Over the years Sydney Lawns and Gardens has engaged with both local and international organisations that seek to better our world.
Work has included: maintaining a community playground, maintaining 'The Spot" public gardens in Randwick, local working bees, raising money for HOHI etc.
At the moment we are strong supporters of the local charity "Homes of Hope International".
Sydney Lawns and Gardens partners with these organisations out of our heart for giving, and invite you to be part of the process by engaging our landscape services.
Below are excerpts from previous newsletters and newspaper articles.
Orphanage Project
Sydney Lawns and Gardens has recently partnered with a local Sydney charity to set up a new children's home in Surabaya Indonesia. Homes of Hope International (HOHI) has been working to save women and children at risk for many years and Sydney Lawns and Gardens is proud to be a part of one of their latest projects.
Nick Perkin, Director of Sydney Lawns and Gardens, has had a long association with Greg Beech, CEO of HOHI and in late 2008 Nick and Greg got together over coffee to plan the latest HOHI orphanage in Surabaya.
Surabaya, Indonesia' second largest city, has many children who are at risk. Many children are orphans or categorised as neglected by the government because: Their parents are in poverty; They live on the streets; and/or Their parents have died. There are many homeless children in the Surabaya region. The figures vary but estimates are that there are hundreds, possibly thousands of orphaned children living on the streets or in slums.
After much hard work by teams of dedicated people both in Sydney and Indonesia, Nick and Greg travelled to Surabaya in May 2009 and in partnership with the local Yayasan Kasih Anugerah (local charity) opened the brand new orphanage.
Both Greg and Nick would like to thank the many supporters of the project, both in Australia and Indonesia. This new home will cater for 10-12 children. A smaller home enables us to better cater for the needs of the children. Each child in our residential care programmes requires three sponsors. We are also planning a local capacity building project – a motor cycle repair school, that will, in a small way, address the issue of unemployment. Sponsors for the Surabaya children are needed now. For more information go to http://www.homesofhopeint.com/Surabaya.htm
Homes Of Hope Press Release, The Southern Courier, 12 May 2009
Local charity tackling Indonesian poverty
Make a difference one child at a time
Local entrepreneur Nick Perkin, director of landscaping business Sydney Lawns and Gardens, was pondering the issue of how one person of limited resources could really have any impact on the horrendous problem of global child poverty.
“The problem just seemed so big and my influence so small,” says father-of-three Perkin. “But when I began talking with a locally-based charity I realised that for the cost of a daily newspaper I could literally save a child’s life.”
The local charity was Randwick-based Homes of Hope International (HOHI), an organisation set up in 2004 by CEO Greg Beech to help women and children at risk throughout the third world. But Perkin wasn’t satisfied with just sponsoring a child. “HOHI was about to launch a new orphanage project and I decided to become involved by rallying sponsors to support the project,” he explains.
In April 2009 HOHI, in partnership with Yayasan Kasih Anugerah will open a new children’s centre in Surabaya Indonesia which will cater for 10 to12 children. Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, struggles to care for numerous children who are at risk. Many children are complete orphans or categorised as neglected by the government because their parents are in poverty.
The centre will provide total residential care for these orphans, who otherwise have very little hope of housing or schooling. HOHI needs three sponsors per child and is hoping to rally support from the local community. “We know times are tough for everyone, but saving a child’s life costs as little as A$1.15 per day,” says Perkin.
HOHI is also planning a local capacity building project – a motor cycle repair school - that will, in a small way, address the issue of local unemployment.
“You can’t fix everything,” says Beech, whose organisation already has two successful projects up and running in Indonesia as well as homes in China, India and Mozambique. “But you can make a difference one child at a time.”
excerpt from spring 2012 Newsletter
Sydney Lawns and Gardens is running for the kids!
That's right. We are running again this year in the City to Surf to raise money for Homes of Hope International (HOHI).
Last year we raised over $15000.00 for the Medan Children's project (Indonesia).
This year we will be raising money for the Miraj Computer School (India) and hope to make it fully operational through this fund raising event!
Sydney Lawns and Gardens has partnered with HOHI and Gracepoint Christian Church in the past to set up the Surabaya Children's project and buy a long overdue van for the children of the Medan Children's project (Indonesia)
This year we have 51 people running in our team and aim to raise at least $15,000.00 for the project.
Where CBD to Bondi Beach.
When This Sunday! 12th of August 2012
What can you do? Well, we appreciate your well-wishes, but if you would like to support the project, click here or call Nick on 0403 029 664
Quick Facts
Did you know that More than 840 million people in the world are malnourished - 799 million of them live in the developing world.
Approximately 25,000 children under the age of 5 will die today as a result of hunger or preventable diseases. source UNICEF 2009
We live in what some people describe as a global champagne glass economy, where the richest 20% of the population owns 83% of the world's wealth, the next 20% owns 11%, and the remaining 60% owns only 6% of the world’s wealth.
Special mention
A special thanks to
Skippens Landscape and Building Supplies
for their generous support again this year.