-opening and unexpected.
"It's very humbling, actually," she says.
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"Because you go to give, and you get given back. They're so grateful for the opportunity for change. You see how poor people are, how much they have to put up with.
"You come back and think you have so much to be grateful for."
On the trip to Fiji to relocate a village, she says the group had to trek over an hour up the Navua River and, after the build, were brought out on horseback.
She says the build in Samoa, after the 2009 tsunami, was particularly harrowing.
"That trip was quite moving. They'd lost so much. But the people still had smiles. And lots of singing. When I'd just come back from Samoa I did get a little package together for a baby that was born in the new village. There was no address so I taped a photo on the outside and a note saying 'please deliver to these people'."
Incorporated into the five-day build is a further five days for volunteers to travel and explore Cambodia. "It's a great opportunity for people to travel, and see things for themselves. We often get a father and daughter or a son on a build. And that's good bonding."
While chatting to Ms Meads at Habitat's newest street in Otara, we meet members of an American global village team.
Wayland Ritzman and his wife, Joan, are from Akron, Ohio. They've been working on homes in Clarrie Wills Way for a month and will then tour the country in campervans. Mr Ritzman says the experience has been unlike any other.
"We just like being part of helping out. We've got a couple from Kansas and the state of New York and we have a Canadian. We're strangers when we start but at the end we're good friends."
Join Jane
There are still places available for the Khmer Harvest Build. Volunteers depart from
Auckland on November 13 and return on November 26.
It may be possible to visit the area known as the killing fields, the Russian market in Phnom Penh and the floating village. For more information, ph 271 3357 or email:
JaneM@habitatga.org.nz
Rebecca Blithe
28th May 2011
The Aucklander, New Zealand
When Jane Meads saw a film on poverty in Cambodia, she did more than pay lip service,
she made plans, as Rebecca Blithe tells.
A child picks his way through a filthy rubbish dump. Amid plumes of toxic black smoke he scours the wasteland for old shoes.
"It made me feel sick in my stomach," says Jane Mead of her experience watching the documentary, which chronicled Cambodian families living on a shut-down rubbish dump in Phnom Penh.
"One family, they collected shoes and rebuilt them, and that's how they earned a living. I couldn't talk to anyone after I'd watched it."
Come November, Ms Mead will be face-to-face with those poverty stricken Cambodians in a Habitat for Humanity building effort. Leading a team of 150 New Zealanders, the family support administrator and her volunteers will join another 200 people from around the world in the Khmer Harvest build.
Over five days they will build 20 houses, a community hall and an adjoining farm for families to run.
A somewhat seasoned volunteer, who has built homes in Fiji and Samoa, Ms Mead says the experiences thus far have been eye-opening and unexpected.
"It's very humbling, actually," she says.
Advertisement
"Because you go to give, and you get given back. They're so grateful for the opportunity for change. You see how poor people are, how much they have to put up with.
"You come back and think you have so much to be grateful for."
On the trip to Fiji to relocate a village, she says the group had to trek over an hour up the Navua River and, after the build, were brought out on horseback.
She says the build in Samoa, after the 2009 tsunami, was particularly harrowing.
"That trip was quite moving. They'd lost so much. But the people still had smiles. And lots of singing. When I'd just come back from Samoa I did get a little package together for a baby that was born in the new village. There was no address so I taped a photo on the outside and a note saying 'please deliver to these people'."
Incorporated into the five-day build is a further five days for volunteers to travel and explore Cambodia. "It's a great opportunity for people to travel, and see things for themselves. We often get a father and daughter or a son on a build. And that's good bonding."
While chatting to Ms Meads at Habitat's newest street in Otara, we meet members of an American global village team.
Wayland Ritzman and his wife, Joan, are from Akron, Ohio. They've been working on homes in Clarrie Wills Way for a month and will then tour the country in campervans. Mr Ritzman says the experience has been unlike any other.
"We just like being part of helping out. We've got a couple from Kansas and the state of New York and we have a Canadian. We're strangers when we start but at the end we're good friends."
Join Jane
There are still places available for the Khmer Harvest Build. Volunteers depart from
Auckland on November 13 and return on November 26.
It may be possible to visit the area known as the killing fields, the Russian market in Phnom Penh and the floating village. For more information, ph 271 3357 or email:
JaneM@habitatga.org.nz
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