A commitment to helping others and providing a quality education for children is what keeps the husband and wife team of Terry and Jim Hathaway returning to Indonesia each year.
Terry and Jim have been working as aid workers in Indonesia for the last several years and will be returning to work there from January to June of 2020 for their third year in a row. There they live and work at the Lombok Children’s Home in Indonesia where they teach English, help children with their homework, teach life skills and make arts and crafts which, Terry said, are sold at the Cataline Christmas Craft Fair. They also will provide training and information to visiting teams that come to teach English as a second language in Indonesian villages, Jim added.
Each year prior to going back, they call upon the community to help raise funds to upgrade and rebuild parts of their facility in Lombok, which have been affected by past earthquakes.
Last year Jim said their goal was to raise funds to construct an ESL Centre, which has since been completed, while this year they’re looking to raise enough money to undertake two projects.
First, Jim said, is to raise enough money to build more dormitories so more students can live at the home and second is continue the process of rebuilding the parts of the school that were damaged by the earthquakes.
Read More: Couple builds school in Indonesia
This year their Project reBUILD, Terry clarified, will be focused on rebuilding and refurbishing the toilets as well as repairing cracked walls and replacing roofs with ‘bricks falling down’ from them.
Jim said that, ultimately, he and Terry have committed to raising a $100,000 for the home, no matter how long it takes. To date, Jim said they’ve been able to raise around $40,000 thanks to the generosity of the lakecity community, something both he and Terry are extremely grateful for.
“It’s a humbling thing asking for money, especially when you know people only have X amount of dollars,” Jim said.
Like last year the Hathaways are organizing another Project reBUILD fundraising dinner and auction that will be occurring on Saturday, Oct. 19 at the Calvary Church on Carson Drive.
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., Terry said, with dinner being served at 6 p.m. with music being provided by LeRae Haynes and Friends. The dinner will be catered by CJ’s Southwestern Grill.
Tickets went on sale on Oct. 1 and are $18 a person and can be bought by contacting Jim or Terry at 250-398-9180 (home) or 250-267-4405 (cell). Terry has set a goal of $20,000 for this evening though Jim said they usually raise around $8,000.
“Just come and join us and see what we’re doing in Indonesia to help out these kids and the families that have been affected by circumstances with the earthquakes,” Terry said. “Just get involved with something that’s beyond Williams Lake.”
Read More: Williams Lake aid workers seek community support to help rebuild in Indonesia
Last time they were there, Terry said she did a lot of relationship building with the students while teaching ESL which made it very hard to leave when June came around. Terry and Jim are considered to be ‘oma and opa’ to many of the children, grandma and grandpa, that attend their school which makes raising these funds all the more personal for them. As these students are often sent far away from home to get their education, this emotional bond becomes all the more intense, Jim said.
Those unable to attend the dinner can donate via their ‘$25 Buys 500 Bricks fundraiser,’ which is totally tax receipted, that goes directly into the Hathaways construction fund.
patrick.davies@wltribune.com
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