I am very pleased to report that after many months of preparation, our Charity Night/Dinner, which took place at Mt Pritchard on Saturday 18 October was a great success. May the Good Lord bless Fr Delmar Silva PP! His empathy towards thousands of our adopted orphans and abandoned children made it happened, by allowing us to use the OLMC Parish Hall.
The day started early: before 8am, around 20 volunteers came to set up the venue.
An amazing sign of solidarity with the poor, a joyful celebration of God’s Love alive through our actions, gathering people from Campbelltown, Greenfield Park, Horningsea, Kogarah, Liverpool and South Hurstville, among others.
Jeannette Beaudoin, after many months of gathering all the necessary items for the decoration of the hall and tables in expectation of 200 attendees, finally got her Big Day!
Tables were smoothly put in their places and clothed ‘con gusto’ under her attentive care.
A big welcome panel in English, Malagasy and French on the one side of the stage and three colourful flags of Australia, Madagascar and France on the other, beautifully reminded us of the 27 years of charitable solidarity, uniting the peoples of these three countries!
Shining from distance, were beautiful attractive flowers, decorating tables, generously provided by A&L Florist from Bossley Pk, alternatively leaving place for the gentle appearance of little Himalayan salt lamps… courtesy of Jeannette!
Wine bottles on all tables were generously offered by Valore Cellars from Carramar.
Even though the drinks were BYO, this gesture of magnanimity was very appreciated by participants! Water also, was added to the provisions of those who came to enjoy the evening.
At the right side of the stage, two tables were already expecting the winners of the tombola and the ‘lucky door’ prizes, kindly provided by Paul Aloir, Jeannette Beaudoin and Nadia and Laurent Schwarz.
In the kitchen, Nives Care, Rosamaria Lia and Maria Perugini excelled in preparing food to be served under caring attention of Hervé and Jocelyne Juste with Bruno and Françoise Nourdine. The variety of great quality food was provided by by: Rosa Cardoso, Nives Care, Francesca Chow, Marina Jean-Baptiste, Peter and Malika De Zilva, Rosamaria Lia, Nancy Lo Bianco, Maria Perugini and Maria Tomei with French baguettes from ‘Label Baguette’ in Maroubra. Patricia and Lucas Fogante-Abrahamowicz (‘Confiteria El Sol’) with Nadia and Laurent Schwarz, provided abundant delicious dessert cakes.
Next to the kitchen, Francesca Chow came to offer the beautiful carnations/flowers from her garden at Kentlyn, accompanied by her own home-made variety of confiture.
At the adjoining table, variety of Polish chocolates generously given by ‘Wawel Import Export’ form Hill Top NSW, with some jars of row honey and other items from ‘Roma Pizza Restaurant’ at South Hurstville, were already attracting the best of connoisseurs present at the event.
Our newly consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Anthony Percy, kindly interacted with the friends of Akamasoa; meanwhile our virtuoso accordionist, Ross Maio, was warming up his magical fingers, graciously blessing us with uplifting melodies.
Outside the entrance, Sinisita Filitoga was busy recording the names and donations of the participants and inside the hall, Mario Iunius began to serve champagne (accompanied with delicious canapés and petits-fours freshly provided by ‘Ganache Patisserie’ at Castlecrag.
By 7 pm, the Hall was vibrating with festival mode of 180 friends of Akamasoa and our 27th Charity/Dinner began!
Astrid Delayre, with her camera was graciously/discreetly moving among the participants, retaining in pictures the moments of wonderful celebrating of togetherness in spirit of Charity.
MC for the event, Ky Chow, welcomed Fr Pedro and outlined his amazing 36 years amongst the poorest of the poor and 50 Years of Priesthood celebrated this year (see: perepedro-akamasoa.net).
Then our guests of honour were introduced: Honorary General Consul of Madagascar, Mr Anthony Knox and his wife Suzanne, Fr Brian Lucas (National Director of the Catholic Mission), Sr Telesia Talalua (attending the sick from Walis-Futuna in Sydney’s hospitals) and Bishop Anthony Percy, who bestowed blessings upon our gathering.
