Help Destitute Moms with AIDS Care for Their Kids

Our July update focused on a then,  new  14 day COVID  lockdown  on Thai Border.  A sense of fear had spread through Phnom Penh as schools and businesses  were  impacted with rolling lockdowns. Markets and streets were  largely  deserted and many businesses like factories,  hotels and tourist services remained closed. Now, just a few months later, it is estimated the at 85% of Cambodians are now vaccinated and all of our FSP patients are now vaccinated.  In recent weeks,  most businesses and schools have opened back up and life looks like it is beginning to  return to normal.

Throughout this difficult period of school and business closures, we have been watchful to address  any increased hardship for our fragile FSP families. We have learned over these past 20+ years, that even small adverse changes can become a  life changing tipping point unless managed carefully.

A brief history

In 1999 when we first started our program, composed of homeless women afflicted with AIDS, our plan  was to provide temporary supplementary support, understanding that initially there was a very high mortality rate. We had a changeable core of about 75 families and their many children.  Later, with the introduction of effective AIDS medications, the idea evolved that as and when the  health of our patients improved or life circumstances changed for the better, such as remarriage, or children becoming old enough to help support the family, we would be able to discontinue support for many if not most of these women.  

In fact, this is what happened. By 2012,of our many patients. some  had  passed away, others saw marked improvement in their health status, enabling them to return to work and many of the  children grew up to where they could help or even fully support the family. By 2013  we were able to identify and retain only about 35 families, who would not be able to make it on their own financially.

Where we are today

Now we care for a core  of 21 adults  and 10 dependent children across 16 families.  Although each of  these adult women have been in our program since its early years, none is capable of being fully self supporting for herself or her children or dependents. Only the supplemental support of our program prevents  these fragile remaining families from becoming homeless.

One such family is composed of an adult  woman, now over age 80, grandmother to two adult children: one is a young woman age 22, and her brother, age 28. The children’s mother passed away many years ago in our program and we have continued to help support  the family so that they can stay together.  Grandmother, although illiterate, has a tiny stall in a small roadside pop up  market selling vegetables. It is important to remember that during COVID lockdown even this small income was not possible.

The granddaughter, very kind and sweet, was not good in school and has, at best, a grade school education . She helps at the market stall and she  is trying hard to get a factory job now that factories are reopening after COVID closures. Her brother cannot work.  Although he is 28, he has capabilities of about age 5 due a variety of long standing learning and health issues.

The impact of inflation

As of November 1, the average family in our program received about $ 105 per month in support for rent, food and school expenses. Cambodia, like many nations , has recently experienced a significant jump in the costs of food and fuel and our families literally have no way to cope with these cost increases. As of December 1, we will increase  food allowances. We will start by increasing each family’s food support by $ 15 to $20 per month. Even so, we are not confident that this will be enough for  our families to  stay even, as food price inflation  continues to accelerate. Most likely we will need to implement a second round of increases of about the same amount early in the new year.

Here in the US,  we are annoyed  or inconvenienced by the recent price inflationm, seeing  news reports daily that  describe  10,15,20% or more increases in the costs of  our basic grocery products. US fuel prices are reported to be up by 60% vs November 2020.  Consider, for a moment, the impact  on the families in our program, on the  purchasing power of   a  $ 105 monthly food allowance that  is impaired 20% to 30% .

Tuesday, November 30 is giving Tuesday . We hope that you will join with us to give thanks for our blessings by intentionally seeking  to help others who are not as fortunate.

Your kindness and selfless generosity is the only reason that we have been  able to continue to  assist  fragile families for more than 20 years. We are so very thankful to you all for your support.

Barbara & Mark  

Update on our Family Support Program

Hun Sen, Cambodia's Prime Ministre announces today  announced a  new  14 day lockdown  on Thai Border areas as  newly reported  Covid covid cases cases remain high.

A brief history of Covid in Cambodia:   Cambodia closed to foreign travelers in March 2020 due to COVID. Initially Cambodia was not hit hard and infection numbers were well controlled. A  sudden COVID outbreak in Phnom Penh in February 2021 caused new and  then continuing restrictions, including severely restricted travel in and out of the cities. Checkpoints on the major highways made it nearly impossible for city residents to visit their home villages or for people from the rural provinces to enter the city earlier this year. Now, although some of these drastic restrictions have been modified, schools are currently  closed and entry into Cambodia remains very difficult with enforced 14 day quarantines as  Cambodia  continues with  a series of rolling lockdowns in  direct response to the COVID case count.

A sense of fear had spread through Phnom Penh as schools and businesses including the major markets, were  impacted with rolling lockdowns and markets and streets became and remain  largely  deserted.  Now, Phnom Penh remains on a partial lockdown as  new cases remain high, while Cambodia announces, today, a 14 day  lockdown of 8 provincial areas near the Thai border .  Consequently many businesses like hotels and tourist services remain closed,as are many of the garment factories,  although some  essential services like banks are now open. Some  markets have reopened, but they remain largely without customers.  Although vaccination rates are increasing, Cambodia is using the Chinese vaccine rate which has an estimated effectiveness of about 50%.  so community spread remains a real risk. 

Most of our FSP patients are now vaccinated, but their children are not yet vaccinated because Cambodia is only  just now opening vaccines  to 12 to 17 year old children.

Our FSP home visit coordinator, is herself a former patient from our program. She  conducts weekly home visits with our FSP patients to monitor and report on each family’s situation. A mother of three young children, she is HIV positive and  although vaccinated, she is vulnerable to Covid. . Understandably, she wants to avoid any possible exposure to COVID. This woman has been associated with our program for 15 years , first as a patient and now as member of our staff. We have agreed with her, that in the interest of safety, we have  suspended  home visits until the community spread of COVID in Phnom Penh is  brought under control. She  remains in  close telephone contact with our patients.

We continue to support 16 fragile families. A key part of our “ contract” with our patient families is that they work when, if and as able, to help, at least in a very small way, in their own support. Now, due to COVID closures and their own medical conditions, it is not possible for them to work at their modest , part time jobs at market stalls, etc. and their  opportunitties to  bring in even  a bit of money has largely disappeared. Instead, for safety reasons, they are home bound. Now, more than ever, the fragile families in our program depend upon us, as any sort of part time work presents a potentially serious medical danger.

We are deeply grateful to you,our many supporters for your generosity that helps these fragile families live with dignity. On behalf of the families in our program, please accept our heartfelt thanks. We hope that you will continue  on with in our efforts , particularly during these  very difficult times.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco 

Links:

• Kasumisou Gallery ~ a Community Partner's revenue sharing donor

FSP program update for GlobalGiving –  March 31, 2021

Thanks to an almost immediate decision by  the Cambodian government to close the country to foreign travelers in the first weeks of the Covid pandemic in March and April of 2020, the country was not hit hard and infection numbers were well controlled.  By late in the summer of 2020 students had returned to their classrooms and, with the exception of tourism related industries which were, of course, very hard hit by the closure of the country’s borders, things had more or less returned to normal by the autumn of 2020. 

A  sudden outbreak and spread of infections in Phnom Penh in late February  this year caused the government to again order the closure of schools in early March.  Travel in and out of the city was severely restricted and checkpoints on the major highways made it difficult or impossible for Phnom Penh residents to visit their home villages or for people from the rural provinces to enter the city. A sense of real fear  has spread through the population of the city and businesses including the major markets have  returned to the deserted state which prevailed in the first weeks of the pandemic one year ago.

Our FSP has  a  home visit team coordinator who  is employed by us to conduct weekly home visits with our FSP patients and then report back to us about each woman’s situation. The woman, herself a former patient in our AIDS Patients Family Support Program, has requested that we  allow her  to contact the patients by phone rather  than visiting them in their homes. A mother of three young children, who is herself HIV positive and therefore severely immuno-compromised, understandably,  she wants to be very careful to avoid any possible exposure to the COVID virus.  This woman has been associated with our program, first as a patient and now as member of our staff, for more than fifteen years so.  Of course, we want to keep her safe.  We have agreed to her request to suspend home visits until the community spread of the virus in Phnom Penh is again brought under control.  

We sincerely appreciate the support of you, our generous donors during these difficult times. Now, more than ever, the fragile families in our program depend upon us, as any sort of part time work has become quite challenging, if not impossible.

Mark & Barbara Rosasco 

We first started our AIDS Patients Family Support Program (FSP) in 1999. At that time, the streets of central Phnom Penh were populated by large numbers of homeless people, men, women, children begging, with  many of them  afflicted by AIDS . Some of our earliest FSP patients were women whom we found dying on the city’s sidewalks.  In those early days anti retroviral drugs were not available in Cambodia so the diagnosis of HIV infection was justifiably viewed as a death sentence.  

We started our FSP program in direct response to the rampaging HIV infection rates in the population of Phnom Penh and the twin crises of homelessness and hunger which were by-products of the AIDS.

We encountered many, many AIDS afflicted women who had been widowed or abandoned and left destitute. As a result of this, we decided to focus our efforts only on women and mothers and only those women who were suffering from mid to late stages of AIDS.  From time to time, however, we encountered  a woman whose situation was so desperate and  so hopeless, that we would make an exception to those parameters and admit that mother  and her children into our program even though AIDS may not have been a factor in her poverty.   

Early in September one of the young students in our arts school approached the school director to explain that although she would not be coming to class for a while , she wanted to ask him not to remove her name from the student rolls.  She explained that her father, who  had been imprisoned on drug charges, had been released from prison and had threatened to murder her mother.  The mother had quickly decided to take her three young kids – ages 2 years to 10 years – and hide for a while.  Things moved pretty fast  and the family left the one room shack which they had been sharing with another family. Their extremely limited resources forced them to start  living on the street, not very far from the location of our arts school where the oldest child, age 10,  had been an enthusiastic and often joyful dance student. 

Once we had come to understand the family’s situation, we were able to locate them on the streets and   our team moved quickly to rent a small room for them and to enter them into the list of women in our Family Support Program.  Our program now pays the rent ($50 per month) for that very small room and provides the mother with an additional $75 per month for food support to supplement the small monthly income (approximately $100 to $150) which she earns from selling bird seed, snacks and soft drinks to tourists on the riverside in front of the Royal Palace.   We also purchased school kits (school uniforms, book bags, and required school supplies) for the two older  children who are  currently enrolled in primary school.

There is no guaranty that the woman’s husband will not come looking for them and we cannot be sure that they are no longer in danger. However,  our team is ready to swing into action again if it becomes necessary in order to protect this fragile  family and to try to provide a stable living situation for this courageous, hardworking  mother  and her three young children. 

It is important to remember, families like these do not choose abject poverty and its  unpredictable additional misfortunes, but without resources they have no way out when something does occur.  Our goal , since the inception of Kasumisou Foundation, has been to find  ways to help fragile families manage their  current challenges with a longer term goal of enabling the children in those families to break the cycle  of inherited poverty by providing essential  social support to  their families   and  by creating access to educational opportunities for the children.

Out of respect for privacy, there are no photos available to accompany this update. 

As is always the case, we deeply appreciate your kind and generous support of the families in our program. Your support really does make a difference in their lives. 

Barbara & Mark Rosasco