Transform '07,01,06' Into A Date Format With Just A Query

I've been handed just about the worst HTML/PHP/MySQL site ever scrapped together. While we're in the process of rebuilding the site from scratch for our client, they desperately need some data pulled from their DB.

Originally the data was dumped to files but due to attempted injection attacks, the table has grown so large it times out. So I'm trying to pull the data directly but I have a huge problem. I need to pull all data with a date >= July 1, 2006. The problem is the dipsh*t who built this has the date field with a datatype of varchar and the date in the format of གྷ,01,06'. Obviously I can't do a date comparision check with that so how can I transform this data into a correct date format using only a query? I do NOT want to go in and start coding in this site. It's a live site and I'm afaid anything I do will break it.

It's MySQL 3.23.57 and all I have access to is PHPMyAdmin. PLEASE help me!!! Someone work a little query magic for me.