COMMUNITY Unlike the vast majority of not-for-profit organisations, this one guarantees 100% of donations makes it to the targets. No deductions for salaries, administration or marketing. All those were taken care of by a separate company and guaranteed by the founder, Peter Baines OAM. Hands Across The Water has raised millions upon millions of dollars without spending a single cent of donor's money on admin and the like. They have built orphanages, community centres, helped in slums, and today also save children from the sex trade. They provide an education for the less fortunate and give them a future. Faced with what was my dream charity, how could I say no? While my wife cycled, I worked at the orphanage in southern Thailand. It had been the worst hit area in the country when the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 crashed ashore, sweeping away nearly everything in its path. I took my twin five-year-old daughters to show them that "poor kids" wasn't an abstract concept and it touched both them and me deeply. Even though I didn’t expect it to be easy I was surprised at how emotionally difficult it was. I cried every day but it was wonderful to know I was truly making a difference in these kids' lives. We worked around the home during the day when the kids were at school and then played with them upon their return. Despite the incredibly tragic stories the children chose to be happy and were hardly ever without a smile on their face. It was noticeable how much they enjoyed interaction though as if they were hungry for personal affection. My twins were befriended and played with constantly. Children don’t accept restriction or recognise differences and they all bonded wonderfully. Even as I write this, my girls are writing letters to Jip and Mae at the home. The time we spent there was both wonderful and shattering. But the indomitable spirit on display from those supposedly less fortunate reminded me that it isn’t what happens to you; it’s what you do next that matters. I worked alongside a young man named Game who I discovered came through the home and then had the opportunity to go to university and study law, which he’d just completed. I congratulated him and asked him if he was looking to go to Phuket or Bangkok to practice law. He smiled at me and said he couldn’t leave his brothers and sisters and would be staying at the orphanage to help raise them all. My first instinct was to feel sad for him but I quickly realised that Hands Across The Water had given him the greatest gift of all – the ability to choose for himself. His was one of the happy stories. Despite the trip exhausting me both physically 84 Pindara Magazine 2016
Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Seven
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