Dinner Dance - August '09

HATW held a fund raising dinner dance on Saturday 22nd August at the Crowne Plaza in Marlow. 97 guests turned up at 7pm all looking fantastic in their evening wear. Ray Reeder and able assistant Nick grabbed the arrival shots and it seemed literally within seconds had the photos on display for all to see. Totally magazine was also in attendance snapping away for the next publication.

The room looked great and very quickly filled up with everybody looking forward to the evenings events. Gill gave a short welcome speech to get the evening rolling and so into good food, wine and conversation. At 9.45pm Gill just gently reminded everyone as the reasons behind the event and then into the auction which was run by Ian Williams who encouraged the audience to part with their money. We had some fantastic auction prizes which drew a great deal of interest from around the room. (£100 offered and paid for Steve Butler to remove his shirt – he doesn’t need a lot of encouragement that lad!!)

The band – Stitched Up – then played for an hour, they were absolutely brilliant and got everyone up dancing and singing along to some tasty soul tracks.

Onto the raffle and the first prize of 4 nights b & b at broom Hall in the Cotswolds went to Peter Butler whose birthday was the following day, so a very appropriate winner.

And on to more dancing – by this time everyone was certainly more the merrier for wine and beer and at the end didn’t want to finish. Ian gave his rendition of Viva Espania on the keyboard accompanied by Greg Withnall on the drums (not quite sure whether the band approved but it went down well with the audience!)

The evening was a fantastic success and we raised £5840.90 for the charity.

A big thank you to the following –

• Katherine Garland and Ben and staff at the Crowne Plaza for ensuring that everything ran so smoothly, they worked so hard and nothing was too much trouble. The Chef and his staff for lovely food.
• Stitched Up for being a superb band and providing great entertainment throughout the evening.
• Everyone who donated Auction and raffle prizes
• Ian for his efforts with the auction and raffle
• Steve Butler, Pam Carvell and Jan Fitzpatrick for support throughout and their hard work in getting everything together
• Ray and Nick for the photos
• To everybody at the event – who supported us with raffle tickets and auction bids – a big thank you for helping to reach our target.

Target for 2009 was £30,000. Total raised so far £30,726.

Total for HATW £101,014

Brilliant!!!!!!!!

800 kilometres over 8 days in extreme heat - no way. Well that was my first thought, however I knew that within minutes - no seconds, the idea would grow on me and it did.

Retired Det Inspector Peter Baines from New South Wales Police, Sydney had contacted me. Pete and I worked together for a month on my last deployment to Thailand. When I decided to form Hands Across the Water to build the orphanage, I phoned Pete for sponsorship and he immediately decided to form Hands Across the Water Australia. HATW UK built the first orphanage originally for 30 kids of the tsunami, by 2007 there were 60 living in fairly cramped conditions. HATW AU raised the funds to build the second building alongside the first so we now have girls in one, boys in the other.

One of Pete's board members, Brigid came up with idea to cycle from Bangkok to the orphanage to not only raise more more but to finish the ride at the offical opening of the new building. Simple!

Having agreed to do the cycle, both me and my long suffering other half, Ian, commenced very limited training due to weather, limited daylight hours and other commitments.

We flew out to Bangkok on the 15th January and met up with 21 other cyclists from Australia on the evening of the 17th in a small restaurant in Bangkok. My biggest concern still - the heat, having left a minus 6 in UK, we were now drinking Singhas, 8 o'clock in the evening in 28 degrees. The beers helped though!

The ride was to take place over 9 days, 8 days of cycling with 1 rest day in the middle. Everything was organised by Tour de Asia cycle company who did an amazing job, leading the route, organising all the food, all accomodation, support, enforced fluid breaks and supplying the cycles. You literally did not have think, just get on your bike and suffer!

Over the eight days we saw the most amazing sights. Most of the time we were far away from the tourist areas in real remote villages where the people lived in absolute squalor and poverty yet never failed to wave and shout encouragement to us all. (the Thai people confirmed that they truly are the friendliest people on this planet).

