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I was born and raised in Bulli. I went to Waniora primary and Bulli High School. I completed a trade certificate as a wood machinist before joining the NSW Fire Brigades, where I've been a full-time firefighter for 12 years. I married my childhood sweetheart Rebekah in 2003. We were living the easy life, Beck as a registered nurse, myself as a firie, in a little flat next to Thirroul Beach, with dreams of travelling around Australia. In 2006, when our Cape York four-wheel-drive adventure was cancelled last minute, some friends of ours begged us to join a humanitarian trip to Mongolia. I didn't even know where Mongolia was, yet a month later, with much reservation, we landed in Ulan Bataar on a journey that would change the course of our lives. Each morning from our hotel window we watched small children climbing out of sewers where they had slept overnight to try and stay warm through nights that are often minus 30 degrees, climbing out of their hole in the roadway to go in search of food scraps for the day. It was the beginning of a rollercoaster ride of emotions and humanitarian aid trips which had us travelling to India, Thailand, Banda Aceh, Fiji, Uganda and more. The enormous sense of joy and fulfilment through serving and giving became evident to us. And the absolute need of the vast majority of people on this planet compared to our abundant wealth and waste hit us like a tonne of bricks. Everything we had been dreaming of and working towards seemed futile and fleeting. For us, we'd found a greater purpose to work towards.
One of the toughest things I experienced on these trips was in India in 2007. I was on a Habitat for Humanity trip with Steve Waugh and Brad Pitt, where 3000 volunteers built 100 homes in five days. We were heading back to Mumbai Airport at the end of a massive week of construction when I watched in complete shock as a woman begging on the median strip of a busy freeway was run over and killed, right in front of her five-year-old girl. The traffic didn't even stop, nor would our taxi driver. I saw that little girl's eyes as she became an orphan and that moment in time pretty much ruined my ability to live the comfortable, easy life that I had become accustomed to in Australia.
Another significant moment in India was the complete and utter joy on an orphan girl's face when I randomly gave her a pencil to draw with. It was as though all of her Christmases had come at once. One single lead builder's pencil brought her such an incredible amount of joy. When we were in Uganda, as an experiment, I leaned out of our bus window and gave the scraps of my orange to a road worker to see what his reaction would be. Again, it was as though all of his Christmases had arrived at once - he was so incredibly thankful, just because I'd given him the scraps of an orange I had partly eaten.
We are now moving to Zimbabwe for all of 2015 with Vana Childcare Ministries (vana.org.au) to help the 180 sponsored children become more sustainable through micro-finance loans, growing food and animals and construction techniques, as well as teaching health and hygiene practices. Beck and I have three young children including a six-month-old baby, so it will be a big challenge, but we feel passionately called to go and help where and how we can. I would live with much regret if we didn't help the starving majorities of this planet. As amazing as our beautiful coastline is here in Wollongong, I really struggle living here among an obesity epidemic and the amount of waste (especially food) that we produce. So this coming year is an opportunity for us to do something to help the genuinely poor and starving.
When we are not overseas I am first of all a husband and a father. I also love helping out at Christian Surfers (CS) North Wollongong on Monday nights where we hang out surfing and doing an array of crazy activities. I've been teaching SRE (Scripture) at Bulli High School for 10 years which is challenging yet incredibly rewarding, and the biggest day of each year for me is our annual CS paddle against poverty. Last year was the 14th year it's been run and we had 98 guys, girls and grommets paddling from Stanwell Park SLSC to Thirroul SLSC to raise funds for Compassion Children around the world. People who want to help can contact me at danaid222@gmail.com.