Christmas gift from Maleney Baptist Church Sunday School

The children of Maleney, Queensland, wanted to make a special gesture to the children in Lahindaro for Christmas 1999. They raised enough money to allow SAO Buton to buy each primary school age child a gift. We asked the parents of Lahindaro what would be a most suitable gift - some items for school, perhaps a notebook or an item of clothing? But they said that anything like that would be irrelevant because their children were still suffering the effects of malnutrition. Could we please buy them some sugar or some sweetened milk so they would gain immediate variation of diet, glucose and nutrition. So, on Christmas day we delivered these items to the children of Lahindaro especially from the children of Maleney who cared enough to make this the first Christmas ever where these children have had a reason to celebrate.

Mosquito nets for Batauga and Lahindaro

Due to very poor location for houses in Batauga on borrowed land and due to heavy rains in Lahindaro, mosquitos bred very heavily in early 2000. Several people died of malarial infestation and many dozens of other fell sick.

We were able to raise a special grant from Australia, using some funds provided by senior citizens groups and Rotary clubs to purchase 400 mosquito nets. We purchased these nets factory direct in February 2000 and delivered them to the overwhelmed villagers.