WHEN about $130 pays for enough basic food for 80 children in Cambodia for a month, every dollar counts.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Which is why a mother and daughter team from North Albury is raising funds for a charity that feeds the country’s homeless, poor and orphaned.
Kate Barrette Cummins and Millie Cummins, 11, were inspired by their recent trip to Cambodia where they had volunteered in a restaurant for street children.
“It was a really cool trip,” Millie said.
“But it was amazing that there were five-year-olds who barely got any food and lived on the streets.”
As a result of the experience, they are holding an exhibition of Cambodian art at Brett Cummins Jewellery on Mate Street which they hope to sell along with silks and handmade wrist bands.
They had volunteered through International Volunteer HQ, an agency that sends out nearly 5000 people every year to projects all around the world.
“I really wanted to share a travel experience with Millie and give her that perspective of how lucky we are in Australia,” Mrs Barrette Cummins said.
“We wanted to do orphanage work so they placed us in a restaurant that serves children two meals a day.
“The children who come live on the streets, some of them work, then come to the soup kitchen in the morning. It was a real eye-opening experience, but the kids are just so happy regardless of the circumstances they’ve come from.”
Mrs Barrette Cummins said the charity had made about 140,000 meals since opening in 2010.
“You really had a sense that if you said the money was for food for the children, that’s what it got spent on,” she said.
The exhibition starts on Friday from 6pm at Brett Cummins Jewellery on Mate Street.
To find out more about the restaurant visit wacambodia.com
