The Mottee family, made up of Jim and Helen, as well as their children Georgia (18 years) and Isaac (13 years), are back from a five year stay in Hong Kong working for the Crossroads Foundation.
Although originally intending to stay for three months – and only having funds to cover that period of time – somehow they managed to extend their stay to six months, then a year, then the full five years they have been away from Australia. All the time, they were volunteers working with no fixed salary. The Mottees’ originally come from Wauchope, in northern NSW – it was this location they left in 2007 to work for one of Hong Kong’s largest charities, the Crossroads Foundation.
This organization recycles donated goods such as electrical appliances, clothing, books and stationery, and sends these to those in need, to places such as Haiti and New Guinea, as well as Africa, the Pacific and South America. Mottee is a well-known name on the NSW north coast. Originally, the family – beginning with Jim’s grandfather – arrived in Australia in the 1860s from Kythera, Greece.
In the early 1900s, his sons followed. He and another migrant from Kythera became partners in a fish and chip shop in Sydney called Comino’s Oyster Salon. He also helped in the building of the first Greek Orthodox Church in Sydney, on Bourke Street (Agia Triada). His sons had their own business ventures. George (Jim’s father) and his other brothers moved to Kempsey, on the north coast of NSW and opened two milk bars, two cinemas and a roller skating rink. They were later joined by others who had migrated from Kythera and opened their own milk bars in the towns on the eastern coast of Australia, from New South Wales to Queensland. Although they were separated by large distances, they still kept in constant contact as fellow patriots, to either simply spend time together or attend baptisms and weddings.
The connection with the Crossroads Foundation began when Helen was working in its Communications office, telling the rest of the world stories about the people whose lives the Crossroads Foundation had touched. She also used her skills as a musician and songwriter to spread her message about those homeless and in need, being awarded singer-songwriter of the year in 2002. Her songs reached the UN High Commission for Refugees, which then led to her travelling to countries such as Burma, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Cambodia to visit their underprivileged populations.
She has also played a great part in ‘Refugee Run’, one of many real life experience simulations formulated by Crossroads. ‘Refugee Run’ was presented in Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum, to names such as Sir Richard Branson, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, as well as Australian politician Gareth Evans. Through all of this she has been joined by her husband Jim, who has offered help in areas such as helping pack shipments of goods for third world countries.
Jim had previously served as an education officer in Aboriginal Programs with Commonwealth Education. Her children have also been involved in sending goods over to orphanages in China and the Philippines, as well as spending time playing with children from these countries. Generally, Jim Mottee told Neos Kosmos, their ‘work was with the toys, books and stationery that were given out to orphans in countries such as China and the Philippines.’ For now, however, they are back in Wauchope, NSW, their home, or at least until their humanitarian instincts kick in again!