After all the participants have enjoyed the variety of culinary delights, Fr Pedro took the microphone to share with us his joy of being present at this event, expressing his heartfelt gratitude for our help in keeping going God’s endeavour of holistic care of tens of thousands of poorest of the poor, especially over 20.000 orphans and abandoned children…
Then, I expressed my deep appreciation to so many good hearts present at this event from around Australia, who for the last 27 years were and are responding to God’s invitation to share generously His blessings in supporting the poorest of the poor in Madagascar, and for the last 15 years the monumental (already 36 years old) work of Fr Pedro at Akamasoa.
Then came time for dancing to the most beautiful melodies performed by our dear maestro Ross Maio, followed by the drawing of our tombola done by Susanne Knox and recorded by Denise Dupré.
It’s my great joy, once again to congratulate the winners, calling God’s blessings upon the generous providers of prizes and those who bought this tombola tickets, greatly helping our adopted children in their education.
1. Bowerhaus* Round pearl necklace paired with matching earrings valued at $4200. – donated by Elizabeth Lee; winning ticket number 4450.
2. Elegant Bowerhaus triple-strand pearl necklace with matching earrings valued at $3,500 -donated by Elizabeth Lee, winning ticket number 861
3. One Bowerhaus classic pearl necklace with matching earrings valued at $1500, donated by Elizabeth Lee; winning ticket number 6479
4. Voucher $500.00 from Myer – donated by Nadia Fortuné; winning ticket number 3119
5. Coles Gift Card valued $500.00 donated by Nadia and Laurent Schwarz; winning ticket number 221.
6. 1 Bottle of Chivas Regal 4.5 Lt valued at $499 from «Valore Cellars»; winning ticket number 4876
7. Gourmet hamper valued at $280.00 from «Providorium»; winning ticket number 5823.
8. Gift Basket valued at $250.00 from «GJ Food»; winning ticket number 6358.
9. Gift basket valued at $100.00 donated by Sybra & Harry Hunt ; wining ticket number 4619
10. Gift basket valued at $100.00 donated by Sybra & Harry Hunt; winning ticket number : 9615
11. Voucher valued at $100.00 (2x$50) donated by «Ganache Pâtisserie Française» at Castlecrag; winning ticket number 5971.
After tombola, drawing of around 20 ‘lucky door’ prizes gave the way to a beautiful, spontaneous excitement.
The dessert time began with the cutting of the cake celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Priesthood of Fr Pedro, provided by Jeannette Beaudoin and Sinisita Filitoga.
Meanwhile, a big surprise: one of the sons of Ross Maio join his father in incredibly amazing performance which brought the participants into a great moment of admiration…
Then 2 opera tensors: George Maurice and Piero Murgida, joined the accordionists and with their incredibly powerful voices gave the most beautiful concert of classical and folklore masterpieces.
There was amazing sensation of joyful vibration of the hall’s structure!!!
Around 10:30pm cleaning of the hall began, and by 11pm the key of the venue was returned to the care taker of the parish.
Around 180 people went home blessed by this time of great celebration of Love of God, expressed in helping those in need under the paternal care of Fr Pedro.
Hopefully, Good Lord will join us again for the 28th Charity night.
For now I would like to present the results of our 2025 fundraising:
Donations:……..109,964.00
High Tea…………..4,800.00
Tombola…………19,322.00
Sales: ……………..6,817.00
TOTAL:………… 140,903.00
On 7th January 2026, our association (SFRCC) transferred $94,974.00 to the account of Akamasoa.
Catholic Mission, on 11th February, transferred $41,336.00 (form $45,929,00 less 10% for administrative fee).
Hopefully, getting together for our 28th Charity next October, with gratitude for being united in solidarity with our adopted children at Akamasoa, yours grateful in Christ: Fr Jan