Friday, November 27, 2015

Day five - Green Gecko

Hello everyone, it's Georgia here (hi mum), I was asked to update the blog today as Dave's post failed to upload from his Samsung flip phone. Haha!
 Today we had the pleasure of visiting green gecko, an organisation that provides free education and a home to street kids. The organisation was founded by an Australian woman who aims to break the poverty cycle through education. We were separated into two groups to partake in both a tour of green gecko and the rehash trash program. 
Rehash trash is offered to the mothers of gecko kids who are uneducated and have no skills. The women were using recycled plastic bags and making ........... by crochet. During this time the women taught us how to crochet, made us wristbands out of plastic bags, danced and Bailey even found a wife. Upon arrival a lady claimed him as her boyfriend and she decided that she would take Bailey home and leave her husband. Very funny. Bailey had not only gained a wife, but also 3 kids, one of which he cuddled throughout the session. The lady even told the group that she was going to rename her 5 month old Bailey. Upon seperation, the mother sent Bailey to work so that they could buy milk for her child. It's fair to say it was love at first sight.
The tour was guided by, Kim Suan, a member of the first group to be accepted into green gecko. She guided us around the area, showing us where the children live while telling us her story. Kim Suan was originally a street kid and was due to follow the poverty cycle. At 19, Kim Suan had been at green gecko for 10 years, and now she is able to live at home with her mother. It is astonishing how Kim Suan was undertaking 'work experience' at green gecko in order to gain administrative skills, public speaking skills as well as practicing her English. 
At 12:00 the children of Green gecko were served up 'Morning glory' as they went to lunch and at 1:00 the children went for their siesta (sleep), which we believe should be included in the Australian curriculum.
At 2:00 our group and the younger children went to the green gecko farm and were given some jobs that included moving compost, making a path, placing bamboo leaves on plants and finally moving rubbish. We are proud to say that we definitely got down and dirty and it felt so good to work with the children on their farm. But not only did we work hard to help them, we had heaps of fun on the way. The gecko kids found charcoal and found it extremely entertaining to rub it all over our faces. You will always see a smile on the kids' faces!!
We ended our trip to green gecko with a $700 US donation to go towards school uniforms for the gecko kids which will allow 70 kids to have a brand new uniform. The members at green gecko were very appreciative, not only of the donation, but the way in which we interacted with the children for the entire day. 
Anyway, 4:30am start (for some) tomorrow heading to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat.
Hope you are all well. Xo

Georgia Donat

2 comments:

  1. Makes me proud to be a mum, thinking & hearing about how you are learning about yourselves and the affect you can have on others.

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  2. Makes me proud to be a mum, thinking & hearing about how you are learning about yourselves and the affect you can have on others.

    ReplyDelete