The first two days were flat and relatively cool, only 28 degrees which gave us a chance to acclimatise. The aussies were okay as they had just left the heat of a very extreme summer. Literally from day 1, everyone got on so well and we formed a fantastic bond as a team - the common factor being that we were stretching our bodies for 60 beautiful children who were waiting at the other end for us. Throughout, there was a lot of laughter, singing and leg pulling which makes it seem as if things were easy. I can assure you, this was not the case. As the ride wore on the temperatures increased, humidity crept up and the good cheer just helped to forget the discomfort.

The riding varied from main dual carriageways into towns where we diced with death alongside lorries, motorbikes on our side of the road travelling against us, dogs (everywhere) and bison, oh and the occasional elephant and monkey! We had fantastic rides along the most beautiful beach roads, through palm jungles on dirt tracks and on the final three days up and over the mountains which also happened to be the longest days. The days averaged anything from 75k up to 130k with normally 3 fluid breaks and a lunch break in the middle. Lunches were taken at very VERY basic roadside shacks where you probably would avoid at first glance, however the food was fantastic and because it was light, very Thai and fat free, made cycling very easy afterwards. Only on one occasion were there any problems when we tucked into what we thought was shredded chicken and rice -it turned out to be shredded pigs intestines. For some strange reason, bananas were popular on the menu for a little while after.

The accomodation overall was pretty damn good, two places in particular where we had a beautiful beach bungalow each and a fantastic jungle shack in the Khao Sok National Park. On day 5 we stayed at a Thai version of Butlins where the beds were like tables and as I pulled on a t shirt to go to dinner a cockroach climbed out of my non existent cleavage!! We were woken to the sound of its friends tap dancing early in the morning.

On the last day, the hilliest but the shortest we were met 5 k from the end by 40 of the older orphans on their bikes who joined us for the cycle in through police roadblocks all the way to the orphanage. The emotions had been running high on this day anyway and to see our young friends again was almost too much. As we rode up to the new orphanage all of the very little children joined us for the last 200 metres where we were met by a police band, the second in command to the Australian Embassy and various local dignitaries, plus everyone from the village.

Rotjana, the wonderful lady who runs the orphanage greeted us in tears and started us all off. We were actually celebrating such a wonderful occasion and achievement. But.....we all knew that very soon we would begin saying goodbyes. It was interesting to see everyone lovingly pat or stroke their bikes, so soon after cursing them along the route! The celebrations continued throughout the afternoon and evening with the children dancing, fantastic food, speeches and presentations and the Thai equivalent of Mr Motivator running his aerobics class (he does this every evening at 5pm with the villagers) which we all joined in for a very long 10 minutes!

The children now have two beautiful homes that echo with laughter and life. The new building also has a large kitchen and canteen. The main career path here is in the hotel/restaurant trade so the kids will be taught cooking, kitchen and serving skills to provide them with a big headstart when they leave school. In other words they will be readily employable without training needs. They are also receiving extra English tuition which again will help them to easily find employment in their future lives.

HATW UK are aiming to raise £30,000 in 2009 to build two volunteers bungalows to house the many volunteers that help the children without incurring accomodation costs. In addition we are supporting an education programme run by the staff and children of the orphanage which is taken to 30 local schools in the form of a puppeteering theatre. HATW AU are aiming to build a community building to form a central meeting point and activity centre for the local community.

So 800k down the long dusty Thai roads. Was it worth it? I cannot put in to words just how much it was worth it. You only have to look at 60 beautiful faces with big smiles and you realise you have just witnessed the creation of a very special family. These kids are so full of love for each other and for anyone else who crosses their paths. Very definately worth it. You should try it sometime......

And yes - I'm doing it again next year. It was worth every push of my pedals.

If anyone is interested in further information on the cycle tour company please contact me and if anyone would like to support HATW to raise our £30,000 please log on to www.justgiving.com/hatw/donate.

As you are well aware I set up Hands Across the Water to raise funds to build an orphanage in Thailand following my work there after the Boxing Day Tsunami.

Gill & Rotjana with some of the children The building was originally designed to house 30 children who had been left orphaned and homeless and were at the time living in a large tent.

I have just returned from Thailand where I spent two days with the orphans discovering how they are progressing and what their plans are for the future.

