WBro Maurice Price recently celebrated his second time as Master of Gillingham Lodge Of Benevolence No.184. His wife Marie who had a most wonderful Ladies Evening in 2002 encouraged WBro Maurice to invite their 14 year old daughter Nicole to be his lady for the evening. 160 guests enjoyed a most excellent evening, with Nicole giving the star performance with an amusing and most eloquent response on behalf of the ladies. During the evening Nicole herself instigated a raffle quiz and raised more than £350 to be donated to Demelza House Children’s Hospice.

During the summer of this year, Nicole escorted her father Maurice on a business trip to the Far East, and worked in a Cambodian orphanage in Phnom Penh for eight days, where security and loving care are the first priorities for the distraught and vulnerable children who seek its sanctuary. Upon Nicole’s arrival at 7am one Sunday morning, she found herself confronted with 1,900 children from the local area standing in a line waiting to be fed a meal of rice and vegetables. This charitable support from the orphanage happens once a month and shows the scale of local need in a third world country. On entering the orphanage for the first time, Nicole was horrified to find up to 30 children sleeping together on a splintered wooden floor, in a space no larger than her own bedroom, and the building being held together with wire and corrugated sheeting.

During her time there, Nicole immersed herself in a daily routine of teaching, feeding, dressing, dancing and sports activities, as well as caring for many of the smaller children from 5am until lights out. At the orphanage there is no running water, presently water is scooped up in pots from the dirty waters of the Mekong River and cleaned through basic and unreliable filtration tanks. Showers are taken “under the ladle”.

There is no electricity supply and old recycled car batteries are used until they expire. Basic needs such as food and medical supplies are catered for with carefully managed donations from friends outside of Cambodia, primarily from UK, USA and Australia. Food is basic, consisting of rice or noodles, eaten three times a day and sometimes flavoured with a little fish, meat or vegetables. Despite these obvious difficulties the children appear happy, clean and well cared for. Nicole, who had saved pocket money and raised other contributions by way of sponsorship was able on her first visit to present adequate funds for all 73 children in the orphanage to have a common school uniform made. One can only imagine how delighted the children were in their new clothes.

In January WBro Maurice and an American colleague are funding a new fresh drinking water supply to be installed in the new orphanage building which is currently under construction by the older children themselves who are learning skills as they progress, which will be of advantage to them when they become adults and are self supporting at 18 years of age.

On his last visit WBro Maurice purchased over 16,000 locally made bricks to assist in speeding up the building works. The roof is now on and progress has moved to working inside. Equipment and fittings are now high on the agenda and it is envisaged that upon completion more than 200 children will live at the orphanage in a safe and free environment. It is by donations alone that the new building is being constructed. Having experienced at first hand the joy of helping others, Nicole is saving hard once more to spend up to 6 weeks in Cambodia this coming summer, giving of her time and support to benefit those less fortunate than herself.

If any person reading this article feels disposed to help Nicole in any way, please contact her via WBro Geoff Cathersides, Secretary of Gillingham Lodge Of Benevolence No.184, tel 01634 375 052 who will pass on any donations which will be most ‘gratefully accepted and faithfully applied.’

Ed45, p10