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PAGE 8 BAY HARBOUR<br />
Wednesday <strong>June</strong> 1 2<strong>01</strong>6<br />
News<br />
Choir’s heartfelt tribute<br />
• By Tom Doudney<br />
A TIGHT-KNIT choir<br />
group have recorded a<br />
song for the funeral of<br />
a terminally ill former<br />
member now living in the<br />
Netherlands.<br />
Women in Harmony<br />
recorded East Timorese<br />
hymn Ita Hotu Maromak<br />
Nia Povo We Are God’s<br />
People at the request of<br />
Dorien Pel who is dying<br />
of cancer.<br />
Ms Pel was a long time<br />
member of the choir up<br />
until about six years ago<br />
when she first developed<br />
cancer.<br />
When her house was<br />
damaged in the September<br />
2<strong>01</strong>0 earthquake,<br />
she moved back to her<br />
country of birth, the<br />
Netherlands, for what<br />
was supposed to be six<br />
months. But the stay ended up<br />
becoming permanent.<br />
In spite of surgery, the<br />
cancer had returned and Ms<br />
Pel was already planning her<br />
funeral in the Netherlands when<br />
she returned to Christchurch for<br />
a visit in December and January.<br />
Choir member Judi Smitheram<br />
said choir members had met Ms<br />
Pel at a social gathering and sang<br />
together again.<br />
HARMONY: Choir member Dorien Pel, standing with red scarf, fifth<br />
from left, with the choir in 2007.<br />
“Dorien was wonderful at<br />
always bringing poetry to our<br />
gatherings and she had written<br />
a poem especially for us,” Ms<br />
Smitheram said.<br />
It was during this visit that Ms<br />
Pel asked if they would record<br />
the song, which the choir had<br />
not performed in more than<br />
eight years.<br />
The choir sourced a recording<br />
of the song from Australia’s Radio<br />
National station to help them<br />
go over it and get the pronunciation<br />
right, as the words are in the<br />
Tetum language.<br />
After recording it, they sent it<br />
to Ms Pel.<br />
“We got a lovely note back<br />
from Dorien saying how much<br />
she appreciated it and she was<br />
very moved,” Ms Smitheram<br />
said.<br />
Women in Harmony has<br />
about 20 members from around<br />
Christchurch.<br />
Charity that helps<br />
most vulnerable<br />
falls on tough times<br />
• By Tom Doudney<br />
A LOCAL trust which acts as a<br />
problem solver for vulnerable,<br />
disadvantaged and struggling<br />
people around New Zealand<br />
said it is in urgent need of<br />
funding.<br />
SigJaws Trust helps people in<br />
a variety of ways, from lobbying<br />
for retention of services,<br />
suggesting changes to<br />
legislation, finding work<br />
and housing and promoting<br />
innovations.<br />
However, project manager<br />
Gary Watts (right),<br />
who founded SigJaws<br />
in 20<strong>01</strong>, said the trust<br />
had been struggling financially<br />
for some time and needed more<br />
funding to carry on.<br />
The trust’s operating expenses<br />
were “conservatively” about<br />
$207,000 a year and while it had<br />
enough to carry on over the next<br />
six months, finding new funding<br />
was a big challenge.<br />
“We have got over 200<br />
clients now that we are<br />
dealing with on a day-to-day basis<br />
and a lot of these people have<br />
slipped through other systems<br />
big-time,” Mr Watts said.<br />
One of its recent projects has<br />
included working with Canterbury<br />
University to develop a<br />
robotic arm which would allow<br />
mobility-impaired drivers to fill<br />
up at petrol stations without leaving<br />
the car.<br />
The trust had received funding<br />
from organisations including the<br />
Ministry of Social Development,<br />
the Rotary Club of<br />
Christchurch and The Lion<br />
Foundation within the last<br />
year.<br />
However, it had been<br />
unsuccessful in seeking<br />
funding from the Red<br />
Cross, the Canterbury Community<br />
Trust and the city council.<br />
“If our funding dries up it’s just<br />
impossible to carry on,” Mr Watts<br />
said.<br />
SigJaws Trust board member<br />
Jamie Hoffman, who has cerebral<br />
palsy said Mr Watts had been<br />
pivotal in helping him find suitable<br />
accommodation after the<br />
earthquakes.<br />
“People just don’t realise how<br />
much good he does out there,”<br />
Mr Hoffman said.<br />
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