Help Destitute Moms with AIDS Care for Their Kids

“Lest we forget” is a formal and literary  phrase that is often used  to remember the service and sacrifice of people who have served in wars and conflicts. It is a formal and literary phrase  that means "it should not be forgotten".  You may wonder how this ties in with a project report.

Our report today is in memory of Madam LP who recently passed away. She had been  a participant in our program for more than 15 years. She leaves two children, K a girl age 15 and S a boy age 11.

Before her death and despite her poor health,  Madam LP had  worked, when she was able,  as a collector of roadside recyclables for which she could earn a few dollars per day to help to support her children. The additional support that she received from our program was a lifeline that enabled her to provide a modest home for her two children.

Now, the two children, K and S have been sent to the country side to live with her mother’s second cousin Madam MP, age 44  and her blind husband Mr. C , age 53 in Kampong Chnang. Both are HIV positive.  Madam MP’s mother , A 72 lives with the couple. The couple make clay pots for a living. The region is known for its clay, so there are many others who also make pots, which means the sale price for the pots is very low, about 20 cents. The couple can make about 200 pots per month giving them an income of about $40. 

K, Madam LP’s daughter,  age 15, dropped out of school in grade 7 .Even before her mother died, K struggled with and continues to struggle with depression. Because the family lived in  Phnom Penh, she had been receiving some counseling and prescription medication.  Her brother, S at age 11 struggles with school, and will likely need to repeat grade 2.

Now the children have been relocated to the countryside to live with Madam MP. We are currently providing food support of $50 per month plus $10 per month for school fees for S.

A member of our team recently visited the family. It is a 2 ½ hour ride on motorcycle  or tuk-tuk taxi. However, the taxi costs $50 one way , so a motorcycle was used and the round trip took about 5 hours.

We have serious concerns about K. We do not yet know if there are any medical resources to help with K’s depression. We are working to determine how to best support her. We would like to see her go back to school but we do not yet have enough information.

Madam LP struggled for years to care for her two children and in the face of great difficulty, and with our program support , she had  managed to provide a modest home. Unlike the movies where there is often an inspiring ending to a story like this, in real life these children are confronted  with the tragedy of losing their mom, and moving far away to the only relatives they have and who have kindly taken them in despite the family’s own poverty. Their future is uncertain.

“Lest we forget” ….  It is important to pay our respects to Madam LP and the many mothers like her who  sacrifice and  toil endlessly under a crushing burden of illness and poverty. For 25 years our program has provided modest assistance  to fragile families like these, enabling them to live a very modest life and care for their children.

Tuesday, December 3 is Giving Tuesday at GlobalGiving where matching funds can power up your donation. More details will be coming as we get closer to the date.

Your help and generous donations truly make a difference and we are deeply grateful to you all for your kind support.

Barbara  & Mark 

July 10 is GlobalGiving Bonus Match Day.  

Donations from $ 100 ~ $ 1000 are eligible to receive a match of  20% to 40% beginning  9:00am New York Time while matching funds last

2024 Report from Cambodia

Mark visited Cambodia in May 2024 , continuing our  post-Covid restoration of  regular periodic visits to actively monitor our projects. During Mark's visit to Phnom Penh in May , Mark met personally with all of our program families including those who live outside of Phnom Penh.

Introducing you to one of our program participants: Madam PSM

Madam PSM is now about age 50. She joined our program nearly 20 years ago because she was HIV positive and in dire financial condition. When she was 35 and her daughter then  age 15, Madam PSM suffered a stroke which left her completely paralyzed one side of her body and largely incapable of speech. Her condition leaves her nearly incapable of  basic self care. She cannot stand or change location without assistance. In short, she is unable to independently complete any of the 6 activities of daily living. She lives in a tiny room about  3 x 3 meters ( about 10 x 10 feet) that costs $35 per month.

Madam PSM's daughter lives next door, separately, in a similar room. The daughter has two small children under age 7: one child is in elementary school and the other child is taken to work every day. The daughter works as a caregiver at the National Orphanage which cares for medically fragile and physically challenged children whose conditions require full time assistance.

