Our Project

In our last blog I told you we had our first project approved so now I will tell you more about it.  The project is an "Area Initiative".  It is to meet local needs and is for under $15,000 US.  There are also "Major Initiatives" such as the water projects, wheelchairs, vision, etc.  The major initiatives are usually for many thousands of dollars and involve specialists from SLC and need to have approval from SLC.  Area Initiatives don't need SLC approval but they do need approval from the area presidency in Hong Kong.

Our project involves helping a home for handicapped and abused children in KK.  It is called Bukit (Boo-Kit) Harapan.

They have 50 residents.  They range in abilities from being completely independent (mostly they've been emotionally, physically or sexually abused) to being able to do nothing for themselves.  Mostly they are throw-away kids. There is a staff of about 15.  The staff works 24/7 with no scheduled days off.  They receive no help from the government and get no parental help either.  They rely completely on donations.  We met with the director, Audra, and she told us of some needs they have.  She asked for some educational games and toys, some orthopedic shoes and some hygiene kits.  At first she asked if we would be able to find any used shoes because new ones are very expensive ($300 US per pair).  She wanted to know if we knew of any place in the US where they could get used shoes.  We told her we didn't but we would see if we could get her some new shoes.  

This is a picture of the shoes they need.  Not real stylish but they will help children to walk.  What's more important?  Audra was hesitant to ask for too much.  I think she doesn't want to appear too greedy so we will come back and help her again.  We were able to find a distributor for the toys and we got the pricing on how much it would be to put together the hygiene kits.  We submitted the proposal which came to about $1600 US.  It was approved and so now we start to put it all together.  We went on Saturday to place our order for the toys and the manager agreed to give us a 10% discount -- YIPPEE and the distributor of the shoes agreed to sell them to us for a substantial discount also.  I think we can do it for under budget.  The YSA are going to help us put the kits together and go with us to deliver them and interact a little with the residents.  It really breaks my heart when I visit BH.  There is such a need there and some of the residents have nothing but used everything.  We are so blessed in the US and we are so blessed to be able to help others.  

                                                        The front entrance to BH.  

I am excited to see this project through to its close.  We hope to have it wrapped up by the end of July.  We are always looking out for more projects we can do.  I think next week we are going to visit an orphanage and also a blind school to see if there is any thing we can help them with.

It was also Senior Conference last week.  All the seniors had to fly to Singapore to get their VISA's chopped, so while we are all there we have a conference.  It is also the last time we will see Pres. and Sis. Clark.  They leave on June 30 for home.  We will miss them.  They have done a remarkable job in building the kingdom here in Malaysia.  They have a home in Lincoln City, Oregon and invited us to come see them sometime and go deep sea fishing.  We stayed in Lincoln City about 5 years ago when we took all our family there.

                                                The Read's with Pres. and Sis. Clark. 

While in Singapore we visited Ft. Canning.  It was a British outpost during WWII and told the story of the last day of Singapore's independence before surrendering to the Japanese in Feb. 1945.  It was a sobering place to visit.  Singapore, Malaysia and the surrounding islands really took a beating from the Japanese and the Japanese are still hated here.

We hope everyone is doing well and we really do love and miss everyone. Thanks to everyone who leaves comments on our blog site.  We really enjoy reading them. God bless you all.   E/S Read