By Barbara Rosasco | Secretary & Treasurer
One of the ways Kasumisou Foundation works to maximize results in its programs is by looking at challenges and opportunities as two sides of one issue. The old idea of giving a hungry man a fish to feed him today but teaching him to fish feeds him for a lifetime is seen in how we manage and integrate our scarce resources.
Part of our mission is to provide support families impacted by AIDS and extreme poverty. ( our Help Indigent Mom's project on GlobalGiving) We have a dual focus: provide humanitarian assistance to fragile families, which in many cases is providing basic dignified living conditions . The other focus is to keep kids in school and give them a chance to break the chain of inherited poverty. The hard truth is that it may be too late for Mom, we can only provide care and try to keep families together. But it is not too late to really try to help the kids break the cycle of poverty.
The title of this report is " the steps to building a future".
For more than 10 years, two of the fragile families under our care have managed to keep their kids in school, moving them forward, step by step. As many of us know, keeping teens on track is challenging in any society. Imagine trying to keep teens on track when home is a small room or two in a slum, when mom is ailing with AIDS and where every penny is counted. The phrase " difficult challenge" is an understatement for these kids.
Yet, even so, this summer we will see these two students, each more than 10 years in our care, get ready graduate from High School. Both students will sit for the national high school exam in August and assuming that they pass, both will enter our Build Dreams! program that helps Cambodian students to be able to attend college and have access to vitally needed employment from our Jobs for Cambodian Youth project.
Ravin, age 18, has been under our care since age 4 and dreams of studying Chemistry and Food Science at University.
Vichet, age 20, has been under our care since 2002 and he comes from a resettlement area and was orphaned ( by AIDS) and lives with his Grandmother and an orphaned 11 year old niece.
All of this is possible because of a combination of our long term approach and the loyal support of you,our donors. For years, we have paid for school supplies, school uniforms and the small teacher fees that are a part of Cambodian "free" public education. We have offered support, encouragement, tutoring when needed and emphasised the need to stay in school.
Thank you for your continued support of our efforts. We hope that you will encourage your friends to join us .
Barbara & Mark Rosasco
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.