Each morning, the daughter attends to her mother and helps her  to sit on the floor by the door of her room, leaving the door open to the common hallway in the building. Fortunately, the other residents of this building, who live in similar rooms, can pass by the open door during the day and the landlady is kind and will stop by from time to time. Although Madam PSM cannot really speak to others, she would be able to cry out if help was urgently needed. Madam PSM's daughter comes home at lunchtime to prepare lunch and to help her mother  eat lunch.

Madam PSM receives a food allowance of $115 per month and $35 per month for rent. This assistance from our program combines with her daughter's income  to care for the entire family. Unlike the US or other developed countries, Cambodia does not provide any financial assistance to people like Madam PSM  so our program is a lifeline to her and our other  fragile families.

How we use your donations

All donations go toward program expenses. As a small foundation we do not have an endowment. Mark and I do not receive any salary and there are no office expenses. The program  had exhausted its reserve funds due to the  impact of COVID and our month to month funding is unpredictable. We personally pay for things like the subscription costs of Constant Contact to create our newsletters.

Our FSP, like other long running programs, faces great funding challenges due to donor fatigue, lack of "local relevance" and the impact caused by recent years' economic cycles. Inflation pressures have now combined with the past negative effects of COVID-influenced events like donor job loss, early retirement and donors who passed away .

This brings us to the present time,  urgently asking you, again,   for your support to keep the program  running

The Family Support Program reached a 25 year milestone in 2024

This year, Kasumisou Foundation marks 25 years of compassionate care through its Family Support Program ( FSP) for fragile families in Phnom Penh impacted by HIV status and extreme poverty.

In January 2024, at the same time that the FSP edged toward its 25 year milestone, it did not have enough funding to take it through March 31,2024.  In what can only be described as a miracle, we were blessed with receiving enough in donations to keep the FSP running through mid-year, which is where we are now: our progam continues to face a funding crisis.

How we got to where we are now

It’s important to note that when our program began nearly 25 years ago, AIDS was a virtual death sentence in Cambodia. We never anticipated that some of those early participants in our AIDS Patient Family Support Program (FSP) would still be with us today. 

In recent years we have been able to shrink our program from its highs when we supported as many as 75 women and 125 children at a given time to the current number of just 23 legacy participants that we have today. This was possible due to the introduction in Cambodia of antiretroviral drug therapies. The legacy patients who remain  in our program are those whom we judge to be unable to support themselves and their families or in some cases, unlikely even to survive without our help.

As of July 1,2024, of the 23 individuals that our program supports, 16 are adults, 4 are age 75~ 85 and 7 are children. Early this year we reduced our participant count from 26 to 23 after conducting a careful review of all current participants' personal and financial status. The projected reduction in program expenses are partially offset by the impact of inflation. Currently 9 of our 10 families are headed by women who are HIV positive. The remaining family is headed by the mother of a former participant, now deceased. This grandmother is over 80 and she cares for 2 now adult children, one of whom, the son, requires the constant supervision of his sister and the grandmother. Both sister and grandmother sell vegetables from a tiny roadside stall to help augment the funds they receive from our program.

How you can help

• We hope that you will forward this report to friends and family and also post it on your social media sites to encourage donations.
• We would be  very grateful for any donation. Even a small recurring monthly donation of just $ 10 can help us to build regular funding for this program. All amounts are welcome!

It  is our hope that now that by meeting  one of our program participants, Madam PSM, you are better able to understand the importance of continuing this program. Unlike the US or other developed countries, Cambodia does not provide any financial assistance to people like Madam PSM  so our program is a lifeline to her and the  other  fragile families  in our program.

Annual 2024 program expenses are estimated for 2024 at $25,000 ~ $30,000 or  approximately $2100 to  $2500 per month. This is lower than 2023 program expenses  because we have reduced the number of program participants after reviewing their current financial situation.

Your  generous support and  donations over these many years has provided urgently needed compassionate support for our program families.and we  are deeply grateful to you all.

We hope that you will join with us again, July 10 to take advantage of the July Bonus day.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco