It’s raining money after church fair. Church raises thousands
At the fair there were lots of people from all round the neighbourhood as well as most people from DCBC. The church was busy all day with more people coming in all the time. Sharon Leitch said. “I’ve never seen people line up to get into the church before.”
The church raised an amazing amount of $17,000. The church hopes to be donating this money to the mango tree school. As heard from Sharon Leitch “The school is hoping to get a full primary up and going with some new buildings, hopefully designed by people in the church.”
The fair was an event to be at, with many exciting stalls and interactive activities such as Face painting, Arts and craft, Books, Food, Cafe, Silent auction, Bouncy castle, Plants, Clothing, Toys and Laser tag.
“There really was something for everyone at the fair.” States Jaquie Copland. “Everyone in my family found something that they liked.” Noah Leitch, aged 6 years, said "Laser Tag was so fun, it was the best thing I have done in my life”!
The Mango tree School opened on the 3rd of November 2014. DCBC have been sponsoring the school for 4 years now and will continue sponsoring them for years to come. Lots of people at DCBC are sponsoring a child. Many children at the school would love to have a sponsor.
We are really lucky that in New Zealand, schools are affordable. In Cambodia school is really expensive so if you are poor it isn’t really an option. There was a girl that was very poor even out of the other people in her community. She was determined to go to school so she worked hard in the Sugar Cane Factory. When she had earned some money she went to school for a couple of days. Then she went back to working in the Sugar Cane Factory. She repeated this over and over again until she was about 13. Because she was the oldest it was her responsibility to earn money for the family. She was sent to work in the garment factory. One day Kevin McKnight, aid worker, caught her crying about not being able to go to school. He talked with her parents and arranged a way for her to be able to go to school.
There are many other children like this girl and still many children don’t go to school. DCBC is trying to stop this and are trying to get everyone a good education.
In Cambodia the government owns the land and they can do what they want to do with it. In 2010 they decided they wanted to destroy some people’s houses and do something else with the land. They took people in a truck and dumped them in the middle of nowhere with no homes and little money. That was how the Mango Tree community started.
DCBC had previously been operated at the Otago Boys high school but recently DCBC moved into a newly built building so that they could fit more people due to overflow, and have better spaces for offices and childrens areas.
DCBC is open on Sundays with all children’s programs from age 4 - year 8. There is also a service, all welcome. Email us if you have any questions.