Planting seeds of hope far from the mean streets

by Greg Bearup

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, February 21, 2000

"I really haven't had anything much to live for these past few years." Don Smith said yesterday. "Gee, I tell you, it's nice to have found a tunnel where the light was on."

The light has been Jeff and Alina Gambin, who have just started an ambitious project to take homeless people off the streets of Sydney to live and work on a market garden at Minto Heights, near Campbelltown.

Mr Smith, a former Coles manager, was cruising along in life just fine until November 29, 1996, when he came home to find that his wife had left their four-month-old son alone in a locked car for two hours at an Auburn supermarket to go shopping.

Daniel, his son, died. His wife, Jodi, was charged with manslaughter, charges that were later dropped, and his life fell apart.

He lost his job, turned to drugs and drink and ended up living on the streets - home is now an alcove behind Mitchell Library.

Last month the Herald ran a story on the Gambins, a couple who for the past five years have been feeding the homeless, out of their own pockets, in Martin Place and around the city.

They were flooded with offers of help, one from Mr Doug Ferris, who was the trustee of an estate of an Irish Sister of Mercy, Sister Bernadine.

The estate included 10 hectares at Minto Heights, a former market garden that the nun had said in her will could only be used for charitable purposes.

Mr Ferris contacted the Gambins, who are now working full lick to transform the land into "a retreat" for Sydney's homeless.

The plan is to restart the gardens, build accommodation and take people who are ready and willing to go out to the country to work and regain their living skills.

During the months away it is hoped they will be able to save enough of their pensions to get a bond and move into work.

Mr Gambin, who feeds a couple of hundred people each night, eventually wants to build a kitchen there and teach them to cook.

"Then they can drive down to Sydney and feed the people on the streets themselves," Mr Gambin said yesterday.

He is a man of boundless enthusiasm and ambition. He says he is going to make this work.

"Look at these people," he says of his motley crew, mowing lawns and building fences. "They have all the skills. All they are lacking is a bit of dignity and self-respect, but a bit of hard toil and a sense of worth will change all that."

Mr Gambin is not motivated by any religious fervour, and is not attached to any church, but started feeding and helping the homeless after an offer of help to him from a homeless man when he was down on his luck.

The Gambins get no government funding and at the moment they are on the hunt for donations of old tractors, sheds and expert volunteers. They can be contacted through Just Enough Faith - on 0412-546248 - non-religious organisation they set up to help the poor.