Pine Rivers Yoga Community Learns of Fiwagoh

Sue accepts cheque for $2000

When we were gathering items for the container I sent our wish list to my yoga teacher, Ruth Campbell. She forwarded this request to her mailing list of yoga students who responded with an amazing amount of items to send to Fiwagoh. Ruth attended our thank you party back in March and invited me to share our DVD presentation with the yoga community.
We did this recently at a lovely evening that Ruth and Calum hosted at their home. 40 people attended a Musical Soiree and learnt of Benson and Florence and their wonderful work. Much to our delight, this evening raised in excess of $2000! This money will go towards building the trade school. What a great effort! Well done to Ruth and her amazing band of helpers, especially Shirley and Belinda for all their wonderful catering!

Hillbrook Anglican School Embraces Fiwagoh

Hillbrook is a wonderful school on Brisbane's northside. In year 11 all students are required to select a community project and volunteer for 20 hours. In 2010 my son, Brandon chose to help out with the container project. He then shared with his friends about the wonderful work of Fiwagoh and so this year his class, with the support of their home teacher Ben Behan, organised a movie night and raised $1000. What a phenomenal effort!
This money has been sent to Benson along with other generous donations  totalling $2500 enabling the commencement of the construction of the much needed trade school building....and caused an awful lot of excitement.
By law the children have to leave the orphanage at the completion of their secondary school studies unless Fiwagoh can offer further education. The current school building has very limited space so Benson and Florence are desperate to provide a trade school in a new building so that they can continue to support the children and further prepare them for future employment. During Sue's visit the older children were pleading with her to help them find a way to stay longer!
So you can imagine our delight, when we visited Hillbrook recently to say thankyou to 12 Green only to find out that the entire year 12 group had banded together to donate a further $900 to the construction of the trade school!
Thank you so much to The Year 12 Class of 2011! You have made such a difference to this project and your contributions have given us confidence that this is going to happen!

Crops are well underway....

Thanks to everyone who has contributed towards the $27500 that we have sent to Fiwagoh for the water project! As you can see below, the garden is looking fantastic!

Water Project

The greenhouses that we have funded are now fully installed and operational. This will make a huge difference to their ability to raise seedlings successfully in the harsh conditions.

Also the watering systems have started to be installed.

Ok..... you can have a pet!

Like most parents, Benson and Florence have succumbed to the pressure to allow a couple of pets, on the condition that they are not fed anything that is fit for human consumption, for obvious reasons! The children collect weeds to feed them......

Rainwater Tank Construction

With extra support from Better Life Mission in Switzerland, a rainwater tank has been constructed to help with the supply of water for the 'house'.

Check out the construction method...

Excavation - many hands make light work!

Removing the excess soil....

Who needs an Excavator?

Bore Hole Tank Now Completed!

Thanks to everyone who contributed donations for the water project. We have been able to fund the construction of this tank near the bore hole that will make it possible to water the garden! This is a major accomplishment and a huge step towards a a sustainable food supply! Benson, Florence and Peris (the volunteer horticulturalist) are overwhelmed by our support of this project.