I travelled up to Takua Pa which is just north of the Khao Lak area of Thailand. This area had been badly effected by the tsunami and certainly for a couple of years remained damaged and untouched. However, now, three years on, hotels have been rebuilt, gardens and coastline are re-landscaped and the tourist industry is very much back on track.

Taking delivery of the new truck There is little sign of how badly affected this area had been apart from a police boat still sitting a mile inland at the back of a field and two big passenger ferries in the middle of a village approximately three quarters of a mile inland.

What were basic refugee camps are now structured communities with decent housing and survivors who now have their communities back.

There are still 360 graves in a memorial cemetery each with its own DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) number engraved on each small headstone.

I arrived with my husband Ian and three friends at the orphanage where we were immediately greeted by about 20 young and cheerful faces who all came running out to greet us. They had finished school early to meet us. The older children finished shortly after.

Cultivating orchids to sell
to local businesses

The orphanage now is home to 54 children and as you can imagine accommodation is very tight on space considering it was only designed for 30 children. There are still 10 other children waiting to be housed here who are living in temporary accommodation. Fortunately the Australian side of Hands Across the Water has funded the building of a second orphanage adjacent to the first which will be completed in December 2008. Once complete, 38 girls will move into the new building and 26 boys will remain in our building. There will be a total number of 64 children that will then be housed there until they are 18 years old.

Growing their own vegetablesIt has been a year since my last visit and I was absolutely amazed at what had been achieved by the staff and children. Earlier in the year the orphanage obtained permission to take over a hydroponics farm on nearby land plus all the polytunnels and netting. Since then they have learnt how to grow and cultivate orchids which they now sell to nearby hotels and restaurants earning an income for the orphanage. They also now grow all of their own fruit and vegetables resulting in a huge saving in their food bills and to top it all they have created a small fish farm which provides an income from the fish they sell.

The orphanage is situated on the edge of a small village and the locals are heavily involved with helping at the orphanage. Most of the children at the orphanage came from the village originally. The adults assist with feeding, cleaning and laundry work and a small house in the village is now a sewing workshop where all pyjamas and bedding is made for each child made by local women.

Local villagers sewing pyjamas
for the children

Whilst we were there, they took delivery of a truck bought by HATW and we also purchased a motorcycle and side box (like an ice cream cart) which will be used to take the orchids around the hotels by one of the older children.

I was absolutely amazed and impressed by how much had been achieved at the orphanage. They still need help from the outside world but were desperately trying (and succeeding) to prove that they could also help themselves and become more self sufficient with basics such as food and clothing. The thing that struck me was the enormous sense of pride that you could see in the faces of the children and staff whilst they were showing you around. Even the youngest children played a part.

A few days later I met up with all 64 orphans and 36 children from the village at a cinema complex in Phuket (two and a half hours drive away). HATW paid for a coach to collect them and to take them to watch a film, popcorn and lunch afterwards.

A visit to the cinemaThey had never done anything like this before and it was quite humbling to watch. The younger children had never seen an escalator before let alone ride on one and a few of them were quite frightened and needed to be shown. It is something that we in the UK never give a second thought to. However it was brilliant just to see the excitement in their faces at the prospect of watching a film for the first time.

What about the future? 64 children now have a comfortable and caring home. More than anything else it is a very happy one which is obvious when you see how they have progressed. However some of the children still suffer from emotional problems which is fully understandable when you realise all that they have lost and have gone through.

My next objective is to continue with the support and fund raising and I am now looking at raising £50,000 over the next year to build a volunteers bungalow.

The truck purchased by HATW
for the orphanageAll volunteers at the moment have to stay in rented accommodation which obviously costs the orphanage money. The intention is to provide this accommodation which will allow more volunteers to work free of charge.

If anyone would like to donate money or do something stupid with your work colleagues to raise money and know that it is going to a very worthwhile cause for 64 very beautiful children - PLEASE – JUST DO IT. If anyone would like to work as a volunteer at the orphanage please contact me 07970 145108. I have just helped two young girls in their gap year to achieve this and they have both said it has been a life changing and amazing experience.

email: gill@handsacrossthewater.org.uk
tel: 07970 145108