A Mother’s Love
Volunteer at The Collaroy Centre Single Mothers Camp for more than ten years, Joi Picker. (Photo: Jo-Ann Harmer)
Because I’m a single mother I know how hard it is at times when you haven’t got someone there helping you. Raising children is the hardest job in the world and the least paid but it’s the most rewarding.
– Salvationist Joi Picker.
For the past 14 years, Canberra Salvationist Joi Picker has taken a week of annual leave to volunteer her time at The Salvation Army Collaroy Centre’s Single Mother’s Camp. She looks after the toddler-aged children of the woman who have been invited to the camp by Salvation Army Corps Officers and Centre Managers from around the territory.
“I love seeing these mothers and children - some of them who come here, they just look so unhappy and so downtrodden and yet by the time they’re leaving they’ve got smiles on their faces and a lift in their walk,” she says. “It’s just lovely to see the difference that the camp makes in a positive way. Teaching the mothers different skills that they’ve never been taught before to help them to get through life.”
Decades ago Joi found herself alone with three children to care for, after leaving an abusive marriage. She says her experiences have made her passionate about helping others in similar situations: “Being a single mother is not an easy job and they need to know that there are other mums out there that are going through the same thing and they’re not alone.”
The five-day camp at The Salvation Army’s Collaroy Centre on Sydney’s northern beaches has been running for more than 20 years. It gives unsupported or disadvantaged single mothers a much-needed rest and allows them to spend time socialising and learning new skills whilst their children are cared for in a loving, Christian environment.
“We cover parenting and this year we are having Major Robbin Moulds from OASIS come to speak to the women about self esteem,” says Collaroy Centre Mission Executive, Sherrie Cocking.
“We offer financial counselling and other life skills, have a pampering morning and organise a family day-trip to Taronga Zoo.”
Volunteer Joi Picker says she enjoys her unofficial role as the camp ‘clown’ – one year she dressed up in a hideously un-fashionable outfit and joined the women on a trip to the cinema.
“They said to me: ‘You’re not going to the movies like that!’ And I said, ‘Yes I am, because God accepts us as we are. No one has the right to judge us except God and it doesn’t matter what we’re dressed in because God loves us just the way we are.”
Report by Lauren Martin
Comments
Good on you Mum. What a moving story. This world needs more people like you!!
What a fantastic idea for single mum's. It goes to show there are still kind people in this world.I am a single mum who left an abusive relationship after twenty two years and I have been asked to go to this camp with my daughter. I am very humbled but very excited to go and meet new mum's. Australia would my be the same without these caring volunteers. God bless you all Eve