House building in Cambodia a natural fit for Lush

December 30, 2010
By Pamela Eadie
Ottawa Citizen Special (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

Thanks in part to a generous donation from a good corporate citizen, it's expected that 25 new houses will be built in a poor region of Cambodia next month.

Rockin4Tabitha (R4T) is a grassroots charity that builds houses in Cambodia on behalf of the Tabitha Foundation; 2011 will be its fifth year doing so. Rockin4Tabitha is a fundraiser rhythm and blues concert in support of the Tabitha Foundation Canada's house building efforts in Cambodia.

R4T works through the Tabitha Foundation Canada with the primary purpose of raising money to build houses, wells and ponds. The Rockin4Tabitha build team, comprised of international volunteer, travels to Cambodia each February.

This year, it's benefiting from a $10,000 donation from beauty product company Lush Handmade Cosmetics, which offers more than 300 luxurious products made by hand with fresh, organic ingredients. They are also minimally preserved and minimally packaged.

Lush raised the funds through the sales of its Charity Pot lotion. The lotion is made with skin-softening organic fair trade cocoa butter and almond oil. It is sold exclusively for charitable giving; every penny that's paid for the pot, excluding tax, goes to grassroots charities around the world including R4T. Charity Pots can be purchased at Ottawa-area Lush stores, and online.

In addition, Lush will partner with R4T by sending five of its employees to Cambodia to participate in the build.

2010 marks the fifth anniversary of R4T. Since its inception, R4T has built a total of 50 houses, providing clean, safe, dry homes for 283 Cambodians. Each volunteer team member pays for all their own travel, accommodation and food costs associated with the trip; as well, each team member must raise and contribute $1,100, the cost of a single house.

The Tabitha Foundation is a benevolent trust founded in 1994 to undertake development initiatives in Cambodia in the areas of health care, education, sanitation, housing, and small business. Cambodia is still coming to grips with the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime, a country unsure of the role of Westerners in their world, and is also a country with deep beliefs in the Animist and Buddhist religions.

For more information please see www.lush.ca and www.rockin4tabitha.ca.