Above: Patricia and David Barker divide their time between Australia and Sri Lanka, helping children who lost a parent in the tsunami.By Sarah Schwager
A CRANBOURNE business will hold a free sausage sizzle this weekend to raise money for Sri Lankan children who lost a parent in the tsunami.
Harvey World Travel Canberra this Saturday will promote its Europe information night but will also help raise funds for the Patricia Rose Foundation.
Business owner and manager Natalina Mascaro said that the business held a sausage sizzle each year, cooked by Patricia Rose Barker and her husband David Barker who divide their time between Australia and Sri Lanka to help the children.
Ms Mascaro said that this time customers had suggested asking for a gold coin donation to help the couple raise money for the children.
The Gurdies residents, Mr and Mrs Barker will fly to Sri Lanka next March for three months to help the orphans at a school in Negombo after returning from there recently.
Mrs Barker said as they were both pensioners and did not have teaching degrees they could not teach the kids, but they could play and talk with them and help cook dinner.
“There are a lot of little things you can do with a small amount of money,” she said.
“We love the kids. There are 26 kids aged four to 17.”
The Patricia Rose Foundation helps take people off the streets and out of the shantytowns and gets children into education.
“There has been a lot of flooding in the last two weeks and so they have nowhere to go,” Mrs Barker said. “Also, the police are constantly moving them on because it is illegal to live on the streets.”
She said they hoped to start building small two-bedroom houses with the funds they raised.
Harvey World Travel Cranbourne is at the Cranbourne Centro Shopping Centre. For information on the sausage sizzle call 5995 1488.
To donate to the Patricia Rose Foundation call 5997 6459 or 0414 914 893 or email sristkids@bigpond.com.au.
To sponsor a child costs $15 a month, which goes towards school fees, doctor visits, and so on, and whatever is left over goes to the child when they turn 18.
